Blog - Page 10 of 24 - Guatemala Partnership

First Bible Class Graduation!

November 9, 2024January 17, 2026Guatemala Partnership

Carrie here again. We had an absolutely FABULOUS week with the youth from the Utz Pan bakery here in Xela and they headed back to Guatemala City yesterday. It was early mornings and late nights all week, so I am a bit behind with my updates for you. I have the weekend now to rest and work, so I’ll try to get a few more posts out in the coming days.

On Tuesday, while the kids were visiting their first bakery, I was invited out to the Association office to take part in the graduation ceremony for the first group of women who completed CEDEPCA’s six-session Introduction to the Bible class. What a celebration! This is the first of four courses taught by staff from CEDEPCA’s Biblical and Theological Education ministry. To learn more about this class and how the women are responding, read this previous article written by Jenny Garcia, Association staff member and class participant.

Kites and Heights

November 3, 2024January 17, 2026Guatemala Partnership

Hi everyone! Carrie Saathoff here. I’m traveling in Guatemala for the next two weeks and will post about a few highlights as I go. For this trip I am on my own instead of leading a group from New Castle Presbytery, which allows me to get a bit more business done and spend more in-depth time visiting with our partners. For the first week, I will be with the Utz Pan bakery youth, taking them out to Xela for a five-day learning and adventuring experience like we did last year. The second week I will be with the Association, meeting with staff and the Board, getting out to some of the hard-to-reach communities, and seeing how the women’s projects are coming along.

Puzzle Pieces and Growing Connections

February 8, 2024February 7, 2024Guatemala Partnership

By Tracy Keenan, Missional Presbyter

If you have ever put together a jigsaw puzzle, you’ll know that you start with the borders and, working from the picture you were given, put the pieces together. I’m new to jigsaw puzzles, and I’m fascinated by the detail, how deeply you can examine even one small section of a complex picture, and how you can organize pieces by shape, color, or region. The image on the box doesn’t quite do justice to the big picture.

This was my third trip to Guatemala with our NCP Guatemala Partnership, and the picture, for me, is not only a puzzle taking shape but an image spilling beyond the edges and rising into multi-dimensional animation.

Contrasts of Santiago Atitlán

February 5, 2024February 5, 2024Guatemala Partnership

Nearing the end of our visit to Guatemala, we visited the small town of Santiago Atitlán, across Lake Atitlán from our hotel stay the prior night. This town is scenic and interesting, but also suffers a tragic history, so we experienced many contrasts.