A letter from Ellen Dozier in Guatemala
April 4, 2008
Dear Friends,
One of my last trips in Guatemala before returning to the United States last month was to San Juan Ixcoy, a community high up in the Cuchumatanes Mountains of northwestern Guatemala. I traveled with a group of women from the Sinódica (Presbyterian Women). This was the second of four visits to teach a course called “Ser Mujer Es Maravilloso” (“It’s Wonderful to Be a Woman”).
I wish you all could have been with us to experience the cold; to see the vibrant reds, yellows, and greens of the women’s clothing set against the brown landscape of this dry season; to hear the sounds of laughter as the women who never had a chance to “play dress up” as children acted out the story of the six women who were a part of the birth of Moses. I wish you could have been with us to rejoice in all the people and groups that made this trip and course possible: the material we used was written by another PC(USA) missionary and came from Cedepca, the Central American Evangelical Center for Pastoral Studies; a church in the States sent the funds to provide travel, meals, lodging and materials; a Sinódica committee planned the visit; I accompanied them on the trip. This visit with the Q’anjob’al women illustrates much of what has been so important to me in my eight years of ministry with the Sinódica of the National Evangelical Presbyterian Church of Guatemala:
- Women of different ethnic and cultural groups in Guatemala coming together.
- The opportunity to teach, which brings me great satisfaction.
- Visits to remote places in Guatemala.
- The importance of connections.
- Challenges for the future.
I have seen the Sinódica grow from a membership of 6 presbiteriales, all ladino (people of Spanish descent) to 15 presbiteriales. All of the groups that have joined are predominately indigenous women.
I have watched the women struggle to get to know one another and to work together in spite of great differences of language, customs, education, and social background.
I have celebrated with the women the vote of the Synod (highest governing body in the Presbyterian Church of Guatemala) to allow the ordination of women as ruling elders and pastors, and I’ve been impressed by the desire of newly ordained women to learn more about their responsibilities.
I participated in the worship service to ordain one of the first women pastors in the Guatemalan Presbyterian Church.
I have sat back and smiled to myself as 15 women on the directiva (governing body) of the Sinódica spoke out forcefully and convincingly that their presence should be acknowledged as the church debated amendments to their book of order. There was no need for me to say or do anything!
I have watched the women learn how to work together on committees, sharing their ideas and being about the work of Christian education, service, evangelism and mission.
Now it is time for me to retire. Meanwhile, the ministry of the women continues. My hope is that another mission co-worker from PC(USA) will be a part of this ministry.
We (the women and I) have come a long way, but there is still much to be done. The women need to think creatively as to how they can function in a whole new environment; it was one thing to work with six presbiteriales, all of which shared much in common. It is very different to work with 15 presbiteriales, where at least five different languages are spoken and there is much cultural, educational, and social diversity.
Women need to have the opportunity to explore different styles of leadership. The predominate style they have seen and known is an authoritarian one, where one person is “in charge” and controls a meeting or program or event while the “participants” passively listen, accepting whatever the leader tells them.
Women who live in isolated rural villages need to gain self-confidence and find their own voice.
The bonds that connect the women of Guatemala with sisters in other lands need to be strengthened; there is much to share and much to learn from one another.
I believe that with the support—financial, prayer, and pastoral—of the congregations that have supported my ministry, PC(USA) will be able to send another mission co-worker to Guatemala to work with women, someone who will be blessed as I have been and will witness to the love of God for all of God’s daughters.
Ellen
The 2008 Mission Yearbook for Prayer & Study, p. 258
