Bob and Ann Henriques
invite you to.....
A
Mission Exposure Adventure
in
Guatemala
A CAM International Presentation
For the past 23 years Bob and Ann have hosted Mission Exposure Adventures. During
a ten day program, teams of young people and adults from the United States travel
to Guatemala to experience missions "up close." Guatemala's proximity
to the States makes this unique adventure a cost-effective activity.
A carefully crafted itinerary includes ministry opportunities, a work project and
an intense exposure to the major issues in missions. A number of past participants
of the MEA are on the mission
field today claiming that Guatemala was the" turning point", the experience
that God used to nudge them toward a career in missions. Each day of the MEA is full of exciting and varied
activities that are aimed to help participants become more knowledgeable and equipped
World Christians. Many "alumni" of this missions adventure are presently
serving in their local church as enthusiastic members of missions committees and
promoters of greater missionary outreaches.
The program has three goals in view:
Information:
A number of factors make Guatemala a unique place to experience missions. The presence
of the Gospel for over 100 years in Guatemala has allowed the founding of numerous
and varied missionary ventures. Programmed into the schedule is exposure to the ministries
of a number of mayor mission organizations active in Guatemala. Guatemala's varied
geography (mountains, hot and humid coastal lands and desert areas) has created various
types of peoples, each with its challenges for Gospel outreach. Twenty-five different
Indian tribes that make up over 50% of the population provide a rich colorful setting
of study in cross-cultural ministry, especially in the area of church planting and
Bible translation.
The MEA provides team members
with exposure and information about the lifestyle, customs and challenges of another
culture. The team travels high into the mountains to observe how Christian believers,
with very limited means, can manage to enjoy life to the fullest. The life of a missionary
family is observed both in urban and rural settings. Discussion is held in how to
reach targeted people using different strategies.
Involvement:
As time permits, the team participates in evangelistic activities in prisons, door-to-door
visitation and child evangelism. Musical abilities are incorporated into the team’s
presentation along with the sharing of personal testimonies. Opportunity is created
to provide a word of edification and exhortation to church gatherings. Each team
member is encouraged to use whatever Spanish ability has been acquired in former
training. Expert translation in local languages is provided to "fill the gap."
A work project is programmed in order to meet local needs and further forge team
unity. Informal lectures by veteran missionaries stimulate interaction concerning
critical issues in missions.
Enjoyment:
Lasting and enjoyable memories are the daily fare of the MEA! A horseback ride up 2,000 feet to the rim of an ancient volcano
is a high point. Weather permitting, a volcano climb of 12,000 ft. is a possibility.
Guatemala is rich in nature. Beautiful rivers and lakes are guarded by looming mountains
and volcanoes (33 of them!), which in turn are surrounded by lush, tropical forests
and jungle. Few spots on earth so beautifully combine a diversity and abundance of
rain forest birds and mammals with vestiges everywhere of ancient civilizations.
The beautiful Guatemalan people open the door of their wondrous land to the entire
world, and to you in particular, to delight in this spectacular country, the land
of the eternal spring.
Table of Contents of the Mission Exposure
Adventure
manual:
A word of
Testimony and Challenge...
Dear Friend,
Are you considering a trip to Guatemala? You are not the only one. The whole experience
is so well supported and encouraged that many of us hear the reports and wonder if
we should go as well.
For some the distinct food, natural beauty and city driving have made the trip worth
every thing invested. For others, these have not always been highlights, especially
the driving! But everybody that has gone has shared in the highlight of knowing God
more fully. If you thirst to know God more intimately and would like to know if you
should go, the Lord ultimately has an answer for you. As you wait upon Him, here
are a few ideas to prayeffully consider
Have you said yes to supporting a missionary? If so, your prayer life is enhanced
and enlightened by living, breathing and partaking of the missionary life. The unique
situation in Guatemala allows the trip to give you a complete exposure to missions.
Have you said yes to knowing God fully? Guatemalans may have a different language,
culture and set of traditions, but the Godhead is the same. Whether you're in the
U.S. or a foreign country God, Christ and the Holy Spirit do not vary. This is easily
assumed but to see and know this personally has really broadened many a Christian's
perspective.
Have you aid yes to wholeheartedly doing God's will for you? Many a door has not
opened because no one took the initiative to knock. A trip to Guatemala may be an
opportunity In which God gives direction to your life, and helps align the priorities
you live by.
To have a heart and mind of Christ means we are to care for the world situation as
God cares. I believe my two trips to Guatemala will continue to have deep, lasting
impressions on my Christian life--experiences that I wouldn't trade for anything.
May the Lord continually guide you and give you strength. (Is. 58:11)
An object of His Grace,
Rev. Dwight Edwards
Senior Pastor
Grace Bible Church
College Station, 'IX Back to Top
A word
on mutual Commitments and Goals...
Commitments
1. The group comes with a firm commitment to serve in Guatemala and sufficient leadership
for supervision, especially as the members need to adapt to different customs and
standards.
2. Sufficient funds will be budgeted by the group to cover travel and living expenses
in Guatemala, as well as travel to and from Guatemala.
3. CAM assumes responsibility for making all arrangements for the groups work or
ministry, as well as for a full-time coordinator to be with the group while in Guatemala.
We do as much ahead of time as possible so the group's time in Guatemala is used
to maximum advantage.
4. We make every effort to provide comfortable accommodations and wholesome, safe
food.
5. Depending on the schedule planned, we provide formal and informal orientation
on the wide range of ministries in Guatemala, the needs of the churches, and make
every effort to challenge the group in a greater interest in World Missions. As the
group is willing and able, we arrange direct participation in evangelism and teaching
opportunities.
6. Each team member is expected to have adequate good health and fully capable of
participating in a rigorous schedule of general missionary activities.
7. Team members will bring with them to Guatemala the liability waiver and emergency
release form duly witnessed and signed before a Notary Public.
Goals
1. To receive a renewed missionary vision. Where do I fit in? Is full-time missions
an option? Missionary at home or in a foreign culture? Be a world Christian.
2. Appreciate what missionary life is like as it is accomplished through the existing
church.
3. Appreciation of what God has given us in the USA in terms of parents, clothing,
food, education, opportunities, country, spiritual heritage.
4. Appreciation of what it means to work as a team.
5. Appreciation of sights, sounds and smells of another culture.
6. Learn what it is like to minister through the spoken word, music, testimony, preaching
in a different culture and inter-cultural relationships.
7. Is it possible that God might want me with CAM International?
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A word about the Itinerary....
CAM International
Presents
A Mission Exposure Adventure
For
Fayette Bible Church
August 8-18, 1997
(Sample Itinerary)
Friday August 8
5:55 AA #929
6:30 Money Exchange at Airport
7:30 Accommodation/Orientation/Dessert
10:00 Lodging, Henriques Residence
Saturday August 9
7:00 Breakfast, Henriques Residence
8:30 Tour Guatemala City
12:00 Lunch, 50 yard-line Restaurant
2:00 Travel to Antigua, Guatemala
Colonial City of the Americas, Catholic hub
Visit Santo Domingo, Capuchinas Covent,
"Brother Peter's tomb"
6:00 Supper, Henriques Residence
7:00 Music Ministries Christina Pater
10:00 - Lodging, Henriques Residence
Sunday August 10
7:00 Breakfast, Henriques Residence
8:00 Travel to Escuintla (Guatemala's Humid Coast)
9:00 Rock of Salvation Church, Sunday School, Devotional, Children's Rally
12:00 Lunch, Country Chicken
2:00 Visitation and Evangelism with members of Rock of Salvation Church
4:30 Return trip to Guatemala City
6:00 Supper, Henriques Residence
7:00 Missions in the Word Dr. Paul Lowery
10:00 - Lodging, Henriques Residence
Monday August 11
7:00 Breakfast, Henriques Residence
8:00 Travel Pavon Prison (correctional facility)
9:30 Ministry with Christian prisoners
12:00 Lunch, Panchos - Mexican Cuisine
2:45 Wycliffe Ministeries - Ed Beech
6:00 Supper, Henriques Residence
7:00 A Reality Check - Pastor Karl Smith
10:00 Lodging, Henriques Residence
Tuesday August 12
6:30 Breakfast, Henriques Residence
7:00 Travel Guatemala Bible Institute
Tour campus and paint faculty house
12:00 Lunch, El Hato
2:45 Christian Academy of Guatemala
Schooling for MKs
4:00 TGNA - Missionary Radio
6:00 Supper and evening with Missionaries
10:00 Lodging, Henriques Residence
Wednesday August 13
7:00 Breakfast, Henriques Residence
8:30 Central American Theological Seminary
CATS, Biblical/Theological Training
10:00 Casita Benjamin Social Ministeries, Children's Rally
12:00 Lunch, El Camino Hotel
2:00 Shopping Handcraft Market
4:30 Crisis in Cultural Adaptation Bob Henriques
6:00 Supper, Henriques Residence
7:00 Sensational Guatemala Carlos Marroquin
10:00 Lodging, Henriques Residence |
Thursday August 14
6:00 Breakfast, Henriques Residence
6:30 Travel into mountains to Patzun, fellowship
with Cakchiquel indian pastor Juan Cocon
8:30 Bible Translation, Cakchiquel Old Test.
9:30 Travel Chichicastenango, observe blend of Animism/ Catholicism at Santo Tomás
11:00 Shop at Indian market
1:30 Bag Lunch at Overlook
2:30 Travel to Panajachel, shores of Lake Atitlan
3:30 Hike witch doctor's cave/demonic syncretism
4:00 Hotel Atitlan, Gardens
6:30 Supper, El Bistro Restaurant
8:00 Lakeside Lodging, Camp Good News
Friday August 15
7:00 Breakfast, The Only Deli
8:30 One hour boat ride to Santiago Atitlan
9:45 Horse back ride to Quetzal Nature Reserve
2:30 Lunch, Matison Ranch
5:00 Boat ride to San Pedro
7:00 Church Service in Tzutuhil Church - Esmirna
9:00 Supper, Comedor Mitchel
10:00 Lodging, Hotel Via Sol
Saturday August 16
7:00 Breakfast, Comedor Mitchel
9:00 Boat ride to San Marcos for Evangelism
11:00 Visit Santiago Atitlan’s folk god Machimón
(Confirm reservations American Airlines)
12:00 Lunch, Comedor Mitchel
2:00 Siesta!
4:00 Visitation in homes of Tzutuhiles
6:00 Supper, Comedor Mitchel
7:00 Church Service in Esmirna Church
10:00 Lodging, Hotel Via Sol
Sunday August 17
7:00 Breakfast, Comedor Mitchel
9:00 Church Service in Tzutuhil Church - Esmirna
10:30 Return Boat ride to Panajachel
12:00 Lunch, The Only Deli
2:00 Return trip to Guatemala City
3:30 Visit Mayan ruins at Ichimché (time permitting)
6:00 Supper, Henriques Residence
7:00 Concert of Musical Strings Mildred & Manolo
9:30 Final Thoughts and Chula Award Presentation
10:30 Lodging, Henriques Residence
Monday August 18
7:00 Breakfast
10:30 Leave for Airport
11:30 Money Exchange
12:50 Departure AA #930
Coordinators/Hosts Bob and Ann Henriques
Fayette Bible Missionaries |
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A word about the Packing
List...
GENERAL
Bible (English/Spanish), notebook, pencil, pen.
Small Spanish/American dictionary.
Clothing should be marked with laundry marker,
especially underclothes and socks.
Alarm clock.
Flashlight
Small mirror
Camera, plus film (film available locally but VERY expensive)
Toilet articles. Include hair dryer and/or curling iron if you use one. (USA
current)
Bath soap with container
Underclothing for the duration. Clothes will be washed periodically.
Pre-moistened towelettes.
Shower sandals or thongs.
Medium weight jacket or light sweater.
Plastic garbage bag or personalized cloth bag for dirty laundry.
Pajamas or sleeping attire (bath robe?)
No tank tops
Towel and wash cloth
Swim Suit
Collapsible umbrella
Conservative shorts can be worn during designated times (volcano climb, witch
doctor's cave hike, sports activities and "hanging around" at home
base)
Work clothes for painting, laying block, mixing cement.
Pair of work gloves
General Rule: Dress neatly. i.e. No jeans with holes, tank tops or cut off shorts
in public.
Electric voltage is 110 volts.
Pocket calculator
MEN
Couple matching pants\dress shirts and ties
Sunday shoes
Comfortable hiking shoes
Summer sport shirts with collars.
Casual slacks/nice levy pants.
WOMEN
Light-weight housecoat
Sunday shoes.
Tennis or casual shoes comfortable for walking
Levy pants and/or slacks or matching pants suit.
Summer blouses or tops (modest) and skirts
Comfortable hiking shoes (nice tennis shoes etc.)
Summer dresses or skirt sets for church
Feminine hygiene products (Kotex, Tampax, etc.)
Each should bring one large suitcase and one canvas duffel bag (medium size).
The bag is VERY important. When we travel in to the highland there will not
be sufficient room in the 2 minivans for hard case suitcases plus people. The
hard cases will stay at our house and only the canvas bags will be taken with
4-5 days of clothes.
Luggage should have ID inside and out. Also, there should be an identifying
mark (i.e. Red tape in the form of a cross) on all luggage for quick pick-up
at off the belt at the airport.
9/7/97
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A
word about the First Aid Kit...
