If Luis Ramos Salgado had tried to ride the storm out in his home, he wouldn’t be able to walk down his street on this sunny morning.
“I’d be dead,” he says through a translator, standing in the kitchen of the only home he’s ever known in San Juan’s Caño Martín Peña area.
It’s a pretty port of call.
Mere blocks from where cruise ships pull into San Juan terminal, visitors can find enticing Old San Juan, with its mix of history, shops and restaurants, all open for business, even on a warm but quiet Tuesday night. Veering right, visitors can find conveniences such as bike rentals and a CVS pharmacy, all up and running.
“People go to hotels, Old San Juan and they see the stores open, lights … and they say, ‘Oh, everything is back to normal,’” the Rev. Edwin A. González-Castillo says.
Except it’s not.
For 25 years, Christians have gathered at both sides of the United States and Mexico border at San Diego and Tijuana to re-enact Joseph and Mary’s journey to Bethlehem before the birth of Jesus Christ in a service called La Posada Sin Fronteras.
If you Google “Sandy Hook,” the search engine’s “People also search for …” menu offers these grim options: 2012 Aurora shooting, Stoneman Douglas High School, Columbine High School massacre, 2014 Isla Vista massacre, Orlando nightclub shooting.
And it could go on.
“What do you think?” Rob Fohr, director of Faith-Based Investing and Corporate Engagement for the Presbyterian Church (U.S.A.), asked after surveying the multi-room warehouse packed with household supplies.
“I think there’s a lot to do,” replied Carl Horton, coordinator of the Presbyterian Peacemaking Program.
Presbyterians living hundreds of miles from the U.S.-Mexico border can help asylum seekers and those facing deportation from the United States in a number of ways, including advocacy, accompaniment and aide.
The Presbyterian Peacemaking Program’s 2018 Korea Travel Study Seminar concluded Friday with discussions on the group’s work over the last 11 days and plans for incorporating gained knowledge into Presbyterian contexts.
While the deadliest fires ever to strike California continue to burn, Presbyterian Disaster Assistance has deployed four National Response Team members to Southern California, where residents are enduring both a mass shooting and the Woolsey and Hill fires.
Set in the backdrop of a historic thaw of tensions between North and South Korea, the 2018 Presbyterian Peacemaking Travel Study Seminar begins today in Seoul, as eight participants tour important sites and meet with Presbyterian Church (U.S.A.) partners engaged in the peace process. Mission co-workers Hyeyoung Lee and Kurt Esslinger, along with Carl Horton, coordinator for mission with the Presbyterian Peacemaking Program, will guide the group over 11 days as they continue to learn, experience, worship and reflect on continued peacemaking and reconciliation efforts on the peninsula.
Presbyterians interested in learning about conflict and reconciliation, from both an active and historical perspective, have an opportunity to do so by participating in one of the Presbyterian Peacemaking Program’s travel study seminar series upcoming in Spring 2019. Reconciliation Work in Rwanda: Healing the Trauma of the Genocide is scheduled for March 11–23, 2019, and Ukraine and Russia: Peacemaking on the Front Line is scheduled for April 22 – May 6, 2019. The due date for applications is November 15 for the Rwanda seminar, and December 15 for the Ukraine-Russia seminar. After those dates, applications will be considered if space remains available.
