Guatemala Archives - Guatemala Partnership

We’ve Got Baggage

January 20, 2026January 20, 2026Guatemala Partnership

By Carrie Saathoff

And we are off! Our small group of five steering committee members arrived safely in Guatemala Monday – with 11 suitcases! For this trip, we are not traveling light by any means, thanks to a generous donation by Mustang Expediting, a warehousing and logistics company located in Aston, PA. Kara Francis, a member of Westminster Presbyterian (Wilmington, DE), connected us to an amazing opportunity to procure a mountain of brand new medical supplies and N-95 masks. (There is still a pile in my basement and more to come!) Kara and I have been meeting in the church parking lot the past several Sundays to transfer car loads of supplies. My daughter said it felt akin to a drug deal.

Youth Bakery Trip is Cooking Again!

November 30, 2025January 17, 2026Guatemala Partnership

By Carrie Saathoff, Co-Chair of the Guatemala Partnership

This weekend after Thanksgiving, I am grateful to be heading to Guatemala to help lead the Utz Pan Bakery youth trip for a third year. If you are not already familiar with the Utz Pan bakery project, here is a quick recap:

Pastors Emerson Morales and Mardoqueo Perez of Jesus es El Camino church (Jesus is the Way) in Guatemala City initiated a bakery project in their church aimed at offering local teenagers a safe space to learn new skills and earn extra income, often to help pay for their traditional schooling and family expenses. The initial investment for the bakery equipment and supplies was funded with a grant from Self-Development of People, a mission program of the Presbyterian Church (USA), and the Utz Pan bakery project was born. Utz Pan, meaning Good Bread, has been a smashing success, graduating a new group of skilled bakers every two years.

Kinship and Connection

February 2, 2025February 1, 2025Guatemala Partnership

By Tracy Keenan, Missional Presbyter, New Castle Presbytery

What makes us human? What does it mean to be in community and to have meaning? This post is about our trip to Guatemala, but it is also about our churches, our nation, our world, our homes and neighborhoods. If I tug on one strand, the others vibrate.

Here are some of the virtual carry-ons I bring with me on this trip:

Resistance and Justice

January 31, 2025January 30, 2025Guatemala Partnership

I am Marj Johnson, a member of Concord Presbyterian Church. This was my first immersion experience trip to Guatemala, but I was there before with a work group with my church in 2012 to build stoves. I learned so much this week about all the programs of CEDEPCA and the Association of Mam Christian Women.

On our last day in Guatemala, we were at Lake Atitlán, a volcanic caldera lake. The town of Panajachel, where we stayed, was a typical resort town with a nice beach, boating, seaside attractions, and people relaxing, enjoying themselves, buying souvenirs and eating ice cream.

We took a boat to the other side of the lake in the morning. It was a beautiful day, the sun was out and the sky was blue. We were in a safe boat and we each had enough space and a life preserver. But I couldn’t help thinking about all the migrants who travel by boat around the world at huge cost in unsafe boats, no life preservers, and crowded beyond capacity—what it must be like for them as they travel to the unknown.