Ace bandages - different sizes
Band-Aids (Multi-size box)
Gauze
Adhesive tape
Hydrogen Peroxide
Alcohol
Oral thermometers
Antiseptic spray
First Aid Cream
Kaopectate/Pepto-Bismol
Lomotil (serious diarrhea medicine)
Suppositories for the "dry heaves"
Aspirin/Tylenol/Advil
Dramamine
Sharp Scissors
Spoons to take medicine
Cough tablets and/or syrup
Cold medecine (Sudafed, Dimetapp, etc. -- important!)
Cotton
Murine (or other eyedrops)
Mercurochrome
Tongue depressors
Mosquito Repellent
Bee Sting Remedy (optional)
Sun burn lotion (Solarcaine, etc.)
Antacid Tablets
Safety pins (different sizes)
Small sewing kit
Tread
Needles
Q-tips
Moist towellets (lots)
Small packets of Kleenex
*The kit should be arranged so that desired items can be found quickly without unpacking
entire contents of kit.
*Contents should be wrapped and labeled so that unused items do not become dirty
through handling.
*One person should be in charge of the kit and familiar with all of its contents
and know how and when to use them.
*A plastic fishing-tackle box with trays and/or compartments might be good for this.
*Anyone on special medication or who uses contact lenses should bring enough supplies
for the duration of the trip.
*Advise prior to arrival of any dietary restrictions.
*The first aid kit will be particularly necessary if the team's itinerary includes
climbing rough terrain.during the volcano climb.
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A word
about the Liability Waiver........
(To be signed, notarized, and returned promptly to sender)
I am aware that CAM International Field leadership will put forth every effort to
guarantee my personal safety while working under their auspices. However, I recognize
that there is always the possibility of unforeseen danger and that my dependence
must be on God Himself.
Accordingly, I hereby do voluntarily and without reservation and on behalf of myself,
my heirs, and my estate, waive any and all claims of whatever nature for any injury,
loss, damage, accident, delay, unexpected events, or expense arising from the use
of any vehicle, services, strikes, weather, war, sickness, quarantine, government
restrictions or regulations, or from any act of commission of any steamship, railroad,
airline, bus transportation, sightseeing, hotel, or any other service or transportation
company, form, individual, or agency or for any other cause whatsoever in connection
therewith against CAM International, its workers and cooperating personnel from all
responsibility.
Dated: ___________________
Country to be visited __________________________
Church, Work Group or School_________________________
Visitor Signature____________________________
Signature of Spouse_________________________
Parents of Guardians____________________________
(If not accompanying visitor)
EMERGENCY TREATMENT
(To be signed, notarized, and returned promptly to sender)
On rare occasions, an emergency requiring hospitalization and/or surgery develops.
Since the laws and regulations vary in foreign countries regarding those instances
in which the consent of a parent or guardian is required in order to allow a student
to be administered an anesthetic or to be operated on, CAM International requests
that parents or guardians sign the following statement. This is to prevent possible
dangerous delay, if we are unable to contact the parents or guardians. Such emergencies
rarely occur; however, we want to observe the utmost precautions for safety and the
welfare of each participant. Circumstances permitting, students will also be asked
to sign a standard consent to surgery form should surgery be required.
In the event of sickness or injury of our/my daughter/son/ward/spouse/myself, ____________________
who is _____ years of age, born _________________________, we/I hereby authorize
the
Month day year
representative abroad of CAM International to secure whatever treatment is deemed
necessary, including the administration of an anesthetic and surgery.
_____________________________________
Signature of parent or guardian if student is under 21 years
_____________________________________
Signature of spouse of student in presence of Notary Public of age in presence of
Notary Public. Students over 21 should sign in presence of Notary Public.
*********************************************************************************************************************************************************
STATE OF ____________________________
COUNTY OF ____________________________
On this _______ day of ____________________________, 19 ____ before me, the undersigned,
a Notary Public in and for said State, personally appeared
____________________________________________________known to me to be the person/persons
whose name/names is/are subscribed to within instrument and acknowledged to me that
he/she/they executed the same. WITNESS my hand and official seal.
____________________________
Notary Public in and for said State
My commission expires ______________________
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A word about Personal
Conduct.......
"Though the United States has spent billions of dollars on foreign aid programs,
it has captured neither the affection nor esteem of the rest of the world. In many
countries today Americans are cordially disliked; in others merely tolerated. The
reasons for this sad state of affairs are many and varied, and some of them are beyond
the control of anything this country might do to try to correct them. But harsh as
it may seem to the ordinary citizen, filled as he is with good intentions and natural
generosity, much of the foreigners' animosity has been generated by the way Americans
behave.
As a country we are apt to be guilty of great ethnocentrism. In many of our foreign
aid programs we employ a heavy-handed technique in dealing with local nationals.
We insist that everyone else do things our way. Consequently we manage to convey
the impression that we simply regard, foreign nationals as 'underdeveloped Americans.'
Most of our behavior does not spring from malice but from ignorance, which is a grievous
sin in international relations. We are not only almost totally ignorant of what is
expected in other countries, we are equally ignorant of what we are communicating
to other people by our own normal behavior." The Silent Language by Edward
T. Hall
General Comments:
The following guidelines have been formulated for the purpose of helping you to receive
the greatest possible benefits from your missionary trip. Keep in mind that this
is merely a summary of the type of behavior expected and it is to be supplemented
by common sense and the fruit of the Spirit. In most instances you will be considered
to be on an equal par with the missionaries and we want to be careful not to bring
reproach upon the name of Christ and His Work.
1. You are an ambassador for Christ. Courtesy is essential. Loudness and uncontrolled
laughter are out of place and a poor testimony.
2. A smile goes a long way. It has won more friends than thousands of words. Learn
to use it even when you do not feel like it. Be friendly, but careful.
3. Humility is another attribute of tremendous significance. The people with whom
you will be are very sensitive to their social positions. Let them know that you
are interested in them and their children, and are not ashamed to be around them.
If you will listen and observe, you will learn much from them.
4. A firm, but polite "NO" will discourage vendors of merchandise. Do not
barter for a lower price unless you are really interested in making a purchase.
5. Know where your baggage is at all times.
6. Indicate a genuine interest in the lives and ministries of the missionaries and
nationals with whom you come in contact. Do not hesitate to ask them questions regarding
their activities.
7. On occasion you will be entertained in private homes. Take advantage of every
opportunity to lend a helping hand to household chores and strive to impart some
spiritual blessing by your presence.
8. Hard to get food items should be used sparingly. Do not take food you cannot eat.
Drinking water, in most cases is sterilized at considerable expense, must not be
wasted.
9. Get into the habit of washing your hands frequently, especially before handling
food. Showers must never be more than 5-8 minutes.
10. Remember the constant change of pace, varying diet, and unfamiliar germs means
your body demands more rest.
11. Insofar as courtesy and convenience allow, do not drink untreated or unboiled
water. Water at the Henriques residence will be treated. Avoid most foods offered
by street vendors. Raw fruits and vegetables may be hazardous unless peeled before
eaten.
12. Because of unfamiliar bacteria, the slightest cuts, scratches and rash should
receive immediate attention.
13. Notify your leader of the illness or irregularity of any kind.
14. Be on time for all obligations: travel, meals, classes, meetings, written assignments,
etc. "Punctuality is showing high esteem for other people and their time.''
(Eccles. 3:1)
15. You are responsible for your own belongings and spending money.
16. Each family and missionary society is organized differently. Observation and
comparison are encouraged, but complaining and critical comparison will not be tolerated.
17. Speak with love and respect for co-laborers.
18. Do not offer tips or information to customs or immigration officers unless requested.
19. When work is assigned it is to be done without complaining, remember that it
is part of your training.
20. Anyone wishing to leave the immediate training area must go in groups of three
or more. Before
leaving be sure to notify your youth leader or missionary in charge.
21. "Romantic alliances" with nationals and over-familiarity between men
and women is not encouraged at all. The slightest degree of over-friendliness with
those of the opposite sex is often misinterpreted in the Latin society.
22. Promises to write or send pictures to anyone should be made only with the full
intention of doing so. A good rule to follow is to ask them to write first.
23. Make every new challenge an opportunity to learn. Otherwise, it is impossible
to go through the trip unchanged. Don't say, "I can't" until you have tried
it.
25. There is nothing more practical in the life and ministry of a missionary than
his relationship to God. To this end, good habits of personal Bible study and prayer
are a must!
A comment about "relational tendencies... "
When you start living 24 hours a day with people you normally see only once or twice
a week, "relational tendencies" are greatly accelerated. What that means
in street talk is this: people you tend to like, you like more, and people you tend
to dislike, you dislike more. This is no big deal unless you are at the dating age.
As feelings grow more rapidly than normal it is important to keep a couple of things
in perspective:
*When in Guatemala we are representing Christ to all who see us; therefore, we should
not show favoritism to any one person, i.e., holding hands, arms around the other
person or giving back rubs etc. Married couples are exempted.
*People who begin to give "exclusive" attention to each other are therefore
"excluding" themselves from the group. That puts a damper on all other
relationships, and sets you up as the target of gossip, resentment, complaints etc.
*All this does not mean that you should ignore the fact that you have feelings for
someone, but it does mean that you should spend 95% of your free time with everyone,
so that you are not totally absorbed with only one person.
The following will be reviewed upon arrival in Guatemala
1. North Americans are famous for being in a hurry, too rushed to be considerate
and patient with people. Show them that people are important to you. Greet them as
you pass them.
2. Guatemalans point with their chin. We use our fingers.
3. Excuse yourself when leaving their presence. Don't just leave. Ask their permission
to be excused.
4. Asking directions: they seldom if ever will admit they don't know. They will guess
(and usually be wrong). Better sure to ask 2 or 3 and take opinion of the majority.
5. Project graciousness. Show that you accept Guatemalans as your friends and equals.
(North Americans are noted and disliked for showing an attitude of superiority. This
is sometimes because we are ill at ease and therefore aloof and unfriendly.)
6. Most Indian churches have men sit on one side and women on the other. We can probably
sit together, but be aware of the possibility.
7. Always say thank you or muchas gracias after a meal. The echo will be "buen
provecho". (May it settle well with you). You can't say "thank you"
enough.
8. If your hands are dirty, offer your arm (between wrist and elbow).
9. If someone is eating, grasp the arm rather than their hand that has already been
washed.
10. Que Dios le (les) bendiga! Use this at the conclusion of your testimony or as
a person leaves home.
11. Bartering is a must. Don't barter if you don't want the item.
12. Smile a lot. Latin Americans normally shake hands (or if both are women, give
a pat on the arm) both when greeting each other and upon leaving after a conversation.
It is proper for a man to offer his hand to a woman. Try to do as they do.
13. Be polite - always. Guatemalan are generally very polite. Avoid the impression
that you are talking about someone or laughing about someone.
14. Always taIk about the weather, place, or something, before you ask them a favor.
Don't just "barge" in and say "Can I have...".
15. Nursing mothers - you will see a lot of it. It is very common to see the lady
pull up her blouse and feed the little one. Don't faint nor gawk.
16. Facilities (W.C. or bathroom) may be scarce. Be prepared to find a tree (in rural
areas), over the mountain ridge, etc. They also have to do the same thing.
17. Each society has its unique gestures. It will be discussed the most common ones
used by Guatemalans (good-bye, come here, people, animals, chickens, etc. bathroom,
eat, let's go, etc.)
18. Response from the "macho" men while looking up and down your body.
Reaction from you of their comments. Don't encourage them.
19. If approached by a Latin man, be careful in your response. Since you won't ever
be alone, you should not have any problem.
20. By conduct and attitudes share your faith with anyone possible.
21. Dress modestly at all times.
22. Women should not wander off alone at anytime.
23. "Ch! ch!" and what to do with it.
24. When you enter a room where nationals are, they should be greeted "en masse"
if you are just passing through the room. But if you are joining the group, you should
greet and shake the hands of each person in the group, even if you are excusing yourself
from the group 2 or 3 minutes later, in which case you will shake hands of all around
again.
25. Don't crush the hands of the people. Most will be limp, but younger generation
will be a bit firmer.
26. Excuse yourself from a group with "con permiso". Never step away from
the group without saying something.
27. Ladies, don't be offended if the men are served first. Remember that it is a
man's world in the Hispanic/Latin culture.
28. Be careful when talking about politics.
29. Losing your temper is considered an unforgivable weakness--or worse. Watch your
testimony.
30. When in a store, don't abruptly ask how much something costs, but ask if they
have the item, and then how much. e.g. "Do you have any eggs for sale?"
"Yes", "How much do they cost?" or "I would like some eggs
this morning".
31. Never compare a person to an animal, or call him an animal, even in fun(donkey,
pig, "you turkey!").
32. In a service, people bow in prayer when seated before the service starts. A good
lesson for us.
33. Be careful with beggars on the street corners and in the churches.
34. When we visit a classroom of the local school the children will stand and say
good morning. We should respond and then have them sit down. We remain standing.
35. North Americans are also famous for being loud and boisterous in public. Show
them that you can be courteous and reserved.
36. Be careful when sharing your home address and phone number with people that
you have just met. Check with your leader first.
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A
word about Christian Missions in Guatemala...
The Early Church
Religious freedom was established in Guatemala by law in l873 by President Justo
Rufino Barrios, who historians claim was primarily interested in diluting the power
of the Roman Catholic Church. President Barrios sent a personal letter to the Presbyterian
Board of Missions in New York inviting them to send missionaries to Guatemala.
