Mid-week news

Another big mid-week: Stephanie goes to a faculty/staff meeting at her school this afternoon, when more of what’s in store for them this coming school year will be made public. It’s been musical chairs with the rumor mill as to which teacher she might be paired with and in which room. Stephanie finished our contribution to this year’s Children’s Fellowship Sunday, leading a fun Mexico/Cinco de Mayo-themed activity, and then topped off her after-school Culture Club Mexico unit Monday with a parent – a parent she’d seen the day before in a long, parent-teacher conference – bringing in Mexican food (with leftovers coming home).

I learned Monday evening that the larger unit at work within which my office is by far the largest subunit may be facing a 19 percent budget cut, which means May 14 it’s likely that 2 of the 10 people (possibly including me) in my office will be laid off. I had a dream last night that I or we were moving to a new city so I could start a new job. Back at work, I’ve turned in one report and trying to finish one more this week (while layoff decisions are still being made). In perhaps a swan song, the three or four days’ worth of Presbyterian “Mission Yearbook for Prayer & Study” podcasts I recorded earlier this year went out over the weekend: http://www.pcusa.org/missionyearbook/podcast/may/myb050110.mp3

Also, Wednesday is the first meeting of a small group of people from church going to Guatemala on a mission trip in July. One of the trip leaders, I purchased tickets (with the pastor’s credit card) for four of us last week. A Spanish class (partly to prepare) at church, after Weight Watchers, starts up again today.

My Mother has been trying to nail down some of the details of her retirement and exit from her office. She also has an appointment with her neurologist this week. I knew she had talked with the realtor and her contractors, but it turns out her house has been on the market for a week or two, with three people coming to see it already. Check out the pictures at: http://www.libbyallen.com/content/listdetail.html?propid=111315592&proptype=*&minprice=-1&maxprice=-1&bed=-1&full=-1&ag_id=162936&pageclicked=1&proppos=10&ids=108928250,107852264,102765984,105037361,91721122,78676355,105073187,108425781,109801255,111315592

Over the weekend my sister had her four modern dance performances, and received an award, but was also in a car accident soon before one of the performances, which shook her up and damaged her car and created a hassle for her trying to track down after the fact the person at fault who sideswiped her and her insurance company. Jacob got to see most of Stephanie’s performances. We’re glad Penny’s OK but know it must have been stressful.

Stephanie and Vincent were in touch Monday after we went to see a movie by a Korean filmmaker whose previous movie (“The Host”) Vincent loved. Vincent says he’s working on his classes, mostly right now the English class that he’s essentially taking for the third time. He continues his job, which he alternatively says is fun or boring.

- Perry

Guatemala mission weekend

For several months we've been planning for the big Guatemala mission weekend this past weekend at church. (You might recall that we met at our house a couple of weeks ago to plan.) Up first was an unusual Saturday morning fast and prayer vigil, that coincided with Day 2 of the annual meeting of a partner presbytery in Guatemala. Ana (above left) pushed for a labyrinth-style vigil - more or less like the stations of the cross in Catholic churches. So we constructed 13 stations, each with a semi-framed, captioned picture (I took and constructed each), a lit candle, and some Guatemalan artifact - most to represent the 10 churches of the presbytery. We also put up ribbon to help guide people through the labyrinth, as they wound their way through the sanctuary. Ana, Andrea (also above), and I met a month ago to plan this and I stayed in the Westerville Kinko's until 10:30 p.m. Saturday night after Aunt Mildred's memorial service to construct the framed pictures. Friday night Ana, Andrea, Ada, Doug, Lowell met to actually construct the labyrinth and set up for the vigil, to close with a very short prayer and song service (the whole thing was to run from 8 a.m. to 12 noon). Below is one of the signs that Andrea built to point people in the right direction, and further below is Ana (in the dark) with the map of the labyrinth that she drew.

About 16 people showed up for the fast, including Soni who stayed there the whole four hours and Lowell and me who came close. Some of the people who had been to Guatemala but were not involved heavily in the set up (Pastor Jane, Soni, Eva, maybe Lowell) seemed to enjoy this the most (since they weren't stressed out about set-up). The Guatemalan Presbyterians hold a lot of these, and they were excited to hear that we might hold one to coincide with their presbytery meeting - and so we promised to do so when we met with their presbytery leaders on Monday, March 29. After the brief service, we broke our fast and about 10 of us went out to eat at the relatively nearby Havana Rumba Cuban restaurant. Hannington - our New Albany friend in the midst of serious immigration problems - and Soni (below) were at the lunch.

So were (left to right) Ana, Ginny, Kay, Jeff, and Nora, among others.

The next morning I was up bright and early for the first fall Sunday school class of the bilingual Spanish-English Sunday school class led by Carlos (far left), Ana's father, which Sunday included Sarah and Soni. We talked - this Sunday, more in English - about the Spanish-language "What is ecumenism?" piece we had sent to our partners in Guatemala several weeks previously.

