Advent-ing
Advent greetings from Guatemala; I pray this finds you well! Advent: coming or arrival, or perhaps in my own non-scholarly translation of the Greek“adventus," waiting with bated breath. Certainly there’s a different feel to Advent in this 67 degree weather of Guatemala City, more like April in Georgia. But if we’re talking about ‘signs of the times,’ there could not be a more appropriate place for this liturgical season.
Why an appropriate place? Living among Guatemalans is a spiritual gift and challenge, where the faithful hunker down and hold out in perpetual Advent-mode. On one front, a new president takes the helm in January. Citizens voted for this retired military general for his platform of (a) security in light of persistent theft, rampant assaults on common citizens, etc., and (b) jobs for the estimated 60% of those unemployed, underemployed, or working informally.
Second, the Mayan Calendar begins a new era in 2012. End of the world? Hardly! Mayan priests await not earthquakes or volcanic eruptions, but rather a new era characterized by peace among brothers and sisters and peace with the living Earth. It is a vision of an era that is, thankfully, a reverse of the colonial and neo-colonial projects carried out in these lands over the last 500 years.
And last, Guatemala is an appropriate, yea urgent place to Advent (used here as a verb, permission by me), because the children and all of creation cry out as a mother in birthing pangs (Romans 8:22) for the coming of the Lord – that day when tears will be no more, when all will sit under the vine & fig tree and live in peace and unafraid. Amen!
This is all to remind ourselves that Advent is not solely the expectation of celebrating JC’s birthday, though it is that. On a deeper, engaging level Advent reminds us that faith is an active practice of preparation for the coming of the fullness of God’s reign, where the wolf dwells with the lamb; trees of the fields clap their hands; where justice and peace kiss; where dividing walls between free and enslaved fall to the ground. Amen? Amen! But it does beg reflection: in what intentional, practical ways are we, individually and collectively, Advent-ing?
Other notes
I’m sure some (all?) of you would rather just have a little update as to what I’ve been up to, so here goes:
I received my first delegation group last week , from Second Presbyterian Church Kansas City. Before heading to the highlands, we received presentations on the historical and social context of Guatemala, CEDEPCA’s Disaster Assistance Ministry and their Biblical & Theological formation program. A five hour drive took us to Xela, Quetzaltenango (this is the town where I studied Español in November).
The next day, Friday, we spent the better part of the day visiting a small Presbyterian Church of the Maya Quiche Presbytery called Eben-Ezer, ensconced amid huge coffee plantations. See video of children singing about God's creation here.
Saturday morning we visited a Fair-Trade coffee plantation Finca Santa Elena, followed by visiting another Mayan Quiche Presbyterian congregation located within a huge, definitely non-Fair-Trade coffee plantation. Intense! Rarely do children get past 4th or 5th grade. Their lives are tied to the whims of the often absent landowner and of global coffee prices. We sang, shared stories, prayed, ate, discussed possible partnership.
Sunday we attended another Pres Church in Almolonga, famous for its fertile fields, carrots the size of your forearm. We reviewed the water project there, worshiped, painted a bit in their new sanctuary.
In all of these gatherings I translated conversations, meeting and two sermons, parts of which were translated by others into the local Mayan language, Quiché, given that not all locals speak Spanish fluently (I can relate!). In Eben-Ezer and Almolonga we reviewed progress and challenges regarding fancy water purification systems that 2nd Presbyterian, Kansas City, has supported over the last five years. We then returned home via Antigua for an afternoon of more touristy significance.
Ø Other work
o Studying Spanish – an ongoing ‘mission’ of sorts,
o Reviewing and revising the mission, objectives and indicators of effectiveness of CEDEPCA’s Intercultural Encounters program,
o To do before and after next delegation trip (mid-January): develope brochures based on said revisions, start up an Intercultural Encounters newsletter and Facebook page, promote Intercultural Encounters to U.S. churches, universities and seminaries, make new Guatemala-based contacts who are addressing pressing issues of ecological justice, Free Trade, and peace (in the wake of the 1960-'96 internal conflict).
Ø In my free time
o Touring the heart of this largest of Central American cities by foot,
o Attended film festival featuring a documentary about a Mayan highlands community struggling against U.S. and Canadian mining operations in their ancestral lands,
o Attended another Guatemalan documentary screening about one determined woman’s search for information about here forcibly disappeared brother during the country’s internal conflict,
o Attended worship at Guatemala’s oldest Protestant church, Central Presbyterian (founded in 1882) and an Episcopal Church (c. 1975),
o Attended celebration of International Human Rights Day, replete with youth break-dancing to their own Hip-Hop music,
o Running in my neighborhood most every evening and last but not least,
o Occasionally taste-testing products of Guatemalan breweries :).
There you have it! For those of you who *may* have read all the way to this point, I’m impressed. Thank you! And if you haven’t already, be sure to become a “follower” by clicking on the right hand side of the blog.
Advent Blessings,
Alan
Donate at www.cedepca.us/jenkins