In 1882, missionary John C. Hill was preparing to leave New York for China when he
learned that he was being sent instead to Guatemala.
The early history of the Protestant Church in Guatemala was unusual in that the five
groups ministering to the country decided to divide the nation into five zones and
limit their ministries to within their given zone. Despite the presidential invitation,
evangelicals suffered much persecution in the Church's early years. For 400 years
the two most influential powers in Guatemala have been the Roman Catholic Church
and the military– neither of which has laid a democratic foundation in Guatemala.
As the evangelical movement increased, a democratic foundation began to be established
even though most evangelicals staunchly have claim to be apolitical.
Rapid Church Growth
Statistics show that Guatemala has one of the fastest growing evangelical populations
in Latin America. In 1950 evangelicals represented less than 3% of the population.
Today, after three decades of explosive growth, over 22% of the nation claims to
be evangelical. According to some estimates many evangelical denominations are growing
by more than 15% annually.
Dramatic growth has followed enormous missionary input, political instability, the
devastating 1976 earthquake and violent guerrilla war. The harvest has been reaped
in all sections of society.
The Evangelicals have now become a major component in society--even to the extent
of an evangelical President between 1981 and 1983. Pray that Christians may decisively
change their selfish, corrupt, racist and violent society.
The Catholic Church has suffered great decline in influence and numbers. Defection
to the Evangelicals has been massive and resented. Spousal of liberation theology
by some priests and the disciplining of the large charismatic renewal movement has
hastened the decline. Many Catholics are nominal or even animist at heart.
Evangelistic outreach continues through a multitude of avenues -- wide use of Christian
and commercial radio stations, mass evangelism campaigns (such as Luis Palau's 1982
campaign -- with 700,000 attending one meeting!), large distribution of Christian
literature and tracts (40 Christian book shops), etc. Bibles are being distributed
as fast as they are printed. On Sunday mornings in Guatemala City nearly every other
person on the street is carrying a Bible. Mid-week Bible study meetings are increasing
and evangelical radio stations, book shops, schools and seminaries are now competing
with those of the Catholics.
Church growth has far exceeded the availability of church buildings. Mr. Hale says
Sunday worship services are being held in--tents, schools, hotel convention rooms
and office buildings.
The Amerindians have begun to respond in large numbers to the Gospel. Missions have
reached out into every tribe. The most notable in church planting are CAM International,
Nazarenes and UWM, Wycliffe and others have contributed to the near completion of
Bible translation for the 40 languages needing the Scriptures.
The guerrilla war, which lastest for over 30 years, brought great suffering to the
Guatemalan people -- with deaths and a massive refugee problem (many fleeing to Mexico,
USA and to urban areas). Christians suffered considerably for their faith during
this conflict.
Foreign missions have lavished a great deal of attention on this country. The hard
battles in faith of the pioneers sowed today's harvest. Special note must be made
of the Presbyterians, CAM International, Brethren and Nazarene pioneers. The Guatemalan
church has initiated a small but growing missionary effort into other areas of the
world.
CAM International's Ministry
In 1899 when Mr. and Mrs. Edward Bishop began the work, it was a far cry from the
nearly 100,000 believers who make up the CAM family in Guatemala today. The work
began in Guatemala City but spread rapidly to rural and dialect-speaking areas.
The translation of the New Testament into Cakchiquel was completed in the
early 1920s and a pattern was set for further ministry both in Guatemala and around
the world. Tribal languages could and should be reduced to writing and the Word of
God must be translated.
The oldest of the study centers in Guatemala was founded in 1923 as Robinson Bible
Institute and was at that time dedicated to training in the dialects. It has since
changed its focus and its name. Now known as Guatemala Bible Institute,
it serves as a Spanish language training center. The school offers a standard three-year
program.
The Central American Theological Seminary, located in Guatemala City, is keeping
pace with the high academic requirements established by increasing educational standards
in Latin America. Students come from many different Spanish-speaking areas and are
offered three courses of study: a one year diploma course, four years leading to
a Professor of Theology degree, and the longer licentiate-level program.
Radio has figured prominently in the evangelism and edification programs.
TGNA, from the capital city, went on the air in 1950. Today the impact of their
select program puts the gospel into places difficult or impossible to reach in any
other way. Likewise, Radio Maya, a dialect station in a remote mountain area, programs
material in six different dialects.
Translation work continues especially in Huehuetenango and San Marcos departments.
There are still groups that do not have copies of the Scriptures in their language.
In these same areas CAM operates clinics and health centers within the framework
of Principles and Practice, a document that clearly states CAM's gospel-preaching
and church establishing purposes.
For missionary children the Mission also operates a school which actually serves
seven different groups. Christian grade schools supported by the national
church are also an important part of the ministry.
Back to Top
A word
about Radio Station TGNA...
* Radio station TGNA (known in Guatemala as "Radio Cultural) broadcasts in four
lan guages: Spanish, English,Cakchiquel and Kekchi.
* TGNA has an outreach into southern Mexico, a country where religious broadcast
ing is prohibited, as well as covering most of Central America.
* The radio ministry is complimented by Bible correspondence courses, concerts, visits
to churches and other direct contacts with listeners.
* On the average, some 100 people come by TGNA's studios each day, to leave an of
fering or greeting, for counseling, or just to visit. The station also receives about
1000 letters per week.
* Over 250 people place their faith in Christ through the ministries of TGNA each
year.
* TGNA is a cultural, non-commercial station funded by free-will offerings from churches,
listeners, and friends.
* The 730 Club is an association of listeners who have pledged to pray regularly,
and to give monthly towards TGNA's operational expenses.
RADIO TGNA exists to proclaim that:
There is one God, holy and righteous, creator and sustainer of the Universe, who
exists eternally in three persons. Mt. 28:19
Man is separated from God by his nature and actions, deserves eternal punishment,
and cannot by his own actions save himself. Rom. 3:23
Jesus Christ, true God and true man, died in man's place to take man's punish ment.
I Pet. 3:18
Whoever believes in Christ as his only and sufficient Savior, without works of any
kind, is declared righteous before God, made complete in Christ, and baptized and
empowered by the Holy Spirit to please God by doing that which is good. Tit. 3:5-8
Those who trust in Jesus Christ will enjoy the presence of God eternally; those
who reject Him will suffer eternal separation from God. Jn. 4:24,29
Back to Top
A word about the Central American Theological Seminary...
The Central American Theological Seminary stands for:
A HERITAGE of nearly 60 years' experience in training leadership for the Church.
A BEAUTIFUL 5-ACRE CAMPUS near the center of the largest urban area in Central America.
A GROWING LIBRARY of more than 10,500 volumes with extensive biblical and theolog
ical research tools.
AN INTERNATIONAL FACULTY dedicated to the Lord and to Latin America, represent ing
six countries with 18 full-time professors, half of whom either have a doctorate,
or are in the process of getting one.
A STUDENT BODY including 120 day students from 15 different countries, as well as
250 in night and Saturday classes, and over 200 pastors and leaders on Monday morn
ings.
THE CHURCH IN LATIN AMERICA is growing and maturing. At the same time, it faces an
unprecedented challenge from theological currents which often lack clear defini tions
and biblical content. Perhaps the most critical need today is for leaders trained
in the Scriptures, firm in their convictions, and dedicated to the building up of
the body of Christ. The Central American Theological Seminary senses that need, and
is seeking by God's grace to respond to it with a program that places the emphasis
where it should be.
What is DISTINCTIVE about the SEMINARY?
THE INFALLIBLE SCRIPTURES. Not only the authority of the Word of God is stressed,
but also its verbal inspiration and freedom from error in the original manuscripts.
History has shown that when the Church wavers at this point, relativism begins its
disintegrating process.
A BIBLICAL PULPIT. The basic commitment of the Seminary is to thrust into the pul
pits of the continent men of God who are prepared to expound the Word of God. The
proclamation of God's revealed truth is essential to the building up of the Church,
God's purpose for this age.
THEOLOGICAL FRAMEWORK. A biblical philosophy of education demands that we align ourselves
with the faith "once delivered unto the saints." Theology must not be a
con sensus of men's opinions, but a consistent exposition of that deposit of truth
which has been entrusted to the Church. Each faculty member shares this commitment
to an in tegrated theological position which is conservative and premillennial because
it is based on consistent grammatical-historical interpretation. The Seminary is
interested in loyalty to truth rather than in gaining a false prestige for the Gospel.
TEACHER/DISCIPLE DYNAMIC. Both in the resident program and in the growing ex tension
ministry, full emphasis is given to the teacher/disciple relationship as neces sary
to a biblical philosophy of teaching. "The same commit thou to faithful men
who shall be able to teach others also" (2 Timothy 2:2).
BIBLICAL EVANGELISM. The Gospel as presented in the Scriptures focuses on man's basic
problem (separation from God due to his sinful nature and acts), and the solution
to that problem (salvation through faith in the person and work of Christ). Lives
trans formed by the power of God can make a beneficial impact on society, but the
funda mental issues of sin and salvation remain essentially personal matters. The
Central American Theological Seminary prepares students to respond first of all to
man's deepest needs.
CHRISTIAN CHARACTER. A basic requirement for those who will teach others is that
they be "faithful men." Academic achievement must be complemented by spiritual
growth. Biblical standards, a disciplined life, prayer, and relationships at the
Seminary help to forge Christian character and maturity.
PROGRAM OF CHRISTIAN SERVICE. Students participate in a planned and supervised program
of Christian ministries during the four years of study. Exposure to a variety of
ministries, the development of spiritual gifts, the growth of a pastor's heart, and
the kindling of an evangelist's zeal are the goals of the program.
WORLD MISSIONS. Evangelical churches in Latin America are becoming increasingly aware
of their worldwide missionary responsibility. The Seminary is making a signifi cant
contribution to that awareness through its international missions conferences, through
missionary emphasis in the classroom, and through its graduates who minister cross-culturally.
RELEVANT APPLlCATlON. The Scriptures have been given for the purpose of trans
forming the life of the Christian and equipping him for service (2 Timothy 3:16,17).
The eternal truths of God's Word must be applied to believers, individually and
collec tively, taking into account the pressures they face within their own culture.
Legitimate contextualization requires both a thorough knowledge of the Scriptures
and an insightful understanding of the context in which they are proclaimed.
Back to Top
A
word about the Guatemala Bible Seminary...
The Guatemala Bible Seminary (GBS) is a training school that offers Biblical,
theological and pastoral preparation. This institution serves evangelical churches
in the Central American area, in Mexico, Panama and other Spanish-speaking parts
of the world.
In 1921 William Townsend and W.E. Robinson were moved by the great need of Christian
workers and began a program of short term Bible institutes. A year later, W.E. Robinson
was drowned in Lake Atitlan, but his vision did not perish. In 1923, William Townsend
established the institute with the name Robinson Bible Institute in Panajachel, Sololá.
In 1971 the institute's name was changed to the Guatemala Bible Institute.
From 1923 until1958 GBI was open only to men students. Since this date it has served
both men and women.
GBI's alumni serve in many ministries. They work as pastors, lay pastors and teach
ers. Some serve in administrative positions in church organizations and others in
evangelistic ministries. They work in many denominations in 12 different countries
around the world.
GBI's faculty come from Costa Rica, Guatemala and the United States. There are eight
nationals and five missionaries on the faculty. Four hold graduate degrees and one
is working towards this goal.
GBI's main purpose is to train men and women, who have dedicated their lives to the
Christian ministry, for the pastorate, evangelism and Christian Education. This pur
pose is based in GBI's desire to serve evangelical churches in the preparation of
their leaders.
Starting in 1993, GBI began a four year program and at the high school level. A ninth
grade education is the minimum entrance requirement. There are 5 options offered:
Theology, Missions/Evangelism, Christian Education, Ministry and Sacred Music (all
options have a basic Bible, theology and liberal arts course core).
In 1994 GBI began a Saturday program. This program is a two year program which offers
a Bible, theology and ministry course. A diploma in Biblical and Pastoral Studies
is given.
GBS is a non-profit organization which serves God's people. Part of the monthly
in come comes from voluntary offerings from individuals and churches (in Guatemala,
Europe and in the United States). Part of the income is received from CAM International
in Dallas, Texas. Of course part of the income comes from student fees (actually
about $56.00 US per month). There are a limited number of work scholarships available
for those students who have very limited incomes.
Back to Top
A
word about the Christian Academy of Guatemala
The Christian Academy of Guatemala (C.A.G.) was founded by several missionary families
in 1974 to serve evangelical English-speaking missionaries with the educational needs
of their children.
C.A.G. had it's beginning in a rented house, with remodeling and additions to the
facilities taking place over the years to meet the demands of the growing student
body and program. Student enrollment has grown from 25 to over 225 students. Property
for a new school facility was purchased in 1989 with the school moving to the new
campus in January 1993.
Christian Academy is a non-boarding school located in the capital city of Guatemala,
Central America, with a program for kindergarten through the 12th grade.
A traditional program utilizing curriculum from the U.S. is taught by certified teachers
from the U.S. and Canada.
Christian Academy is a parent-operated school. The School Council (Board) is elected
from the group of parents. No mission organization can have more than one missionary
member serving on the C.A.G. Council at any given time, thus spreading the leadership
to the various mission agencies using the school.
