“Bantiox!”...

“Gratitud y gracias!"...

“With Gratitude and Thanks!”...

….For your Mission Support!

• $1,000 for support for the Medical Mission Trip (Medicines, trip expenses

• $240 in support of a Guatemalan Pastor Pastor 

• $500 for Leadership Training of Pastors and Elders from 11 churches

• $350.00 scholarship to educate 1 middle school child for a year

• Plus support of 2 nurse midwives

You are sending members Melissa Spaid and Lavona Russell (Trip Leader) and Leticia Tyler and John Hilley to Guatemala April 10-16

On April 10, we join eight other individuals from the Presbytery of Middle Tennessee (PMT) for a six day Medical Mission Trip to the Petén Region of Guatemala (about 8 hours north of Guatemala City). We will join participants from Eastminster, Second, and Gallatin First.  Dr. Tracey Doering will be our lead doctor and we have two doctors in the internal medicine residency program at St. Thomas joining us. Lavona Russell is carrying the heavy responsibility of being the group’s Trip Leader. Leticia Tyler will provide translation services and help with the clinic. Melissa Spaid will provide nursing services. 

The team will jointly lead worship services with the congregations and conduct medical clinics in Valle Nuevo, San Juan Acul, Chinatal, and Colonial Linda Vista (the pastor and his family pictured here) —four of the eleven villages that are part of the partnership between the Presbyterio de Q’eqchi Petén (PQP) and the PMT. (Arduous driving between these four villages!) Children and adults will be seen by health professionals and other volunteers who will address medical concerns, provide fluoride treatments for children, or “readers/glasses” for adults, along with fun Christian Education activities for children and engagement time for youth. 

What's exciting about this medical mission trip, which was begun almost a decade ago by Rev. Dr. Mike Magee, is turning over the clinic model to be run by the PQP in the future. A student our presbytery supported in his educational pursuit, including studying for his nursing degree, will now coordinate efforts. This does not mean this is our last medical clinic for Middle Tennesseans to participate in; in the future, we may join their clinics.

In addition to the medical clinics, supporting early education is another priority. David Carlton (Second Presbyterian) will be getting updates on how the students from these villages who are supported by PMT scholarships are doing in their Básico studies. (In Guatemala, free education ceases after primary grades, so we provide scholarships to help with middle school.)

John Hilley looks forward to meeting with the four pastors along with the Executive Committee to pray together and to talk about pastoral concerns they are facing in their churches and share what we are facing. I look forward to doing some informal teaching. And I especially look forward to communicating to these pastors, who serve their churches as volunteers and make their living working as day laborers or operating a taxi, the support from pastors here in Middle Tennessee. (Pastors in Guatemala receive support up to $240 per year in support from pastors and churches in our presbytery.)

Of the importance of this trip, Rob Weingartner, fellow Task Force member and former Director of The Outreach Foundation, and Guest Preacher on April 13th at EBPC allowing John Hilley to go says: “I learned that nothing takes the place of showing up. And when we join with our partners in Jesus’ name to share his love and justice, the life we change may be our own.”

So true, Rob, about the importance of showing up and especially that when we do the lives we change may be our own!  That is why so many of us keep going back.

If you would like to know more about serving on our Task Force or “showing up” in our mission partnership in Guatemala, we want to hear from you. Contact Leticia, our Coordinator of Mission and Community Engagement.