Dear Friends Across the Church:

It is a beautiful day for a drive in Guatemala. Leaving our home in Quetzaltenango early we pick up René Morales, Moderator of the Evangelical National Presbyterian Church of Guatemala (IENPG), and head down from the highlands toward the little community of Santa Fe, on the coastal plain, less than an hour from the Pacific. Descending rapidly (8,000 feet down to near sea level in an hour) we pass through the several life zones that give Guatemala its striking climatic variety. Passing corn fields precariously tended on the sides of mountains and volcanoes, small orchards of apple and fruit trees, then banana plantations and coffee fincas (farms), many not harvested this year because of the low prices (you wouldn’t know that at Starbucks, would you?). Passing the entrance to the National Presbyterian Seminary at San Martín, we roll into an area of sugar cane and sesame seed production. Beyond the small city of Retalhuléu we are on the plains, with broad expanses of pasture for cattle, groves of tropical fruit and rubber trees, and we’re beginning to feel the promise of the heat and humidity on this fine January day.

We stop in Santa Fe to pick up a church leader who, with her husband, has been working closely with the small community we are about to visit. This little cluster of a half dozen families, forced out of their previous homes by seasonal flooding of lands, wells, and houses, is carving out a new life on land bought by Diaconía, the social service and development program of the IENPG, and provided to these families through a revolving loan program. Diaconía has helped them plan the use of their land, construct houses, hand dig and laboriously encase a well, plant gardens of food and medicinal plants, and build composting latrines. We were here in June with a small work group from Bay Village, Ohio, helping to put simple board walls on the house frames already under roof and already lived in, helping to add a second composting latrine, eating and sharing together with the many children and their parents, and thus sharing and receiving the love of Jesus Christ through word and deed, bread broken, song, prayer and smiles shared.

René has been here before as well, in November with a group of Latin American mission workers and nationals who were attending a Worldwide Ministries Division conference at the seminary. That visit and those conversations, the meal shared with the community, the joy and excitement of the children, the hope in the eyes and words of the people, the work already accomplished and the daunting tasks yet ahead were powerful and moving experiences for the moderator and the 20 or so people in the group. Later they talked about it with the rest of the folks at the conference, they prayed about the experience and for the people, and they decided to take up an offering to provide a little help to these courageous people.

We are here for the Moderator to fulfill his pledge to deliver this offering, which is to help them deepen their well. As we roll into sight, children flock, crying out greetings. The area is tidily kept, with the ground swept clean, flowers planted around the houses, medicinal and food plants fenced for protection. There is pride of accomplishment. Some of the men are not here, fortunate enough to have a few days work in spite of a rate of 45% unemployment (official, but understated). For a day’s hard work they will bring back some 25 quetzales (about $3.15), the minimum wage for agricultural workers.

Hugs are exchanged, greetings given. We are shown the gardens, the (now three) composting latrines, the flowers, the well, cased in concrete laboriously mixed and poured layer after layer, and with an enclosure at the top high enough to prevent animals, dirt, or children from dropping into the water, some 25 feet below. Dry season is now here and the water level is shallow. They need to dig deeper, pour more concrete. This contribution will help, but the work is theirs to plan and to do. Visibly moved, the Moderator presents the gift, with a few heartfelt words about the people from various parts of Central America, Mexico, the Caribbean and the U.S. who have given it. It is received with humble gratitude. We take a few pictures, say our good-byes "Que Dios les bendiga" (may God bless all of you), and we drive away, overwhelmed by the hardships these brothers and sisters are facing and amazed and encouraged by their faith, resolve, hard work and the hope which keeps them going.

We are headed on to Coatepeque for a meeting of the Synod Commission of Finances, important work as well, but somehow we feel we have just been briefly in the presence of Christ engaged with some of "the least of these," yet those greatest in the family of God.

"¡Cuán bueno es y cuán agradable es que los hermanos y hermanas convivan en armonía! ... Donde se da esta armonía, el Señor concede bendición y vida eterna" (Salmo 133).

What a challenge! What a promise! Where brothers and sisters live together in harmony there, right there the Lord bestows blessing, even life forevermore. Wow! Scary too! There. Only there? Especially there? How seldom do we manage to dwell in harmony! How often we distance ourselves from the blessings, the benediction of God, even from life forevermore.

Gracias a Dios for examples, however fleeting, of harmony and unity, for brief experiences of God’s Kingdom (Kin-dom) breaking into our lives.

Grace and Peace,

Joe and Selena Keesecker

The 2002 Mission Yearbook for Prayer & Study, p. 236