C.A.G. staff members come as missionaries from a variety of mission agencies on a
faith-support basis, except for those who are Guatemalan employees.
Southfield Christian School, located in Southfield, Michigan, is a sister school
to C.A.G. Southfield has lent assistance to C.A.G. in a variety of ways such as program
and curriculum development, financial assistance for projects, sending work teams,
and sending some of their staff to Guatemala for help in some special areas.
A video presentation of the ministry of Christian Academy is available upon request.
Personnel needs vary from year to year as short-term staff return to the U.S. and
as some of the career personnel take a furlough. Information regarding current needs
and staff requirements are available by contacting the school.
The Christian Academy of Guatemala is a member of the ASSOCIATION OF CHRISTIAN SCHOOLS
INTERNATIONAL.
A
word about reaching Roman Catholics...
How to Present the Gospel to a Roman Catholic
By Dr. Francisco Lacueva
Dale Carnegie once said that if you were an agent selling an article, your
first sentences should be worded to persuade the client to say "yes"
ten times before he would say "perhaps."
In a similar way, it is necessary to know the wisest way of dealing with a Roman
Catholic. It does not matter whether he knows much or little about the dogmas
of the Roman Church. His beliefs are mainly grounded on sentiments. As Luther
said, ''Papatus est purus enthusiasmus," i.e., Papacy is a mere enthusiasm."
You must know where to begin and where not to begin in your first dealings with
a Roman Catholic. The following rules can be helpful for a "humanly"
successful approach:
Do not begin
by attacking peripheral points.
You might hurt his deepest sentiments concerning the Church, the Virgin Mary,
and the sacraments. He urgently needs a clear explanation of the fundamental
points of salvation: the biblical concept of faith, repentance, grace plus nothing,
the new birth, the absolute sufficiency of Christ's sacrifice, and the unique
role of Christ as the only Mediator between God and man.
Using the Jerusalem Bible or another modern Roman Catholic version point out
texts such as these: Jn. 1:12; 3:3-5; 14:6; Acts 4:12; 16:31; Rom. 3:20-28;
5:1-11; 1 Cor. 3:11; Eph. 2:1-10; Heb. 4:16; 9:27-28; 10:12-14; 1 Tim. 2:4-6.
Explain clearly
the security of both initial and final salvation for any true believer.
This is most important. The main texts are 1 Jn. 5:13 ("know") Jn.
10:28-30 (divine power), and Rom. 8:32-39 (divine love). Further evidence can
be taken from texts like: Jn. 1:12; 3:36; 5:24; 6:37, 39, 40; Acts 16:31; Phil.
1:6; 2 Tim. 1:12; Heb. 13:5; 1 Pet. 1:3-5; 1 Jn. 2:19; 3:14. Above all, explain
Jn. 3:14-18 thoroughly, applying the "whosoever" as " you. "
Whenever a Roman Catholic admits the truth of the security of salvation, he
is already in some implicit way an Evangelical. The Council of Trent anathematized
anyone who dares say that he can be sure of his final salvation, or even of
his present justification. No Catholic can be sure he is justified because his
present justification depends on two uncertain factors: his spiritual status
reaching the unknown level which God demands and the sincere intention of the
priest conferring the sacraments of Baptism and Penance by which the recipient
was justified and forgiveness bestowed.
A Catholic cannot be sure of his final salvation because saving grace is lost
by any mortal sin. Anyone who does not receive the absolution of a priest before
death, must go to hell, no matter how many good works he has done in the past.
There is nothing more comforting for a sincere Roman Catholic than the biblical
truth of the security of salvation.
Discuss
matters only and always on biblical rounds, not on the basis of philosophy or
science.
For example, do not argue against the dogma of transubstantiation by saying
how foolish it is to believe a human body can be inside a thin wafer. Thomistic
philosophy found some clever sophism to show that this is possible. Rather,
tell him that, according to the Bible, the body of Christ ascended to heaven
where it will remain until He returns (Acts 1:11; Heb. 9:26).
A Catholic's
beliefs are mainly grounded on sentiments.
With a solid base in the Scriptures, we must "always be ready to make a
defense to everyone who asks us to give an account for the hope that is within
us" (1 Pet. 3:15). At least we can say, "Come and see" (Jn. 1:39-46),
or "One thing I do know, that, whereas I was blind, now I see" (Jn.
9:25). Explain that only by God's Spirit can we understand and accept the things
of God (1 Cor. 2:6-16; 1:17-31; 1 Jn. 2:20, 27).
Do not become
discouraged if your efforts seem to have little or no effect.
Remember, the decisive weapon is prayer: prayer that the Holy Spirit will impart
conviction of sin, the need of a Savior, the glory of Christ, the love of God,
and the danger of dying in unbelief (Jn. 8:24). Do not try to hurry God's clock.
He has His time and His way, and is never late. If you sow in meekness and faith,
God's Word never falls in vain. although it may increase your friend's responsibility
(Jn. 12:48)–frightening words!
Give him
a clear explanation about the true meaning of Christian unity.
One of the biggest obstacles for any Roman Catholic to overcome in order to
renounce the Roman system is his firm belief that only the Roman Church has
the unity expressed in Jn. 17:21. He believes that Evangelicals are divided
into numerous denominations which he calls "sects." He needs to understand
Christian unity based on a correct interpretation of such passages as Jn. 17:21:
Rom. 12; 1 Cor. 12 (especially verse 13); Eph. 4:1-16.
Try to learn about the internal doctrinal divisions within the Roman Church–something
very few people know anything about.
No Catholic
can be sure he is justified.
There are other emotional obstacles: fear of losing salvation outside the "Holy
Mother Church," of betraying their forefathers' religion, of becoming a
castaway from relatives, friends, and neighbors. Today, there are further obstacles
due to Ecumenism, Syncretism, and the misrepresentations of the character and
doctrines of the great Reformers.
Do not try
to persuade him to become an "Evangelical" or "Protestant"
or to change religion.
Salvation does not depend on a change of religion, but on a personal trust in
Christ as a personal, necessary, and sufficient Savior. We must, however, ask
ourselves what to do with a Roman Catholic who seems to have accepted the Lord
Jesus Christ as his own personal Savior. Should you tell him: Don't worry anymore,
but try to be a good Catholic while believing in the Gospel? No!
The Roman system, as such, is false. Will you tell him: hurry up and come out
as quickly as The Roman system, as such, is false. Will you tell him: hurry
up and come out as quickly as possible from that antichristian church? This
may often be unwise advise. There are some people who dare not decide on such
a tremendous change in a moment. They need time for reflection or may be too
timid to make a sudden decision. The wisest method is to exhort him to study
the Word of God regularly, with much prayer, and to be alert to the Spirit's
voice, always ready to obey God rather than man.
May God make us humble, meek, and kind when we deal with people who are sincerely
seeking the lost.
Dr. Francisco Lacueva
Dr. Francisco Lacueva a former Roman Catholic priest and seminary professor
writes from a broad background of experience in dealing with Catholics.
The Lacuevas joined the CAM team as Special Service Personnel in 1980 and lived
in Guatemala where Dr. Lacueva was a professor at the Central American Theological
Seminary. Back to Top
A
word about Cities, Towns, Places......
Guatemala City
Guatemala City was founded early in 1776 in the valley after war and earthquakes
had forced the abandonment in succession of the three colonial capitals known today
as Tecpan Guatemala, Ciudad Vieja and Antigua Guatemala. The colonial administrators
who laid out the city of New Guatemala of the Assumption chose a fertile valley.
According to some sources, they thought that the ravines surrounding the site would
absorb the shocks of earthquakes and thus protect the city from the destruction that
had befallen their previous capitals.
If that was their belief, they were dead wrong. An earthquake damaged the city in
1830, and a new pair of earthquakes on Christmas Day, 1917 and January 24, 1918,
destroyed the city almost completely. Because of the destruction early in this century,
no colonial buildings remain to be seen in the capital, except for a few sturdy churches.
The earthquake of February 4,1976 wrought heavy damage and caused loss of life in
a few of the outlying areas of the city. But by and large, the newer buildings of
the central city survived the tremors unscathed or with only minor damage.
Old timers and not-so-old timers remember with much affection the Guatemala City
of a few decades ago, precisely because so much of what they knew has given way to
urban expansion. For many years, the capital was a sleepy backwater, with no industry
to speak of. Physically, it developed no distinctive public architecture, and there
was nothing left of its colonial heritage. After 1917, the attractive tile roofs
which had crashed down and crushed heads during the earthquake gave way to corrugated
sheet-metal roofing on the houses of those who could afford it. Most of the buildings
downtown were nondescript adobe or brick structures faced with cement plaster.
Nevertheless, the city was a pleasant place, with tree-shaded residential neighborhoods,
quiet streets, and few vehicles. People referred to locations by neighborhoods, and
not by the zone numbers used today. There were the Parroquia, or parish, the oldest
part of the city; El Gallito, the little rooster; Reformita, the Villa de Guadalupe,
Tivoli and the areas in the central city known as El Amatle (the amatle tree), Las
Cinco Calles (the five streets), and El Botellon (the big bottle). The streets bore
names, not numbers: Avenida Central, Calle del Hospital, and Calle del Tuerto (street
of the one-eyed man).
The quaint street names exist now only in memory, though the old names for neighborhoods
and intersections still survive in everyday usage, if not on official maps of Guatemala
City. A zone numbering system came into use a few decades ago, making it easier for
outsiders to find their way around in the metropolis. The population of the capital
grew from 112,000 in 1924 to 284,000 in 1950, and today it is fast approaching a
million. With growth to the north limited by canyons, Guatemala City-has expanded
to the south and west. New residential neighborhoods have been built in what once
were corn fields. Concrete-and glass skyscrapers of government agencies, private
offices and hotels dot the cityscape. Factories are sprouting up on the outskirts
of town, and the streets are crowded with cars and buses at rush hours.
In many ways, Guatemala City is everything that the rest of the country is not. Most
of it is not especially attractive (though there are a number of pleasant residential
and commercial areas), while the countryside of Guatemala is everywhere breathtaking
in its mountains, forests, lakes and volcanoes. The people of the capital live the
relatively fast-paced life of a commercial center, dress in western business clothing,
and are aware of a larger world outside their country. In the countryside, the pace
is slower, trade retains a social as well as economic value traditional Indian clothing
is still to be seen in many towns, and the people generally see themselves as part
of the smaller world of their own town and a few nearby villages. Although Guatemala
is not very big, many of the people of the capital know relatively little about the
ways of the countryside. And it's not unusual to see a country person in Guatemala
City going about wide-eyed and having a bit of difficulty in managing things as he
tries to take care of a bit of business that he has with the government, or some
matter of trade.
Guatemala City is called "Guate," "Guatemala", and "la capital"
by locals. For the visitor, it's the center from which to go out and see the archaeological
sites spread around the country, the colonial city of Antigua, and the many Indian
villages easily reached during one-day trips from the capital. Mercifully, there
isn't much in the way of obligatory sights to see in the capital, and the general
pace of things, while fast for Guatemala, is a relief from that of other large cities.
There are good food and entertainment, excellent hotels, and markets and shops full
of handicrafts at low prices. And of course, Guatemala City is the center of the
government, economy and culture of the country, so you're bound to understand a bit
more of Guatemala by spending some time there.
Relief Map
Unique in the world, the Relief Map in Minerva Park was built in 1904 by Army engineer
Francisco Vela Irrisari. The construction began in 1904 and was completed in 1905.
Measuring about 2500 square meters, it has a vertical scale more than twice that
of the horizontal scale, so that the mountainous terrain of the country is shown
quite clearly, though with a distortion that gives the volcanoes a strange, skinny
appearance. Climb up to the viewing platforms, and you'll be able to trace the places
you've been to and will be going to.
Central Market
Located behind the Metropolitan Cathedral, in the basement of the Plaza of the Shrine.
The Market displays a great variety of Guatemalan handicrafts.
National Palace
Standing on the north side of Central Park is the National Palace, the center of
the government of Guatemala. built from 1939 to 1943, it stands as the last great
public project of the dictator Jorge Ubico, who was overthrown not long after its
completion. Though structurally it consists of reinforced concrete filled in with
brick, the palace is faced with light green stone, with a mishmash of classic and
colonial decorative elements.
Inside, the palace is far more pleasant and attractive than on the outside. The
interior gardens and beams carved with coats of arms bring to mind the Moorish palaces
of southern Spain. Around the two main interior stairways are a number of murals
by Alfredo Galvez Suarez depicting the history of Guatemala, from the semi-mythical
times of the Popol Vuh to the wars between the Spanish invaders and the native kingdoms
to the formation of a new society during the colonial period. Thrown in with these
subjects is the unlikely theme of Don Quixote.
On the second floor is the Reception Hall (Sala de Recepcion), a magnificent wood-paneled
room with great chandeliers, used for state occasions. The stained glass windows
depict the history of Indian and colonial Guatemala. But the most unusual feature
is the stuffed quetzal bird--Guatemala's symbol of national independence--which forms
part of the coat of arms behind the rows of flags.
Antigua
What a magnificent heritage this ancient city has left us! In Antigua throbs the
heart of Central America, the gates of history and eternal spring. Antigua is the
ancient capital of Guatemala, a city which was once ranked with Mexico and Lima as
one of the great centers of the New World.
Antigua today is a city in which time has stood still..... The tradition and grandeur
of the period is still preserved for all to see and experience. Much of the city's
main buildings can be seen as they were in 1773 after the earthquake.
