Letters from Roger and Gloria Marriott
February 2012
December 2011
April 2011
November 2010
September 2010
June 2010
January 2010
November 2009
August 25, 2009
July 15, 2009
For older letters, contact Mission Connections
Roger and Gloria Marriott
Roger and Gloria ended mission service with the Presbyterian Church (U.S.A.) in 2011.
Write to Roger and Gloria
Roger and Gloria Marriott have been serving in Guatemala since January 2002. In 2006 they began to focus their work in Cobán in order to work with the Kekchis, one of 21 indigenous groups in Guatemala.
The Marriotts had begun their service with PC(USA) with a one-year appointment to help the Association of Presbyteries Mayas-Kekchis (APMK) in its church development work.
Then they served a three-year appointment, beginning in March 2003, working with nine educational institutions of the National Evangelical Presbyterian Church of Guatemala (IENPG) to improve the services these institutions provide to the indigenous population.
In 2006 they returned to Cobán to work with the Kekchis, but this time their aim is to help the indigenous Kekchi presbyteries improve the quality of their educational activities.
During their first year in service the Marriotts' work was centered in Cobán, a mountainous, coffee-growing region in central Guatemala. With their change in ministries in 2003 they moved to Guatemala City and later to Quetzaltenango.
“I was first drawn to mission work due to a chance visit to the Mexican border while on vacation in the 1970s,” writes Roger. “On one side, lush, green fields of fruit and vegetables. On the other side, only barren land or scraggly fields with a few spindly crops. The contrasts begged the question of how such differences could exist within such a small area, separated only by a manmade border. That led to a lot of readings, return visits to the border, a summer at the border (in Laredo in 1989) with our whole family, mission trips to Guatemala, and now, our appointment as mission workers.”
Roger and Gloria are members of Hillsboro Presbyterian Church in Nashville, Tennessee. Gloria has taught Sunday school and has been on the Budget Committee, the Stewardship Committee and the Nominating Committee. Roger is an ordained elder and a commissioned lay pastor in the Presbytery of Middle Tennessee. During his tenure as chair of the Outreach Mission Unit of the Presbytery of Middle Tennessee, a Hispanic ministry was organized and a presbytery trip to Guatemala was undertaken.
During the 14 years prior to their appointment the Marriotts owned and operated their own business, an executive search company that served the needs of the graphic arts industry. Prior to that, Roger was as an executive in the fragrance industry for 15 years. Roger holds a bachelor’s degree in economics from Central Missouri State University. Gloria has a Bachelor of Science degree in business administration from Ball State University in Muncie, Ind., and will graduate from Eastern Mennonite University in Harrisonburg, Va., in May 2011 with a master’s degree in conflict transformation.
The Marriotts have three adult daughters. Shelby and her husband live and work in Frederick, Md.; Meredith and her husband live and work in Nashville, Tenn.; Lindsay, who served in the Reconciliation and Mission Exchange program of the PC(USA) in Nicaragua and now is the program director of a non-profit organization, lives and works in Chicago, Ill.
Birthdays:
Roger - July 23
Gloria - November 1