Later Sunday morning Delia Leal, who will tour the United States this next month as a Presbyterian "international peacemaker," was the guest preacher in our Sunday morning service. She had written a relatively abstract sermon about peace, but she complied with Ellen's request (Ellen translated into English for her) and inserted the story of how she and her family forgave the people who killed two of her brothers during the civil war. Below Pastor Leal - one of Guatemala's few female pastors, at a Nazarene church - greeted Crescent Hill folks (here - Larry Ann) while Ellen (face obscured) stands to her left. It is Ellen who landed us Pastor Leal and Dennis Smith, who arrived later.

After church Lowell (left) and I were among half a dozen Crescent Hill folks who joined more people from two nearby Presbyterian churches who brainstormed over Chinese buffet lunch about how to do outreach with nearby Spanish-speaking folks about English as a foreign language classes we're setting up. Phil (below right - pastor of one of the other churches) and I ended up actually knocking on some doors at a couple of nearby apartment complexes. Invited in to talk with one family, it turns out Phil knew one of the family members, most Spanish-speaking people in the neighborhood have moved to a different complex on the other side of Clifton Heights, nearer to Pastor Jane's house, and that most of these folks are in fact from Guatemala.

Monday the final Guatemala Mission Weekend shoe dropped, when longtime Presbyterian mision worker in Guatemala, Dennis Smith, arrived in Louisville. We took him to the Vietnam Kitchen restaurant near the airport - near where Stephanie used to teach English - and then home, where he was to stay with us two nights before preparing to leave for a month - with some 50 or so other international peacemakers and misison workers (including Leal) - talking with Presbyterians around the country (the Misison Challenge). Smith was a good guest. He showed us pictures of his family and in fact talked with them by Skype throuugh his laptop, which he could use to the Internet because of the router Stephanie got me for Christmas and installed subsequently. Except for going out to lunch and dinner, Smith hung out at our house Monday, but then I took him and his luggage into the office Tuesday.

A week or so earlier, Stephanie and I had found the Mexican bakery on Preston Highway where we usually order tres leches (three milks) Mexican cakes, usually huge ones, as a lure for Dennis Smith's talk. But when I got out there, after a short while it was clear that they hadn't really even started the cake. I went over for a quick lunch at Subway, but eventually a whole hour elapsed - although I did get to watch them make some of the cake - which included pineapples. I missed a lot of work in this way. Eventually I nabbed the cake and refrigerated it at work (I had walked the dog at home on the way to the bakery) before bringing it to set up the talk. Dennis Smith's talk was good (and in the question and answer period he even talked about the return of President Zelaya to Honduras, which had just happened earlier that day), and I was pleased with myself by asking Delia Leal to close us with prayer (her having listened patiently to his talk with only some translation into Spanish - quietly for her. About 18 people had showed - including one from another church and a couple of Crescent Hill people we don't usually see at these events. I had e-mailed Univeristy of Louisiville people, and gotten a notice in the newspaper. Below is the cake - with the Guatemalan flag on it - which Delia Leal appreciated, but I let this slow down us cutting it and stalling the start of the event a little. We got home about 9 p.m., I took Dennis Smith to work th enext morning at 8 a.m., and then Guatemala mission weekend was essentially over. We still have to call our partners to find out if they did indeed add an 11th church, when Presbyterian families moved into their area from another part of the country.

-- Perry

Strangers

Last Wednesday Stephanie and I and half a dozen other folks from church went to a special opening performance of a play (called "Strangers/Extranjeras") about the relationship between a U.S. woman and a Guatemalan woman that mirrored the experiences of the playwrights as Presbyterian Young Adult volunteers in Guatemala several years ago. Starting out eating a great Guatemalan meal (the salad pictured above) at our table were our friend Soni, Stephanie, and a Presbyterian Center co-worker (Sara) (not pictured).

The head of the now Louisville-based Looking for Lilith theater company helped direct the play.

This included running the lights and the sound - including during the first act when - she told us later - the projection of photographed images from Guatemala was not running.

Below were the only two actors in the play - Strangers Extrajeras - who mainly played this visiting U.S. woman and her Guatemalan host.

The two actors who were in the play have both recently moved to Louisville, one to go to the University of Louisville, the other simply to act. In addition to playing their main characters, these two also played a couple of other characters. Below, the woman on our left played - instead of the Guatemalan woman - the pastor of her church.

After the play (which was preceded by a musical interlude and discussion by a man who also went to Guatemala as a Young adult volunteer) we got to listen and participate in a discussion with the two playwrights (on the left and the right) and the director.

-- Perry

Wednesday update

Today is the day that my colleague Becki goes to the doctor to see if she can come back from medical leave, after surgery. Thursday is the day Stephanie’s father goes back to court in a landlord-tenant dispute. Today is counseling day for Vincent and Stephanie’s first day back at school in the past week. For three days this week Stephanie tutors individual students (some English as a New Language students, some not), substituting for a teacher who’s doing this for more of the summer. Starting Monday (at 7 a.m. – then at 8 a.m. the rest of the time), Stephanie teaches summer school for half days. Tonight we go to a play about intercultural friendships in Guatemala (me missing a church meeting).

-- Perry