Escuintla
Commercially and industrially, Escuintla (population: 33,205) some of the more important
cities of the Pacific lowlands. Located at the junction of the Pacific Highway and
the road from Guatemala City, it's a center for processing the sugar cane, cottonseed,
coffee, beef and other agricultural products of the area, and for the refining of
petroleum. It's also the capital of the department of Escuintla, which stretches
from the volcanoes near Antigua and Lake Amatitlán to the steaming coastal plain.
The town's name refers to a species of dog raised for food in Precolumbian times.
Physically, Escuintla is a dumpy place of wooden and cement-block house, hot at all
times, with an oppressive humidity. There's no reason to tarry long in town, but
all around one can appreciate the luxuriant tropical vegetation, tall palms, dense
forests in shades of green, banana trees with giant leaves (big enough that they
were once used as raincoats) and exotic flowers, Volcanoes and mountains tower above
the city to the north.
Patzun
Located about halfway between Chimaltenango and Lake Atitlan, Patzun is perhaps best
known for the damage it received during the 1976 earthquake. A monument on the town
plaza remembers the 172 persons who died in the disaster, as well as recognizing
the Norwegian government, Red Cross, and others who assisted in Patzun's rebuilding.
Approximately 95 percent of Patzun's 17,000 inhabitants are Cakchiquel Indians, and
the town is resplendent in the colors of the native dress. Women's traditional outfits
include hiupiles that are generally a bright red. The men, meanwhile, wear white
pants and a black, fringed apron held in place by a colored sash.
The best time to see the town in its full regalia of colors is on Sundays, when a
large and lively market is held. The market is centered around the town plaza, but
stalls and vendors spill over onto side streets as well as up the steps of the twin
cathedrals (one of which has been abandoned since the 1976 earthquake). Although
the market is a local one - specializing in food, tools, and other native textiles
to make it a worthwhile stop for those in the mood to buy. Indeed, because Patzun
receives so few tourists, prices can be lower than those in better - known markets.
People just wanting to see a traditional Indian market will not be disappointed by
the one at Patzun.
The area around Patzun is also ideal for hiking, exploring, or just sight-seeing.
Looking east from the town, one can see the peaks of volcanoes Aqua and Fuego, while
to the west volcanoes San Pedro and Atitlan tower above the lake. A deep, tree-lined
gorge marks the western edge of Patzun, while surrounding the town are rolling fields
where wheat, corn, broccoli, cabbage, onions, and snow peas are grown.
Dirt roads through this beautiful scenery connect Patzun to several aldeas, or villages,
that are even more off-the-beaten-path. The road to Lake Atitlan winds through a
lush, green valley. This road, which is paved, comes out near San Antonio Palopo,
south of Panajachel.
For those wanting to see a typical Guatemalan Indian village, or just wanting to
get to Lake Atitlan by a different route, Patzun is an ideal destination.
Chichicastenango
If you haven't been to Chichicastenango (referred to as "Chichi" by the
locals) go! Every Thursday and Sunday throughout the year the town holds an open
air market, the largest of its kind in all of Guatemala and Central America -- and
definitely the most colorful. By nine or ten o'clock in the morning, when the market
is in full swing, it has been described as "a busy moving mass of color, but
no sound -- a silent movie in technicolor!"
"Chichi" was, and still is a thriving center in the Western Highlands.
It is located north of Lake Atitlan, southeast of Quetzaltenango and south of the
Ixil villages of Nebaj and Chajul. Chichicastenango is also known for it's long
history of religious traditions -- it was from here that the sacred "Popol Vuh"
(a sort of Maya-Quiche Bible, pre-Hispanic in origin - copies in English and Spanish
available in bookstores throughout Guatemala) was guarded from the Conquistadors
and later reverently copied and saved for posterity.
Here too stands the famed church of Santo Tomás, where cone can view the "Shamans"
(the Mayan "Doctor-Priests") making their offerings in the rear of the
church. You can't miss this enormous white structure, it's located in the center
of the market and there are several rows of steps leading up to the entrance.
From the vantage point of the church take an hour or two to shop in the market spreading
out before you. Be warned -- Sunday's are especially crowded. Guard your wallet
and act with caution. Thursdays are much less hectic. Be prepared to bargain for
what you want, you be the judge, name your final price and walk away - if the seller
follows you and says "OK" - you've made a deal! If not, well, it's a big
market. You'll be more or less "overwhelmed" on your first visit. After
some hard bargaining you may still feel energetic enough to hike up to the Maya-Quiche
shrine (Maya, not 'Catholic or Christian) of "Pascual Abaj" - a large stone
idol on top of a steep hill some 1500 meters outside town. To get here, just walk
past the front of the church, straight ahead beyond the masks, turn right down past
the mask factory and say "Pascual Abaj" - you'll have a young "guide"
within seconds, or - walk up on your own (pleasant 30 minute hike
upwards). You'll see the "shamans" again making offerings to the "Gods",
this time in the open air, quite an experience and you can take photographs, but
ask permission first.
Panajachel
("Place of the white zapote" - fruit tree)
Located in a wide river delta, Panajachel (population: 2,235; tribal language: Cakchiquel)
is the main center from which to see the lake area, with a number of hotels and restaurants
covering a wide range of prices and service.
During the period of the Spanish conquest of Guatemala, the shores of the lake near
where the Hotel Tzanjuyu now stands were the scene of the great battle in which the
Spanish and their Cakchiquel allies defeated the Tzutuhils. The Franciscans set up
a church and monastery in Panajachel soon afterward, and used the town as a center
for converting the Indians of the region to the Catholic faith. The original facade
of the church still stands, and is one of the gems of the colonial Churrigueresque
style in Guatemala.
Old-timers remember Panajachel as a sleepy village with a couple of small inns. Over
the years, the town's development as a tourist center has taken a toll on its charms.
The main street is now crowded with advertising signs, and a few new and note specially-attractive
concrete block hotels have been rushed to completion to provide accommodations for
visitors. But if the main street gives the impression of a developing commercial
resort, the rest of the town is still quite pleasant. The side streets are lined
with the attractive vacation homes of Guatemalans and foreigners, with expansive
and carefully tended gardens. And along the back paths, where the native inhabitants
live in small adobe houses and cultivate their irrigated plots of vegetables, the
years seem hardly to have changed things. Many of the women still wear the traditional
red huipil and blue skirt, and a number of the men use the traditional ponchito,
a short blanket skirt, over their white pants. Despite the evident influence of tourism
on Panajachel, agriculture is still the main occupation of the townspeople, and when
seen from the approach roads winding down the mountainsides, the coffee plantings
and vegetable patches give the town the appearance of a great garden.
Though not very large in population, Panajachel is quite spread out, and you're bound
to be doing a bit of walking to get from place to place. The streets have names,
but they're not posted, so I've used such landmarks as the gasoline stations along
the main street to indicate where to find things. The main street runs near the lake
at the entrance to town on the Solola side (where most of the luxury hotels are located),
and angles away from the lake as it heads toward the center of town and the low-priced
hotels. A couple of long side streets lead from the main street to the lake.
Across the river from the center of town is the neighborhood called Jucanya ("across
the river" in Cakchiquel), a quieter and mostly Indian area. The road that fords
the river (starting at the San Fernando store on the main street) continues to the
towns of Santa Catarina Palopó and San Antonio Palopó.
In addition to the streets in Panajachel, a network of trails winds through town,
and it's possible to get from one place to another along these tree-shaded lanes
without seeing anything more than Indian houses scattered among the coffee trees
along the way.
Lake Atitlan
Lake Atitlan is Guatema1a's most magestic natural wonder and has been described by
many experts as the most beautiful lake in the world. Framed by three massive volcanoes
and towering mountains, its shores are lined with colorful Indian villages and dotted
with comfortab1e hotels.
The lake, measuring l S miles at its longest point and 10 miles at its widest -with
a maximun depth of 1,600 feet- is a short drive from Chichicastenango, and about
81 miles from Guatemala City. An outstanding attraction for hang-gliders, climbers
and trekkers are its surrounding mountains and southern-shore volcanoes: Atitlan
(l l,595 feet) Toliman (10,230 feet), and San Pedro (9,840 feet). Lake Atitlan is
a mecca for every type of water sport - from fishing and swimming, to diving and
water skiing- and sport lovers flock to its shores.
The Indian villages rimming the 76 mile shoreline, accessible by public launch or
private boat, represent three distinct ethnic groups, each with its own language,
traditions and costumes. The brilliantly colored clothing of the natives, decorated
with a
variety of embroidered symbols such as birds, flowers and animals, varies greatly
from village to village.
One of Guatemala's best-known locations, the resort town of Panajachel, has all the
necessary facilities and accommodations to make for a pleasant vacation at Lake Atitlan.
The village of Santiago Atitlan, largest and most traditional of the lake's surrounding
villages can be reached by boat from Panajachel. Close to Santiago is the famous
Poc Preserve, where the fortunate tourist may catch a glimpse ofthe elusive -and
nearly extinct- water bird found only at Lake Atitlan.
Worth visiting are the villages of Santa Catarina, where traditional dress is still
worn and San Antonio Palopo, situated further along the dirt road from Panajachel,
and offering one of the most spectacular views of the lake enroute.
Visitors to this colorful area can be seen mingling in the marketplaces with Indians
selling hand-woven textiles, pottery and baskets, vegetables... and even animals.
They are witness to a native life unchanged by centuries.
Santiago Atitlan
Santiago Atitlan (population: 11,416; tribal language: Tzutuhil), largest and most
traditional of the lake towns, is a collection of paths winding among crowded stone
and bamboo huts with thatched roofs. At the time the Spaniards arrived, the capital
of the Tzutuhil nation was located across the bay on the hill at the base of the
San Pedro volcano. Nothing remains of the fortress, but the area where the common
people lived is today's Santiago Atitlan. During the early part of the colonial period,
the town, then known as Santiago Chiyá, or Santiago-by-the-water, was an important
missionary and trading center. The large white church dates from that period.
An unusual figure in the traditional religious life of Atitlan is Maximón, said
to represent a combination of Judas, Pedro de Alvarado and the traditional god Mam.
While many other towns in the highlands have a Maximón, who is the object of
scorn during Easter celebrations in Atitlan the figure is revered. This heresy was
the cause of some friction between the bishop of Sololá and the people of Atitlan
in the 1950s, and only at the intervention of the president of Guatemala was Maximón
restored to his traditional place in the local ritual. Maximón is usually kept
locked up under the care of a religious brotherhood, but he may be seen complete
with a cigar stuck in his wooden face, during the colorful Holy Week celebrations.
The traditional textiles of Santiago Atitlan are highly regarded. Men wear striped
purple-and-white trousers, though these days they usually dress in western-style
shirts. Women's huipiles are also in purple and white, and covered with delicately
woven and embroidered figures of birds and animals. The unusual halo-style headdress,
consisting of a long ribbon wound around the crown, is pictured on Guatemala's 25-cent
coin.
The market is an all-woman operation. The men are out in the fields around town tending
to the corn and beans, or trading with other towns, while women sell produce and
tend to household chores and weaving. Fine samples of Atitlan weaving (huipiles,
trousers and occasionally shawls) are on sale in the booths along the side of the
market, as well as in some stores in town and at the cooperative near the church.
A small archaeology museum is located in the school on the main square. It includes
a few artifacts unearthed at the site of the Tzutuhil capital at Chuitinamit, across
the bay.
There's not much of a beach in town, but if you walk in the direction of San Pedro,
the road runs along the water and you can jump in off the rocks.
San Pedro La Laguna
At the foot the volcano (12,000 ft.) of the same name, San Pedro is a densely populated
little town that looks more like a small city than a rural village. Houses are built
close upon one another, and the spires of a number of evangelical churches rise up
along with the old white Catholic Church. The Pedranos (tribal language: Tzutuhil)
have always been considered a bit different from the people of the neighboring towns.
They're aggressive in commerce, and over the years have bought up much of the land
in neighboring San Juan. They've taken to using horses and mules to carry cargo,
instead of their own backs, and most significantly, a good many of them have converted
to evangelical Protestantism. The rituals of folk Catholicism have disappeared from
the town, and have been replaced by guitar strumming and the singing of hymns at
prayer meetings. A modified version of traditional clothing is still the norm, however.
men wear white trousers with broken blue stripes, and shirts made locally from cloth
woven of tie-dyed thread on foot looms. The shirts are also sold to other towns
of the Lake region and throughout the country. The women's huipil is cut from machine-made
cloth.
San Pedro is altogether a pleasant place, where foreign visitors are hardly even
noticed. In addition to subsistence agriculture, the cultivation of coffee and avocados,
and the manufacture of shirts, there's a factory on the beach which produces hand-knotted
wool rugs, most with designs taken from Mayan glyphs.
San Marcos La Laguna
San Marcos (population: 836; tribal language Cakchiquel), a town of thatched mud-and
bamboo houses, has been ravaged repeatedly over the years by floods pouring down
from the mountains towering over the town. After the flood of 1950, when much
of the town was washed into the lake, most people moved to the two hils overlooking
the old town center. The cultivation of fruit trees and maguey plants, as well
as cattle raising, are the main activities.
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A
word about Guatemala's National Cemetery...
