Mission

Dear Sisters and Brothers,

Greetings from Guatemala as folks here begin to recover from the passage of Tropical Storm Agatha. I had hoped to get this letter off yesterday, but I have yet to talk to Judith Castañeda, the General Coordinator of CEDEPCA. The most of the CEDEPCA staff in Guatemala City were able to gather in the office yesterday. Many of the people who work at CEDEPCA have been helping in shelters in their neighborhoods. I hope there will be some official communication from CEDEPCA for all of you soon. Here’s the news I do have.

As May ended, officials were still assessing the damage. Tropical Storm Agatha was the first named storm of the Pacific hurricane season. Rains began last Wednesday as the storm sat off the Pacific coast and gained strength. The storm made landfall Saturday evening (May 29) close to the Mexican border. The speed of the storm had increased, so it moved quickly to the north.  Rains stopped here in Quetzaltenango early Sunday morning. Some places in the country received more than 20 inches of rain in 24 hours. The government released the following figures last night (May 31): 123 dead, 90 disappeared, 69 injured, 155,000 evacuated and 50,000 currently in shelters. The numbers are sure to go up as contact is made with isolated communities. In addition, 14 bridges are out around the country and landslides still block many highways. There is no estimate yet of the damage the flooding has caused to crops. School has been suspended throughout the country for a week. Though the greatest damage was experienced here in Guatemala, deaths are also reported in El Salvador and Honduras.

On Thursday afternoon, in the midst of the rain, the Pacaya Volcano started erupting, sending ash and rain down on Guatemala City and the surrounding area.  One reporter was killed by falling rocks. More than 2,000 people were evacuated and many crops were lost. The airport in Guatemala City is closed. The rains have complicated the task of cleaning the volcanic ash off of the runways, but officials hope to open the airport today (June 1). Helicopter flights were authorized on Sunday to aid in the rescue efforts. The volcano has returned to normal levels of activity, though another eruption could come at any time. The presence of volcanic ash in Guatemala City contributed to the flooding because it blocked drains and sewers.

The destruction also touched the CEDEPCA family. The building of the Church of God Full Gospel in San Miguel Petapa, where CEDEPCA students Mario and Rosa Bolaños serve as pastors, collapsed under the weight of the volcanic ash. Thankfully, no one was in the building at the time.

The government here was gearing up for an earthquake simulation on June 8. Those resources have been mobilized to meet these concurrent disasters. No need now to simulate an emergency. The Pacific hurricane season started on May 15. The Atlantic season starts on June 1. Though the Pacific season is expected to be mild, forecasters are predicting several strong storms in the Atlantic. Many, many people here are living in vulnerable conditions.

I returned to Quetzaltenango on Thursday afternoon from Guatemala City just as Pacaya started erupting. We spent Friday and Saturday indoors, listening to the radio. Sunday there was even some sun in the afternoon.  There was localized flooding here in Quetzaltenango. Several schools in the city are serving as shelters. Our house is on high ground here in La Esperanza, though we had water coming in under the doors and around the windows. The drains in the patio were overwhelmed at times, so we had a wading pool for a while. We had electricity throughout the storm and the internet was cut only briefly. Supermarkets are running low on foodstuffs, but we hope trucks will be able to start arriving soon.

Thanks to all of you who sent messages and prayers our way during these emergencies. I have been sending regular updates out on Facebook.  I’m fairly new to Facebook and I’m enjoying the easy communication it provides. Please look for me on Facebook if you are on it. Prayers are certainly still needed.

Due to the storm, I won’t be traveling to Guatemala City this week as I usually do. I was also supposed to travel to Poptun in the Peten this weekend, but classes there have been suspended until further notice. The government is still asking people not to travel unless it’s absolutely necessary. Landslides might still continue. Here in Quetzaltenango, we had another three hours of rain yesterday. More rain is predicted in the coming days as the rainy season has now started.

Now for some other news. Our daughter, Tamara, finished her junior year of high school last week. She’ll continue to teach English on Saturdays and there is a possibility she’ll have some hours during the week as well. Her next online college course starts on June 7.

Javier, my husband, continues to work on his licenciatura thesis in political science. The writing seems to be going faster. I’m helping as I can, reading drafts and making suggestions. His greatest frustration is that his university program did not prepare him for the task of writing a thesis.

The big event for me in June will be the United General Council where the World Alliance of Reformed Churches (WARC) and the Reformed Ecumenical Council (REC) will join to form the World Communion of Reformed Churches. The Council is going to be held at Calvin College in Grand Rapids, Michigan. I’ll be part of the language services team, translating and interpreting between English and Spanish. I served at the last two General Councils of WARC. I’m looking forward to being with brothers and sisters from all over the world as they reflect on the meaning of Reformed faith today. I’ll fly to the states on June 13 and return on June 26. I will have my cell phone with me, 502-689-8333.

CEDEPCA profile

It’s fitting that I should be introducing you this month to German Garcia, one of the people who is helping CEDEPCA develop our Ministry in Situations of Crisis program. German began working  as an advisor to the program two days a week at the beginning of March. He is an architect by profession. He also has a master’s degree in disaster response. For nine years he directed World Vision’s emergency response program. German has known Judith, CEDEPCA’s general coordinator, since they were both in the university. German grew up in the Presbyterian Church, though he now attends El Shaddai, a neopentecostal church.  His wife, Silvia Montefur, worked as a receptionist and administrative assistant at CEDEPCA for a while. Now Silvia has her own radio show on an evangelical station.  German and Silvia have three children: Gustavo, 24; Diego, 22; and Ivet, 20.

German has been working on the pilot project for CEDEPCA’s Ministry in Situations of Crisis. In Xolpic, Aguacatan in the department of Huehuetenango, a community severely affected by last year’s drought, CEDEPCA is providing support for 105 families. The folks in Xolpic are Aguacateco Maya and many folks in the community speak only Aguacateco. Presbyterian Disaster Assistance (PDA) is providing the funding. CEDEPCA is also working with CIEDEG, another Guatemalan organization that has more technical expertise in agricultural production. Though provision of basic foodstuffs is part of the program, the principal focus is to provide people with psychological and pastoral support to increase the capacity of the community to respond. Since the beginning of April Eduardo Izaguirre, a Nicaraguan psychologist sent by PDA who is also a pastor, has been living in the community. The people there are grateful that someone has come to share with them. During the third week of May, German was in Xolpic, eight hours away from Guatemala City, to attend a workshop Eduardo led.

The initial funding for the project is for three months. German is currently writing a report that will accompany the request for an additional three months of funding from PDA that will provide support for the community through the next harvest. Many thanks to those of you who support PDA with your gifts.

German asked that you pray for CEDEPCA’s Ministry in Situations of Crisis and funding to strength the program. He hopes that this program might become a model for other organizations, given that the focus is on increasing the capacity of communities rather than turning those in need into objects of charity. He also asks your prayers for him as he works in this program, that God might use him in God’s mission. Another workshop was planned in Xolpic for this week. I have not heard how Xolpic fared in the storm, but I hope there will be news soon. It’s unclear when German might be able to travel to the community again.

Closing words

I’ll close for now. I promise more news about recovery efforts here as information becomes available and CEDEPCA has a chance to discern what we are being called to do. Please keep praying. Notes of encouragement mean a great deal in difficult days.

Blessings,

Karla

Rev. Dr. Karla Ann Koll
Professor of History, Mission and Religions
Latin American Biblical University, Costa Rica
Evangelical Center for Pastoral Studies in Central America (CEDEPCA), Guatemala
Presbyterian Church (USA) Mission Co-worker
www.pcusa.org/missionconnections/profiles/kollk.htm