Dear Sisters and Brothers,
 
Greetings in Christ’s name as February begins. The days are now a bit longer, the mornings a little less chilly. In Haiti, emergency relief efforts continue. Here in Guatemala, we continue to walk with women and men who are struggling to be faithful.
 
Relief efforts in Haiti
 
Nearly three weeks have passed since the horrific earthquake hit the Haitian capital. Presbyterian Disaster Assistance (PDA) has already sent $409,000, but more cash is needed. Carlos Cardenas, the PC(USA) mission co-worker who coordinates PDA efforts in the region, has been on the ground in Haiti to help assess needs and plan responses. The Episcopal hospital in Leogane was not destroyed, as initially reported, but continues to offer medical services with PDA support. Action by Churches Together (ACT), of which PDA is a part, is focusing on sanitation and emergency shelter both in Port-au-Prince and the surrounding hard-hit areas. You can follow the PDA work in Haiti at www.pcusa.org/pda.
 
Church World Service has shipped 35,000 hygiene and baby Gift of the Heart kits to Haiti already. Many, many more kits are needed, both for Haiti and for future disasters. Assembling these kits is a wonderful activity for youth and other groups. These kits are designed to provide for basic needs of people living in shelters. Instructions can be found at http://www.pcusa.org/pda/help/goh.htm.  PDA is asking people at this time not to send any material aid other than hygiene and baby kits.
 
Prayers continue to be needed as people in Haiti grieve for those who have died and who continue to die. Also pray for those providing relief services.
 
Meanwhile, in Guatemala and Central America:
 
As the world’s attention has been focused on Haiti, legal processes continue here that might move Guatemala closer to the rule of law. The International Commission to Combat Impunity in Guatemala (CICIG) concluded its investigation into the murder of Rodrigo Rosenberg, the lawyer who made a video accusing President Colom of his murder three days before he was killed. CICIG concluded that Rosenberg had arranged his own murder in order to discredit the Colom administration. Now CICIG and the justice system here can focus on solving the more than 6,000 other murders committed last year.
 
Former President Alfonso Portillo now finds himself in jail as the courts here work on determining if he can be extradited to the United States to stand trial for money laundering. Portillo was out on bail here after being extradited from Mexico on charges of misusing public funds. One ex-president in jail raises hopes that other public officials will be called to account for their crimes.
 
Porfirio Lobo was inaugurated as the new president of Honduras last week after winning an election organized by the coup government in which no anti-coup candidate participated, which few governments in the world recognized as legitimate, and in which the turnout numbers were probably manipulated.  The Honduran economy is in shambles. It remains to be seen if the movement that held daily protests against the June 28 coup for months is able to organize for real reform that might strengthen democracy in Honduras and the region.
 
The latest report on human development of United Nations’ Development Program has labeled Central America the most violent region in the world where there is no active war. Murder rates continue to climb and governments struggle to mount effective responses.  The challenge for the churches, as always is to be light, to lift up the importance of life, and to nourish folks in community. 
 
Our lives in Guatemala
 
Even as we pray together with folks here for people in Haiti and for victims of violence in the region, our lives go on. Tamara, our daughter, is well into the second semester of her junior year of high school. She has also started her third college course on-line, this time a survey of British literature. She has taken a break from teaching English, but she will start leading classes again soon. The Rafael Landivar University keeps throwing bureaucratic hassles at Javier, my husband, but he is continuing to work on his thesis in political science.  We hope he will graduate this year.
 
Theology classes start at the Evangelical Center for Pastoral Studies in Central America (CEDEPCA). I’ll be teaching History of Christianity II and Bibliographical Research Methods in the capital, as well as a tutorial in Christian Ethics. Our students are not very good at registering beforehand, so I’m not quite sure just who is going to show up for classes on this coming Wednesday. The start of the academic year is always exciting. I look forward to what my students will learn as they encounter the struggles of Christian communities in other times and places. I also anticipate learning from my students as they share their struggles and insights with me.
 
The team at CEDEPCA is also continuing the process of articulating a vision for the organization. We are discovering that such reflections cannot be rushed. Last week I met with the coordinators of our Women’s Ministry Program from Costa Rica, Honduras, Mexico and Guatemala to encourage them to rethink how they describe their work. I’ll continue to work with the local team here in Guatemala throughout February as we pull together our plan for the next three years. We look forward to having a document to share with those who support our work.
 
On February 11, CEDEPCA will receive a group from two churches in Virginia. First Presbyterian Church in Winchester is one of my supporting churches. They will be accompanied by some women from a Church in Fairfax. The ten women in the group will be participating with in a retreat with women from the Sinodica, the national organization of Presbyterian Women here. The retreat is part of the ongoing Faith Stories Project of the Looking for Lilith Theater Company. I invite you to find out more about the Louisville-based theater company and the Faith Stories Project at www.lookingforlilithorg. The group will be here in Guatemala until February 20.
 
A new addition to the PC(USA) mission co-worker community in Guatemala
 
This morning, January 31, mission co-worker Marcia Towers, who works with CEDEPCA and with the Young Adult Volunteer program, gave birth to a health baby girl. Please pray for Marcia, her husband Midge Lucas, big brother Josue and baby Eva.
 
Reading corner
 
In light of the suffering being experienced by so many in Haiti, I would like to recommend Paul Farmer’s Pathologies of Power: Health, Human Rights, and the New War on the Poor. Farmer is a physician and an anthropologist who worked for many years in rural Haiti. The pathologies of power Farmer documents made the population of Port-au-Prince and surrounding areas vulnerable to disaster. We’ve seen as well how these same pathologies of power have dominated the response; how military flights were given priority over medical aid, how the stricken population has been portrayed as prone to violence, how protecting property has been placed above caring for human lives. Farmer draws on Latin American liberation theology in his call to rethink basic human rights and provide health services for all.
 
Theological education in the midst of suffering and violence
 
In light of the magnitude of suffering in Haiti and elsewhere, theological education might not seem like a very important task. In recent weeks I have heard repeated from pulpits and in religious programs here assertions by US Christian leaders that the suffering of Haiti’s people is due to their sins or pacts they have made with the devil. As women and men have come to me with questions, I have realized once again the necessity of providing an alternative theological vision. Guiding people into a new encounter with the God of Life can help them change the way they understand God and God’s actions in the world. They can discover a new vision for their own lives and that of their faith communities as they learn strategies for resisting violence. Yes, theology does make a difference.
 
Thank you for being part of the efforts of CEDEPCA in here in Central America. Thank you for your prayers.
 
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
 
 
Courier service:
GUA 2120
PO Box 526125
Miami, FL  33152-6125