(Excerpt from the novel, Body of Truth by David Lindsey)
"Finally the kid drove away leaving Haydon standing on; the dusty curb of 5a
avenida, facing the front of the Cementerio General. Across on the other side, the
high walls of the cemetery were already providing a lengthening shade from the westward
falling sun. The cemetery entrance was an architectural bastardization of Greek and
Roman styles, having a tall Roman arch flanked by neoclassical pilasters and crowned
with a staid Greek pediment. This romantic amalgam was bordered on either side for
fifteen or twenty meters by the tall windows of the administrative offices. Beneath
the windows was a wainscoting of dark paint. Along this wall groups of Indian women
in their brilliant native costumbres sat at the base of the wall, their darkened
and weathered faces peering out from behind mounds of fresh flowers, cerise azaleas,
crimson and fleecy carnations, bloody and coral roses, snowy lilies and creamy gardenias,
saffron marigolds and gold lantana, pink-bordered frangipani with peach centers,
a rainbow of hibiscus, and the ivory and theatrical floripondio. A wealth of color
offered by girls and women on the brink of starvation, flowers for the memory of
the only people on earth who were more disadvantaged than themselves, the dead.
Haydon crossed the wide, dusty street and entered the deep shadows of the long portico
that soon opened into the cemetery grounds. The main avenue stretched out ahead of
him, flanked by massive cypresses and cedars, their trunks painted white to form
a bright colonnade beneath a dark canopy of green, and at the far end of the avenue,
in front of a hazy sky, the cupola of a rich man's crypt. To either side other lanes
branched off the main one, all of them lined with trees, mostly palms that reached
nearly to the clouds before they burst into sprays of green fronds.
The main, more carefully tended, avenues and streets of the cemetery, the ones
nearest the graceful arched entry, were dedicated in death,
as in life, to the everlasting dwellings of rich men's bodies. Here the self-centered
and arrogant wealthy ignored priestly wisdom and made every effort to bridge the
gulf that separated what they had been in life from what they had become in eternity.
Block after block of lavish mausoleums and tombs and crypts and vaults lined the
shady lanes and avenues. Here was a mammoth mausoleum of stone that seemed to
be an architectural blending of an Egyptian and Mayan pyramid, its doors of massive
sheets of copper engraved with the images of an Egyptian king and queen surrounded
by hieroglyphs and overspread with the embracing wings of a vulture. There was
a miniature Tudor house of stone and wood, a miniature mosque with minarets, a
miniature cathedral, a miniature Greek temple, many as large as actual houses.
There were lesser crypts, too, of cottage size, and a vast array of motifs and
styles–Swiss chalets, A-frames and dachas, modern and geometrically daring designs
of glass and tile, bungalows, clumsy knockoffs of architectural themes reminiscent
of every conceivable trendy modern design, kitsch run amok. All of these, odd
little houses of the dead, many of them deteriorating as any house would if neglected.
It was an altogether peculiar demonstration of how truly awkward the living felt
in their inevitable confrontation with death.
And then there were the poor, the legions and legions of dead who claimed only the
small space their bodies displaced. For these there were rows upon rows of low, cement
rectangular crypts, complexes ten meters high, a city block long, and of a depth
that would allow two bodies to be laid end to end, one pushed in from one side of
the crypt and another from the opposite side of the building. These crypts were nothing
more than coffin-sized cubicles one upon the other, ten high. As each body was shoved
into its space, a cement plate was fitted into the opening and plastered over. Sometimes
the family paid extra to have the dead's name scratched into the cement plate, sometimes
they couldn't afford it and painted it themselves. Sometimes they didn't.
In any case, after several rainy seasons alternating with scorching veranos, the
names were gone. But on the front of each plate, almost without exception, a little
device of some sort was provided as a receptacle for flowers, and the long, flat
facade of these crypts was forever decorated with flowers, fresh and wilting arid
dead, and in all hues, bright and fading and dead. The plaster cracked and flaked
off the fronts of the crypts, and some who treasured the maintenance of such things
would repair them, while others who were too poor or too tired to maintain what
housed only dusty bones and memories, did not. The broad sidewalks in front of
the crypts were cracked and intruded with sacrilegious grasses, and the dead who
were poor on earth rested in their plain, narrow eternities, quiet and unobjecting,
while the dead who were rich on earth did the same, in a more lavish silence."
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A
word about Guatemala's History...
A "Reader's Digest" Version
Swashbuckling Pedro Alvarado, the Spanish conqueror of Guatemala, established the
first capital on the site of the old Indian city of Iximché in 1524. Since then,
the capital has moved several times but maintains the original charter. On September
15, 1821, Guatemala declared her independence from Spain, and after a brief period
of annexation to the Mexican empire, joined a short-lived federation called United
Provinces of Central America. The Guatemalan republic came into being under the reformer
Justo Rufino Barrios in 1874. Most of what is modern Guatemala politically and socially
was deeply affected by this man.
Pre-Columbian Guatemala
All over Guatemala are vistages of cultures that flourished before the arrival of
the Spanish. In the pacific lowlands are great sculptures of animals and massive
stone heads. In the highlands stand the ruins of ceremonial and defensive cities.
Spread across the jungles of the Petén are Mayan centers so numerous that they
are still being discovered.
The older the remains, the more mysterious they are. The highland cities are the
least unknown, for in some cases they were still occupied when the Spanish began
their conquest of Guatemala. The Maya had a system of hieroglyphic writing, and
though most of the characters are still undeciphered, the date glyphs, as well as
intensive excavations of Mayan ruins, give some idea of their history and way of
life. Kaminaljuyú, near Guatemala City, is a puzzle because of the many similarities
in its architectural and ceramic styles with those of Teotihuacán, an important
center far to the north in central Mexico. Strangest of all are the sculptures around
Santa Lucía Cotz. in the Pacific lowlands, found apart from anything that would
give a clue as to where the people who made them came from, or what became of them.
Only the hazy outline of the development of these civilizations can be traced. Some
time around 2500 B.C., descendants of the peoples who had migrated across the Bering
Strait from Asia began to settle in small communities along the shores of rivers
and lakes in Mesoamerica. Gradually, they turned from hunting game and collecting
wild plants to a more stable way of life based on the cultivation of food crops.
The greatest achievement of these early farmers was the domestication of corn from
a wild plant to a new species that produced a surplus of food. For only when there
were repeated abundant harvests could time and labor be set aside to carve sculptures
and build monuments, and to create writing and numerical systems.
The first settlements progressed slowly over a period of more than 2000 years. Pottery,
first strictly utilitarian, became more complex. Stone was worked into corn-grinding
implements, and later shaped into figures of humans and animals. Simple structures
of mud and thatch found religious use, and were set apart on low platforms from ordinary
houses. Clay was worked into simple figurines, and later baked to form longer-lasting
characteristic styles, and new stylistic influences appeared as trade among the different
areas developed.
Of the cultures that arose in what is now Guatemala, it was the Maya who lasted the
longest and left the most traces. The Maya developed at more or less the same time
as the Toltec, Olmec and Mixtec in other parts of Mesoamerica. The Maya shared many
beliefs and practices with these other peoples, and borrowed some of their achievements.
Archaeologists, judging by finds of pottery and other remnants of settled life,
placed the formative period of Mayan civilization between the years 1000 and 3000
B.C., when towns inhabited by people with a common way of life began to appear across
an area stretching from southern Mexico into Honduras.
By the early part of the Christian era, many of the Mayan settlements were growing
into ceremonial centers. The Early Classic period of Mayan civilization, extending
from about 300 to 600 A.D., saw the development of Tikal as one of the major cities
in the Americas. The temple pyramids of Tikal, which reached their greatest heights
in the eighth century, were the tallest structures in the hemisphere until the development
of office buildings in the nineteenth century. The Maya built cities everywhere,
in every kind of terrain. If the water supply proved undependable, reservoirs sere
built. If a hill was in the way, it was leveled.
Most Mayan cities consisted of a main plaza and several lesser plazas, each with
temples set atop mounds, or pyramids, and a variety of lesser structures that might
include palaces with interconnecting rooms, ball courts, and sweat baths. Set in
the paved plazas were stelae and altars. Mayan nobles were
buried with their jewelry and other worldly possessions at the base of most of the
temple mounds. Inside the temples, walls were sometimes decorated with paintings,
and on the stelae set in the plazas, glyphs recorded dates as well as other information
that has yet to be deciphered.
Construction techniques were of the most rudimentary kind. The Maya did not use
the wheel in any practical way, so the tons of rubble fill for the pyramids and platforms
had to be carried on the back of humans. Structures sere faced with limestone blocks
joined by mortar. Limestone, available everywhere in the jungles, was easily cut
even with the primitive stone tools used by the Maya. When burned, it could be used
to make a durable mortar.
What went on in these ceremonial centers is largely a matter of speculation. Given
the limited interior space in the buildings, one of the few safe conclusions is that
only a small number of people, probably the priests and nobles, resided in them,
and that the great mass of commoners, the farmers and the laborers, lived outside
the ceremonial precincts. This was the pattern that the Spanish found in the Indian
capitals of highland Guatemala. The remains of many small platforms that might have
been house foundations give some evidence that the same living pattern might have
been followed by the Maya at Tikal. Events in the cities certainly included ceremonial
ball games of some sort, which were played all over Mesoamerica, and sacrificial
decapitations, evidenced by finds of skulls.
The Mayan cities did not sit insulated in the jungle. The glyph symbol for the city
of Tikal has been found inscribed at Copán, far to the south in what is now
Honduras, indicating some contact between the two centers. Raised limestone causeways
cut through the jungle, connecting Mayan cities, and cargoes were carried along them
on the backs of men, for there is no evidence in the murals of Mayan temples or the
scenes painted on pottery that the Maya used pack animals. Trade also followed the
rivers of the Petén and the Gulf and Caribbean coasts. Jade had to be imported
from the Guatemalan highlands, and finds of gold figures at Copán indicate that
Mayan traders may have ranged as far as Panamá. Cacao beans are thought to
have been the currency of the Mayan world.
One of the few achievements of the Maya that is understood fairly well by modern
archaeologists is their mathematical and calendar system. The Maya employed the
concept of zero long before it came into use in the Old World. Their numbering system
was based on twenty digits running from zero to nineteen, each represented by a combination
of dots and lines.
It often seems that the Maya were obsessed with time, but that impression may result
from a hazy understanding of most other aspects of their way of life. As a farming
people, they needed a reliable way to measure time, though they refined their system
to an accuracy unsurpassed in the ancient world. The Yucatán Maya, for example,
figured that the planet Venus passes between the earth and the sun every 584 days.
Modern astronomers, using precise instruments, put the figure at 583.92 days.
The Maya had more than one calendar. The basic unit for all of these was the day,
which the Yucatán Maya at the time of the Spanish conquest called the kin.
Twenty number kin made up a uinal, or month, and eighteen uinals, each with its own
name, composed a tun, or 360 days. The counting of days continued with the katún,
equivalent to twenty tuns, and the baktún, a period of twenty katúns.
The basic Mayan year, sometimes called the vague year, was made up of 360 days, along
with an extra period of 5 days. A shorter, sacred year, sometimes called the tzolkin,
consisted of 260 days, each tagged with one of the 260 possible combinations of twenty
day names and thirteen day numbers. any one day would have a name composed of its
position in each of the two years (for example, 4 Ahau 2 Cumku), and any such compound
name would be repeated only once every 52 solar years.
The Mayan calendar system, and the 52-year cycle, or calendar round, were also used
by the other peoples of Mesoamerica, and the tzolkin year is still used for religious
purposes by some of the highland peoples of Guatemala today. But the Maya had a
third calendar, the long count, which kept track of the number of days elapsed since
a date equivalent to 3113 B.C. This date was used in much the same way that we now
use the birth of Christ as a starting point for reckoning time. Long-count dates
inscribed on stelae give the most reliable information about the development of Mayan
cities.
The Maya inscribed other things besides dates, for they had the most advanced system
of writing in the Americas. As with the Chinese, each symbol represented not a sound,
but a word or idea, and was taken from something in nature. Only about 40 percent
of the glyphs, mostly those dealing with the calendar and numbers, have been interpreted
by modern scholars.
After hundreds of years of development, the great Mayan cities of the Petén
went trough a sudden period of sharp decline, starting in the ninth century A.D.
Nobody knows why, but speculation brings up war, revolt, drought, epidemic and exhaustion
of the land as some of the possible causes.
But Mayan building and cultural development continued elsewhere until the arrival
of the Spanish, and even afterward in the areas outside Spanish control. By the
year 1000, the center of Mayan civilization was the Yucatán. There, the Maya
came under the influence of the Toltecs of central Mexico, and many of the Toltec
gods and culture heroes came into the Mayan pantheon. Toltec motifs found their
way into the ceremonial centers, and the greater use of columns and wooden beams
gave a new grace and spaciousness to buildings. More is known about the Yucatán
Maya than about the Classic Maya of the
Petén, for a few Spaniards took note of the customs, and some of their oral
history was dictated after they were conquered.
Civil war eventually broke out in the Yucatán, and by the time the Spanish arrive,
the ceremonial cities had been abandoned. it took the Spanish twenty years to assert
control of the Yucatán, after suffering an initial series of disastrous defeats.
And it wasn't until 1697 that the last outpost of the Maya, the city of Tayasal
on Lake Petén Itzá in northern Guatemala, fell to the Spanish.
After the Maya migrated northward, other Indian nations flourished in the highlands.
