Dear Friends,

Bouncing along the rough gravel highway through the Polochic Valley between La Tinta and Cobán, Alta Verapaz, we received a call on our cell phone. "There has been an attack on some towers in New York," said hermana Lidia, in Spanish. A couple of hours later in the offices of the Association of K’ekchí Presbyteries, we watched with disbelief on CNN the tragic events of that day, now seared in our collective memories, 11 September 2001.

We are here to accompany the Evangelical National Presbyterian Church of Guatemala (IENPG), and to help congregations and presbyteries of the PC(USA) learn about and walk together with the faithful here, as we all learn more about what it can mean to be disciples of Jesus Christ in a sinful and often dangerous world.

What has happened here since 11 September has helped us deepen and expand our own understanding of the two-nature (mutuality?) of the partnership we are here to nurture and support.

• That Tuesday morning, in Cobán, a phone call hours after the attack from the Rev. Carlos Lara, secretary of the Synod (national body) of the IENPG, sharing his concern on behalf of the church and assuring us that we and all brothers and sisters in the PC(USA), indeed in the U.S., were being lifted up in prayer by our Presbyterian brothers and sisters in Guatemala.


• Expressions of concern and solidarity and assurances of prayer from leaders of the Presbytery of Sayaxché, Petén, who had traveled by bus through the mountains to meet with us in Cobán concerning their ongoing partnership with Hillsboro Presbyterian Church in Nashville, Tennessee. <
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• An e-mail from leaders of the Dios Vivo church in Guastatoya and Norte Presbytery sent to mission co-workers and to partners and friends in the East Dallas Cluster of Grace Presbytery.
  
• A letter from the Rev. Jenner Miranda, rector, on behalf of the Evangelical Presbyterian Seminary (SEP), the national theological seminary of the IENPG, expressing concern and solidarity with the PC(USA), and especially with those churches that have sent delegations and resources to share with SEP in developing a greater capacity to train leadership for the Guatemalan Church.


• A letter from the Rev. Jorge Colindres, coordinator of Diaconía, the national development and service program of the IENPG, to colleagues and supporters in the U.S., expressing solidarity and concern.

And there is reflection. There are searing memories of the horror of the three-decades-long internal war here in Guatemala, which left more than 200,000 dead, most the victims of state-sponsored terrorism, supported directly and indirectly by the U.S. There is anguish at the loss of Guatemalans among those of many countries, killed in the attacks in New York and D.C.. And there is anxiety about the economic impact for the world and for Guatemala, for which the U.S. is the principal trading partner, and for which the money sent home by citizens working in the U.S. is vital. There are concerned and loving questions, "Did you lose family or friends?" "Have you ever lived in a war?" "Are you OK?" One pastor told us, "We are praying for you and we are praying for ourselves and the rest of the world, that we might walk together in peace as disciples of Jesus Christ."

Partnership. Compañerismo. It moves two ways (it is reciprocal?). In our seven months in Guatemala it has taken us to many churches across the country. We have celebrated Communion in Nuevo Palmar with folks from Pines Presbyterian Church of Houston, Texas, there to help build a house for one of the many families displaced by volcanic eruption and Hurricane Mitch. We have sat in the shade of trees in Santa Fe, Retahluléu, with a work/study group from Bay Presbyterian Church of Bay Village, Ohio, hearing of the flooded homes these eight families have been forced to leave and their dreams for a new and better life in these simple new houses these brothers and sisters are helping them build.

We have been privileged to worship with delegations from the presbyteries of Inland Northwest, Mission, Minnesota Valleys, and churches in Sacramento, Houston, Kirkwood, Missouri, and Ann Arbor, Michigan, as they have sung and prayed, and sometimes preached, alongside brothers and sisters worshiping in Spanish, in Quiché, in K’ekchí, in K’anhab’al, in Mam. And we have all experienced the truth that "surely God is in this place," and that the Spirit of God is moving in the lives of the people and the churches here in Guatemala, the lives of the churches of the PC(USA) and in the relationships which are developing and deepening even (perhaps especially) at this time of great threat and risk, a time requiring spiritual strength which can come only as we pray and walk together, seeking to discern and to follow God’s will for these times.

One lectionary reading for today is Psalm 96, reminding us who is in charge and whose we are:

Sing to the Lord a new song; sing to the Lord all the earth…say among the nations, "The Lord reigns." The world is firmly established, it cannot be moved: God will judge the peoples with equity. Let the heavens rejoice, let the earth be glad; let the sea resound, and all that is in it; let the fields be jubilant, and everything in them.

Que Dios les bendiga,

Joe Keesecker and Selena Petersen-Keesecker

The 2001 Mission Yearbook for Prayer & Study, p. 261