|
May 11, 2001
Dear Friends,
In the past there were only two ways in which a woman could be
a faithful follower of Jesus Christ in Guatemala, as a wife, obedient,
faithful, and submissive to her husband, or as a leader within
the women's organization of the church. Times have changed and
are changing in Guatemala!
I think of Mercedes who lives on the southwest coast of Guatemala
in a poor rural area where most of the women have little formal
education and little self esteem. I have watched and marveled
as Mercedes becomes a leader among these women, sharing the skills
she has learned by teaching women to read and write, by preparing
herself to be a midwife, by encouraging, sometimes scolding, the
women to reach beyond themselves, to open their minds to new ideas
and ways of living. Mercedes works tirelessly to bring better
health care to her community by teaching preventive health practices
and nutrition. Each morning she teaches, as a volunteer, a group
of 34 children who do not have the opportunity to attend a public
school. In all that she does Mercedes is proclaiming the good
news that Jesus came, and continues to come, to bring an abundant
life to all his children, a life of dignity and purpose.
I think of Albela who has been in classes I have taught to the
K’ekchi women. She is a wonderful student, always eager to
participate and to learn more. But Albela is also a wonderful
teacher. She lives in a community that was begun on land purchased
with funds from Presbyterian Church (U.S.A.) after Hurricane Mitch.
In this community of some 20 families Albela teaches children
each morning in a kind of preschool program, preparing them to
learn to read and write, hoping that the government will provide
schools for them when they are older. In the afternoons Albela
teaches a group of young girls and women who never had a chance
for formal schooling to read and write. Their classroom is a kind
of picnic shelter, a tin roof held up by poles, with benches for
the students to sit on. Albela’s prized possession is a borrowed
chalk board on which she writes, encouraging the women to write
in their notebooks as they learn one letter, then another. Albela
may not have read Jesus’s words in Matthew 28, "go to
all peoples everywhere, teach them to obey everything I have commanded
you, and I will be with you always," but God has written
those words on her heart, and she is faithful as she teaches the
children and women.
I think of Manuela, an indigenous woman who lives in a isolated
community in the southwestern part of Guatemala. The bus does
not go to Manuela's home, or anywhere near it. She must walk three
hours to get there after riding the bus! Spanish is a second language
for Manuela—she is more comfortable speaking Quiché,
her maternal language. She learned Spanish as a teenager so she
could attend school and workshops.
Manuela is a walking encyclopedia about plants and herbs that
can be used for healing, as well as the importance of good hygiene,
and she shares her experience and knowledge in workshops with
groups of women. In her teaching she has a well-thought-out plan,
although I doubt she has written in down. First, using participatory
methods, she teaches how to use plants to make medicines that
bring healing. Then she tells the women, "you must begin
your own garden, grow your own plants!" Manuela is feeding
women who are hungry to learn how to bring healing to their families
and communities. She proclaims the good news that Jesus Christ
came to bring an abundant life to people who have often been forgotten.
Three women, each one following Jesus Christ into new ways of
living and serving as women in Guatemala.
Ellen Dozier
The 2001 Mission Yearbook for Prayer & Study, p. 241
|