They were a blend of the races and cultural currents that had preceded them in the
area. The languages they spoke were in most cases related to Mayan, and it's common
to refer to them and their present-day descendants as Maya, though there's as much
logic in using such a label as in calling a Frenchman a Roman because he speaks a
romance language.
The highland nations of Guatemala were almost continuously at war with one another.
Unlike the Maya and the people who had inhabited Kanimaljuyú, they build their
cities in inaccessible locations surrounded by ravines. From these fortified capitals,
they ruled over their own territories and those of subject nations. In their art
and architecture, they copied many of the stylistic elements of the Indian nations
of Mexico, but their cities were relatively small and bare of decoration.
The principal nation of pre-Conquest Guatemala was the Quiché, sometimes called
the Maya-Quiché. The name of this people means "many trees," taken
perhaps from the forested highlands which they inhabited. They occupied the area
running from the present town of Chichicastenango westward past Quezaltenango. Their
capital was Cumarcaj, which the Spanish and their Mexican Indian allies called Utatlán.
The Quichés have left one of the few Indian documents to describe their history
before the Conquest. The Popol Vuh, the sacred book of the Quiché nation, was
set down in the Quiché language using the Roman alphabet a few years after the
Conquest. In a form and tone that bring to mind the Christian Bible, it tells of
the creation of the world, and of the wanderings of the ancestors of the Quichés
from a place called Tulán. There is good evidence to indicate that this Tulán
was the Toltec Tula, which was shaken by internal struggles just a few years before
the Quiché appeared in highland Guatemala around the year 1000. The migrans
may have integrated with the inhabitants of the area and adapted their language.
By the time Cumarcaj was founded, about 12000 A.D., the Quichés were a people
separate from the others in the highlands, making war on them as they extended their
dominions. They subjected other tribes to their servitude, and when the Spanish
arrived, the Quichés were the most powerful of the native nations.
Closely related to the Quichés were the Tzutuhils and Cakchiquels. The Tzutuhils,
"flower of nations," lived along the southern shores of Lake Atitlan, and
had their capital at Chuitinamit, a hill at the base of the volcano San Pedro. They
controlled much of the nearby fertile coastal lowlands. The Cakchiquels originally
settled around Chaviar, where Chichicastenango now stands. But when war broke out
with the Quichés, they set up a new capital at Iximché, near the present-day
town of Tecpán, Guatemala. The Cakchiquels also possessed an account of their
history, the Annals of the Cakchiquels. In it, mention is made of Tulán, which
may be the same Tulán from which the Quichés came.
Among the other pre-Conquest nations of the highlands were the Man, with their capital
at Zaculey in northwest Guatemala; the Pokomchí, of what is now Verapaz, the
Poloman, who had their capital at the site known today as Mixco Viejo, and a number
of lesser tribes. As with the Quiché, Cakchiquel and Tzutuhil nations, their
societies were highly stratifies. A ruling class of nobles and priests dressed in
royal finery ruled from a ceremonial center, while farmers and laborers grew the
food and toiled at construction. At different times in the Pre-Conquest period,
one nation would gain the upper hand in warfare, and subjugate another.
This situation was perfect for the Spaniards. With a minimum of diplomacy, they
could use one Indian nation as an ally in a war of conquest against the others, and
then in turn upon it and destroy its ruling class.
The Conquest
Pedro de Alvarado arrived in the lands of the Quichés toward the end of 1523
at the head of an army of Spanish soldiers and horsemen and Tlaxcalan Indian allies
numbering less than a thousand men. Alvarado was supposed to have brought the peoples
of the area under the rule of the Spanish throne peacefully, if that were possible,
But of course it was not, and Alvarado, 34 years old and a veteran of the bloody
battles at Tenochtitlán, the Aztec capital, was hardly the man to show diplomacy
and tact in dealing with the Indian nations.
The coming of the white men had been prophesied by native priests, as it had been
in the Aztec empire. But nothing in the previous experience of the Indians could
have prepared them for what was to come. They could not have foreseen that the Spanish
would try to subjugate all of them, to use them as slaves and serfs for the benefit
of sovereigns across the ocean and for their own enrichment, herd them into new villages,
destroy their ruling classes, and impose an alien pantheon of God and saints upon
them. It was beyond the farthest stretch of the native imagination that such a holocaust
could comp to pass. And yet it did.
At almost every battle the Spanish were far outnumbered. But they had experience
in fighting in hostile and unknown territory, having subjugated vast areas of Mexico
and the Caribbean. They had the dedication of warriors of the cross and soldiers
of fortune far from home. The Indians fought not as carriers of a common cultural
heritage, but as separate nations. They saw the Spaniards as enemies to be driven
off or as potential allies to be used in gaining revenge on other tribes with whom
they had long been at war. Ignorance of crossbows, firearms and horses, and of the
destruction that awaited them if they lost, brought the defeat of the Indian nations.
The outnumbered and sickly Spanish were everywhere invincible.
The invasion route of Alvarado led through the jungle lowlands of southern Mexico,
up the mountain pass in the shadow of the volcano Santa María, and toward the
Quiché realm. After routing some opposition in skirmishes along the way, the
Spanish met the main Quiché army near were the city of Quezaltenango now stands,
and thoroughly defeated it. During the battle, Tecún Umán, king of the
Quiché, was killed by Alvarado himself.
The Quiché lords invited the Spaniards to their capital at Cumarcaj, a fortified
city accessible only by a narrow causeway and a steep stairway. Their plan was to
cut the causeway and burn the city with the Spaniards in it. Alvarado suspected
the trap, however, had the rulers of Cumarcaj burned, and destroyed the town. After
subduing the remainder of the Quiché armies, he installed two sons of the vanquished
chieftains as his puppet rulers.
During the battles against the Quichés, Alvarado had enlisted the aid of the
Cakchiquels. when the campaign was over, Alvarado marches his army to Iximché,
the Cakchiquel capital, where Spanish headquarters were established. Emissaries
were sent to the Tzutuhils requesting their allegiance to the king and cross, but
the messengers were killed. soon afterward, Alvarado and the Cakchiquels defeated
the Tzutuhils in battle on the shores of Lake Atitlán, near where Panajachel
now stands.
Alvarado next turned to the coastal lowlands. He made an alliance with the Pipil
nation, and carried Spanish control well into what is now El Salvador. By the middle
of 1524 he was back in Iximché. Near it was founded Santiago de los Caballeros
de Guatemala -- now Tecpán -- as the first Spanish capital.
The subjugation of the new territories was not yet complete. The Cakchiquels, chafing
under Spanish demands for gold, abandoned Iximché and began a guerrilla war
against their former allies. For six years the skirmishes continued, but the Cakchiquels
found aid nowhere. There old enemies, the Quichees and the Tzutuhils, were now on
the side of the Spanish, and resistance finally collapsed. The Annals of the Cakchiquels
tell of how their last king died washing gold for the Spanish.
Meanwhile, Alvarado and his lieutenants, with reinforcements from Mexico, went about
subduing the remaining Indian nations, the Mam at Zaculey, the Pokoman at what is
now called Mixco Viejo, and the other smaller groups scattered around the country.
The Kekchí, the fiercest of the Indian nations, were never defeated by Alvarado's
armies, but were finally converted to Christianity and the crown by the Dominican
friar Bartolomé de las Casas.
Alvarado was apparently a man meant for war and not for governing. He left the administration
of Guatemala in the hands of his brother a number of times, first in 1527, the year
in which the capital was moved to what is now Ciudad Vieja after the Cakchiquel revolt.
In Spain, he defended himself against charges of treason, married into a powerful
family, and sailed again for the New World, where his wife promptly died. He sailed
to Perú to try to get his hands on some gold, but was bribed by Francisco Pizarro,
who had arrived first, into returning to Guatemala. he went to Spain again and married
Beatriz de la Cueva, the sister of his first wife, returned to Guatemala, and was
finally crushed by a horse during a battle in Mexico in 1541.
Back in Santiago de los Caballeros, Alvarado's grieving widow staged a coup d'etat
and had herself appointed captain-general of Guatemala. A series of storms and earthquakes
soon school the city, and finally the volcano Agua let loose the waters that had
been dammed up in its crater. The second Santiago de los Caballeros de Guatemala
was destroyed, and with it the two-day reign of Beatriz de Alvarado. The survivors
migrated to the nearby valley of Panchoy, and there founded the third city of Santiago
de los Caballeros, from where colonial Guatemala would be ruled.
Colonial Guatemala
The Kingdom of Guatemala of colonial times, ruled over by a captain-general, stretched
from Chiapas to the border of Panama. In it, the Spaniards sought to erect a miniature
Spain. The Spaniards who came to the New World did not see themselves as frontier
dwellers doing without the comforts and familiarities of life at home. Towns were
laid out according to the traditional Spanish pattern, with public buildings, a church
and residential quarters set around a plaza and market. Governors, priests, judges,
artists and craftsmen were imported to build and administer the Spanish order.
The capital of the kingdom was the third city of Santiago de los Caballeros de Guatemala,
today's Antigua. it ranked with Mexico City and Lima as one of the great metropolises
of the hemisphere. On one side of its main square stood the Palace of the Captains-General,
a grand building with a two-story colonnade, representing the authority of the king.
Competing with it, both architecturally and symbolically, was the Cathedral, a massive
structure with three naves, numerous chapels and ample gold in its decoration. There
were dozens of churches in Santiago, as well as monasteries and cloisters that provided
a princely life for the clergy.
At the bottom of the social ladder of the kingdom were, of course, the Indians.
At first, they were parceled out as slaves -- along with the land they were to work
-- to the early conquistadors and to the Church orders. A few voices arose to complain
about the treatment of the Indians, most notably that of Friar Bartolomé de
las Casas, who brought to the Spanish king tales of massacres and indignities inflicted
by the conquistadors upon the native inhabitants. In the New Laws of 1542, Charles
V forbade the further enslavement of Indians. In practice, however, forced labor
continued in various forms, through debt servitude, special taxes applied to Indians
only, and laws requiring Indians to work without pay for certain periods of the year.
Above the Indians were the blacks, both free and slave, and the mixed bloods, the
combinations of negro and white and Indian. And far above them were the artisans,
the bootmakers and artists and silversmiths, who provided the small manufactures
and skills needed to create a semblance of European life.
At the very top were the ruling classes, the lords of the Church, the Spanish-born
high officials of government, and the Creoles, native-born children of Spaniards.
The Church grew to be the real power in Guatemala. With its vast land holdings,
it was involved in agriculture, mining and trade, and was
exempt from taxes to the crown. It built convents and monasteries all over the kingdom,
and its officials lived lives of luxury. Needing designers and decoration for it
new buildings, the Church was the principal patron of the arts. Sculpture and painting
and architecture flourished in the land as they would never flourish again.
The Church patronized hospitals and schools, including the University of San Carlos.
But in their quest for power, the religious brotherhoods came into conflict with
each other, and sometimes blood was shed. They were subject to criticism for ignoring
the conversion of the Indians.
Guatemala exported tobacco, indigo and cochineal for dyes, cacao, cotton and Indian
textiles. it developed a substantial cattle industry, and began to grow wheat and
other plants imported from Europe. But the Spanish trading system was a burden.
In the early years of the colony, good could be sent only to Spain, and ships left
infrequently. To protect its domestic industries, Spain prohibited the manufacture
of wine in the colonies, and outlawed the planting of mulberry trees for silkworm
cultivation. Pirates preyed on Spanish shipping in the Caribbean, and taxes were
heavy. In any case, Guatemala did not have
the gold in quantity that the Spanish were interested in, and administration was
neglected. Few road were built, and the countryside stagnated. Holders of land
grants did not pay their taxes, and public offices were sold to the highest bidder.
The Capital lived an uneasy existence from its founding in 1541. Floods, volcanic
eruptions, famine, epidemics and earthquakes ravished Santiago from time to time.
But the dead were buried, the rubble cleared, and buildings built and rebuilt as
what wealth there was to be had in Guatemala became concentrated in the city.
In 1773, a series of earthquakes destroyed Santiago, In the wreckage of the capital,
the conflict between church and civil authority came to a head. The captain-general
favored the relocation of the capital to a site that would hopefully be less vulnerable
to earthquakes. The archbishop insisted that the capital be rebuilt on its old site.
The captain-general removed the civil government to the valley of La Ermita, but
the church nobles and religious orders remained in Santiago and started reconstruction,
staying there even after the king ordered the transfer of the capital. New Guatemala
of the Assumption -- Guatemala City -- was officially founded in 1776, but it wasn't
until 1780 that the archbishop gave up his struggle, under direct orders from the
Pope. The Church was weakened in the conflict, but it remained a major force well
into the period after independence.
Independent Guatemala
The native-born Creoles of Guatemala had for many years constituted a disaffected
class. All important colonial officials were sent directly from Spain, and those
born of Spanish blood in Guatemala were limited to buying their way into minor positions
of influence. Along with the Creoles, the merchant class was dissatisfied with limitations
on trade imposed by the mother country. Among these two groups. some sentiment for
independence developed. The Church, of course, was satisfied with the power and
wealth that it held under the status quo. and the Indian majority, if any of its
number were aware of the political turns of the non-Indian world, could not have
thought that independence would make a shred of difference in its condition.
