Overlooked by most media around the world, the twin hurricanes of Eta and Iota last November devastated Guatemala, Nicaragua and Honduras, countries already struggling with the COVID-19 pandemic. The impacts of the overflowing rivers and resulting landslides brought about tremendous loss of housing and jobs and caused widespread food and clean water shortages.
In late January 2020, New Castle Presbytery sent a delegation to Guatemala for its annual visit with mission partners: the Association of Mam Christian Women for Development and the Protestant Center for Pastoral Studies in Central America (CEDEPCA). Delegates look forward to the yearly trip as a great way to reconnect and see God’s work in action. The presbytery has been sending a team to Guatemala for more than 30 years, as it believes building collaborative relationships are of utmost importance in addressing the root causes of poverty.
The mission to build a more just world is a clear one for longtime Presbyterian Mission Agency (PMA) global partner CEDEPCA (the Protestant Center for Pastoral Studies in Central America). The building blocks CEDEPCA uses include biblical and theological formation, women’s ministry, disaster assistance and intercultural encounters.
As in the U.S., COVID-19 has caused a huge disruption in the lives of families in Guatemala, resulting in lives lost, jobs vanished and plans put on hold. The Western Highlands, where the Association of Mam Christian Women for Development is headquartered, has been hit especially hard because of widespread poverty and nearly nonexistent health systems. As a result, high levels of chronic malnutrition and food insecurity in rural Guatemala persist.
A virtual ‘trip’ to Guatemala with World Mission’s long-time partner, the Protestant Center for Pastoral Studies in Central America (CEDEPCA), may help you break free from pandemic isolation — at least in your mind and heart.
The ministry of presence is important in God’s mission. Yet even when a global pandemic causes cancellation of short-term mission trips, congregations and presbyteries in the Presbyterian Church (U.S.A.) are showing care and compassion in creative and urgently needed ways from afar.
A delegation from New Castle Presbytery traveled to Guatemala late last month to strengthen relationships with our two in-country partners — the Association of Mam Christian Women for Development and CEDEPCA. Together, the organizations collaborate to support sustainable development initiatives for indigenous women and communities in the Western Highlands of Guatemala. New Castle Presbytery and its member churches have faithfully responded to the widespread, critical needs of Guatemalans since the late 1990s.
Last month, the International Task Force for the Presbyterian Committee on the Self-Development of People journeyed to Guatemala and Panama to take a firsthand look at the work being done by community partners.
Up against some appalling facts — 119 Guatemalan women each day report a violent attack against them and nearly 62,000 women and girls 19 and under became pregnant during the first six months of 2018, many of them the result of rape — CEDEPCA, a longtime partner of the Presbyterian Church (U.S.A.), was determined to empower girls in a new way.
Pastors in Guatemala may not have the graduate-level educational background that their Presbyterian counterparts in the U.S. bring to ministry.But the passion for their calling and the skills they’re demonstrating as they either prepare for or hone their ministry were on display last week at the offices of CEDEPCA, the Protestant Center for Pastoral Studies in Central America, a longtime partner of the Presbyterian Church (U.S.A.).
