As the lone Presbyterian, I enjoyed good company and the perspective of ecumenical partners and of a younger generation of those with a passion for telling the story of people and places outside of the familiar and mundane.
The true teachers, from whom we all learned most, were the people of these two Central American countries. From our travel in the countryside and in the city of Antigua, I venture the following observations on the people of Guatemala. One does not, as a visitor/observer, become an authority on poverty by flying in and out again. At the same time seeing life there, first hand and up close, brings home the reality of hunger and deprivation not possible otherwise.
As the plight of the powerless needs to be experienced to be appreciated, so the spirit of these people is something to be experienced. Their daily work seems to be all that separates them from the shadows of tomorrow’s hopelessness. Everyone works. Men hoe and chop, women weave, and children join in the struggle to survive. Yet, there is a quiet confidence and an abiding trust in God’s providence.
The Presbytery of Western North Carolina has established a partnership with two presbyteries in Guatemala. Mission teams have linked congregations as well, and they return to interpret and to inspire. The presbytery is also sponsoring a medical missionary in Malawi, and was humbled recently in the receipt of a sacrificial gift from these Presbyterians in Guatemala who want to be mission partners with us in support of Dr. Barbara Nagy in southern Africa.
Our sojourn in El Salvador, next door, brought us into a more Americanized country, but one where one third of the population has immigrated to the U.S. because of the limited opportunity for gainful employment there. With the people of El Salvador, and in the witness of the Anglican Church there, we found the same needs and the same resolute courage in identifying a God-given mission and in living out a call from God to house the homeless, to feed the hungry, and to visit those in prison.
Where the average per capita income is $700 a year, the contrasts between the “haves” and the “have-nots” is stark. One can appreciate the reasons why the country’s largest export is people, people who have not lost hope but who face insurmountable odds in realizing the economic stability and the political clout needed to overcome historic marginalization.
El Salvador lives in the shadow of the life and faithful witness of martyred Bishop Oscar Romero. On the wall above his tomb are his words, “If I die, I will be resurrected in my people.”
In Jesus’ parable of the poor man and the rich man, Lazarus sits at the rich man’s gate and hopes for crumbs from the rich man’s table. In Jesus’ day the city gate was the place where one went to receive justice. There judgment was rendered on rich and poor alike. At heaven’s gate Lazarus is rewarded and the rich man receives his just deserts.
In this year of our Lord 2004, we sit at the gate of justice and pray that those who hunger and thirst for righteousness shall be satisfied. I have reason to observe that those with the most money seem to have the least hope, and those with the least money have the most hope.
GEORGE GUNN is pastor of Fletcher church in Avery County, N.C.
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