Independence came, after a fashion, on September 15, 1821, when twelve prominent
men of Guatemala City signed an Act of Independence of Central America. Soon afterward,
Emperor Iturbude sent troops to force Guatemala to join his newly independent Mexican
Empire. In 1823, Central American independence was declared again, this time from
Mexico as well as from everyone else. A congress decided on a confederation for
the region, with some degree of autonomy for the individual states. The first federal
president, Manuel José Arce, was overthrown, and the second, Francisco Morazán
of Honduras, held out until 1838, when he was deposed after having moved his government
from Guatemala City to San Salvador.
Meanwhile, in every state of the federation the Liberals, the original proponents
if independence, were struggling, usually on the battlefield, with the Conservatives,
the representatives of the church and the wealthy classes. The early Liberal leader
of Guatemala, Mariano Gálvez, oversaw the abolition of the religious orders,
the reform of the legal system, and the institution of civil marriage. An epidemic
of cholera provoked general dissatisfaction, however, and a ragged army of rebels
installed Rafael Carrera as strongman and finally as president.
Carrera, an ignorant and unpolished fellow, managed to govern the country for the
Conservatives from the late 1830's until 1865, with a short interregnum. He leg
his troops time and time again against the Liberals in the other states of Central
America, and helped to defeat the American adventurer William Walker, who had managed
for a time to take over Nicaragua. he returned many of the Church's privileges,
and declared Guatemala's independence from the Central American confederation in
1847, long after the union had ceased to have any real meaning. He also put down
the secession of Quezaltenango. It was during Carrera's government that Guatemala
agreed to cede control of its territory of Belize to Britain, whose merchants had
been logging the area for years. Britain never build the road between Guatemala
city and Belize called for in the 1859 treaty, and Guatemala has in recent years
demanded the return of the territory.
During the rule of Carrera, and of his successor, Vicente Cerna, Guatemala remained
a backward country. Transportation was primitive, where it existed at all, and except
for the other nations of Central America, which had to take Guatemala into account
as the most populous and powerful state of the area, nobody outside its borders had
much interest in Guatemala. What little trade there was, mainly the export of cochineal
and indigo, declined after 1857, when synthetic dyes were developed.
Things changed drastically starting in 1871, when Miguel García Granados led
his Liberal forces to victory over the government of Cerna. García Granados
held the presidency for only a few months. His successor, Justo Rufino Barrios,
began the systematic modernization of Guatemala. Under Barrios, a national bank
was established, roads were built, church property was confiscated and freedom of
worship was declared. A national system of schools was set up, and the beginnings
were made on a railway system.
It was under the Liberals that large-scale coffee cultivation was encouraged. The
traditional communal system of land tenure was abolished, and lands to which Indians
could no prove title were often turned over to coffee planters. To provide workers,
the labor laws were amended to allow the owners of fincas, large plantations, to
advance money to Indians, with the loans to be paid off in labor.
Barrios ruled as a dictator. In 1885, he proclaimed the union of the Central American
nations once again, but the neighboring governments didn't want to hear of it. Attempting
to impose his regime on Central America by force, he sallied forth with his army,
and was killed in the first battle in El Salvador. That was the end of all attempts
at Central American political union.
Barrios was succeeded by a number of presidents who allowed the Liberal development
policies. A concession was granted to the International Railways of Central America
for the completion of the railroad system that Barrios had started. And large tracts
of land in the nearly unpopulated Carribean lowlands were turned over to the United
Fruit Company for the planting of bananas.
In 1898, the government passed into the hands of the dictator Manuel Estrada Cabrera.
In 1902, Quezaltenango and the surrounding area in western Guatemala were rocked
by an earthquake and the eruption of the Santa María volcano. Later, the Christmas
earthquake of 1917 destroyed Guatemala City almost completely. The administration
of Estrada was likewise a calamity. The treasury was looted and public officials
went unpaid.
Estrada was overthrown in 1920, after the opposition had him declared insane. A
string of six presidents ruled Guatemala over the next eleven years, each trying
to clean up the mess that Estrada had left behind. Stability returned to the country
with the election of Jorge Ubico to the presidency in 1931.
The standard line on Ubico is that he brought order to the country, but ignored many
of its basic problems. Ubico, who loved to be photographed in Napoleonic poses and
to ride around on motorcycles, imposed new taxes to pay off debts and cover the costs
of pu
The standard line on Ubico is that he brought order to the country, but ignored many
of its basic problems. Ubico, who loved to be photographed in Napoleonic poses and
to ride around on motorcycles, imposed new taxes to pay off debts and cover the costs
of public works. Programs to improve sanitary and health conditions were instituted,
and the debts of the Indians were canceled. As his contribution to the Allies in
World War II, Ubico expelled German citizens and confiscated their coffee fincas.
he renegotiated the government's contract with United Fruit, granting it exemption
from import duties and real estate taxes. Strict honest was required of government
employees, and all political opposition was repressed.
Ubico resigned and fled to Mexico during a student strike in 1944. Three of his
trusted army officers took over the government for a few months until they were overthrown
by a revolution later in the year. The elections held in 1945 were won by Juan José
Arévalo, who has spent many years in exile during the Ubico regime.
Under Arévalo, local government was returned to elected mayors and councils,
the press was freed of restrictions, and a social security system was created. Arévalo's
successor, Jacobo Arbenz Guzmán, started a land reform program that led to some
disorder. He was overthrown in 1954 in a revolution led by Col. Carlos Castillo
Armas, who had been in exile in Honduras.
After an unsettled period, constitutional government returned to Guatemala with the
election to the presidency of Julio César Méndez Montenegro in 1966. During
the term of Méndez Montenegro, the army conducted a campaign against insurgents
in the northeast of the country. One of the leaders of that campaign, Carlos Manuel
Arana Osorio, was elected to the presidency in 1970. He was succeeded by Gen. Kjell
Eugenio Laugerud García, who won the elections of 1974.
Guatemala Today
Guatemala is still basically an agricultural country. Coffee is the major export,
as it has been for years, but the economic base has diversified considerably. Tourism
now is in second place as an earner of foreign exchange, followed by cotton, sugar,
meat and bananas. The nickel-mining project near Lake Izabal will make Guatemala
one of the more important exporters of that mineral, and newly developed petroleum
reserves in Alta Verapaz promise to make Guatemala self-sufficient in oil.
Industrial expansion has followed the creation of the Central American Common Market
in the 1960's. The common market makes it possible for companies in countries throughout
the region to produce on a more efficient scale for a larger market. Processed food,
beverages, shoes, clothing and textiles are the major manufactures. Tires, cosmetics,
paints, building materials, chemical products, drugs and a host of other items that
were formerly imported are now made in Guatemala. Investment in industry and tourism
has been attracted by laws and treaties protecting foreign capital and granting tax
incentives.
Development of the interior of the country is being assisted by loans and grants
from international agencies. A large hydroelectric project is now under development
on the Chixoy River. Health centers, schools, water-supply systems and new markets
are being built, and the road system has expanded.
Guatemala's current constitution, which went into effect in 1965, divides the government
into executive, legislative and judicial branches. The president and vice-president
are elected every four years. The president appoints a Council of Ministers, or cabinet,
and is commander-in-chief of the armed forces, whose officers often serve in positions
in the executive branch. The constitution outlaws the Communist party and provides
for freedom of religion. Suffrage is universal for citizens over 18 years of age.
Administratively, Guatemala is divided into 23 departments, including British-controlled
Belize. The governors of the other 22 departments are appointed by the national
government. The departments are divided into a total of 325 municipios, or townships.
The mayors and councils are locally elected, and in smaller townships, the mayor
sits as judge of the lower court.
Back to Top
A word about
the Land...
A "Reader's Digest" Version
Guatemala, the land of eternal spring, an area roughly the size of Louisiana, is
the northernmost of the Central American republics. Recent estimates push the number
of inhabitants to over five and a half million. More than half that total trace their
origins to the rich pre-Columbian Mayan heritage. Even today, though Spanish is the
official language, some 20 Indian dialects are used.
The Land of the "Eternal Springtime"
The country itself divides into two basic areas: the tropical lowlands on the Atlantic
and Pacific coasts and in the department of Petén in the northwest, plus the
temperate highlands that stretch northwest to southeast. The extremely fertile Pacific
region grows much of the exceptional cotton, sugar cane, bananas, pineapples and
other tropical fruit. Coffee, some of the world's best, is an important commercial
crop in the highlands. Corn, rice, and beans, as well as wheat, are basic to the
economy. Mineral resources, including petroleum, are being developed. Industry is
concentrated chiefly in the processing of agricultural products and the manufacture
of textiles.
Guatemala, located at the northern end of the Central American isthmus, borders on
Mexico, the Pacific Ocean, the Caribbean Sea, El Salvador and Honduras, Not including
the disputed territory of Belize, it covers 132,000 square kilometers (42,000 square
miles), an area just larger than that of the state of Ohio. Packed into the country's
relatively small area are towering mountains, topical plains, near-desert river valleys,
temperate plateaus and lowland jungles and swamps.
The backbone of Guatemala is a branch of the Sierra Madre, entering from Mexico and
breaking up into a series of smaller ranges spread through the southern half of the
country. A chain of volcanoes runs parallel to the Pacific and on into El Salvador,
forming the southern rim of the highlands, where most of the population lives. Guatemala
means "the land of many trees," and the name of the country was first applied
to this area of pine, oak and spruce. Over the years, much of the forest cover has
been cleared off and the land planted to corn.
Between the mountains and the Pacific Ocean lies a wide plain broken by rivers rushing
down from the highlands. The climate is hot and humid, but the gently rolling land,
the ease of transportation, and especially the fertile soil make the Pacific lowlands
the richest agricultural area of Guatemala, where most of the sugar cane, cotton
and cattle are raised. Bordering this plain on the north is the narrow Pacific slope,
planted largely with coffee.
To the north and northeast of the highlands, the land drops off more gradually than
in the south. In Alta Verapaz, a coffee-growing area to the northeast of Guatemala
City, the population density is lower than in the western highlands, and much of
the native flora and fauna remain relatively undisturbed. Orchids flourish in the
forests, and the rare quetzal bird, national symbol of Guatemala, may be seen occasionally.
Between Guatemala City, and the Caribbean is the upper valley of the Motagua River,
one of the few arid regions of the country, shielded from rainfall by the Sierra
de Las Minas. The relatively small Caribbean lowland region is, like the Pacific
plain, a hot area with fertile soil. It rains all year along the Caribbean, while
most of the country receives rainfall only from May to October.
The Petén, covering the northern third of Guatemala, is a vast, sparsely settled
region of savannas and swamps, hardwood forest and jungle. Wild boars, jaguars and
monkeys roam this remote area where the Maya once erected great cities. Today, roads
are being pushed through the Petén, and new land is being opened for farming.
Because
of the many climates of the country, almost anything will grow in Guatemala. Plants
and trees are nearly endless in their variety. More than a hundred species of
orchids are found n the forests. All the tropical fruits--mangoes, papayas, pineapples
and many others--grow in the warm country, and apples and peaches appear at the
higher altitudes. Flowers that are rare in other countries grow wild along the
roadsides.
But mostly what is grown in Guatemala is corn--on mountain slopes, in plots hacked
out of the jungle, and in the hot coastal lowlands. Corn is seen everywhere, often
with vines of black beans climbing the stalks. In terms of its monetary value, the
returns on a corn harvest are low. But corn is what most Guatemalans eat--mainly
in the form of tortillas--and what their ancestors ate centuries ago.
In the highlands, wheat is raised, though not enough to meet local needs. It's at
the lower altitudes that crops for export are grown on a large scale. On the slopes
between the highlands and the coastal plains, coffee and citronella are planted.
And farther down are the great plantations of sugar, cotton, bananas and rice, and
the large cattle ranches. To the north, in the Petén, some of the hardwoods
are exploited, and chicle, the base for chewing gun, is bled from the chicozapote
tree.
Small deposits of lead, silver, gold and jadeite in Guatemala's mountains have
been worked since colonial times, but until recently, minerals have been relatively
unimportant. Now, vast reserves of nickel-bearing ore have been found around Lake
Izabal, near the Caribbean, and Guatemala is becoming a major exporter of the
mineral. And enough petroleum has been discovered to assure self-sufficiency in
oil in the near future. Back
to Top
A
word about Races and Cultures...
Most of the 9.5 million Guatemalans are either Indians or Ladinos. After 300 years
under Spanish rule, and another 150 years as an independent nation, Guatemala has
not blended these two groups into a single culture.
The terms "Ladino" and "Indian" as used in Guatemala have as
much to do with the way people live as with their racial heritage. The Indians of
Guatemala naturales or indigenas, as they prefer to be called--are the descendants
of the peoples who lived in the country at the time of the Spanish conquest. Over
the centuries, they have altered their clothing styles, their languages, their patterns
of settlement and their religious practices. But while changing their ways, they
have maintained distinct regional cultures apart from the national life. Most of
Guatemala's Indians live in the western highlands, and in Alta Verapaz and Baja Verapaz
north of Guatemala City.
Ladinos are Guatemalans who are not Indian--there's no more exact way to define them.
Racially, most Ladinos are meztizos, mixtures of Spanish and Indian blood lines.
But a Ladino may also be of pure Spanish blood, or part black or oriental. Some
Ladinos are pureblooded descendants of Indians who have given up the Indian way of
life.
Ladinos see themselves as Guatemalans rather than as members of a smaller community.
They're more mobile than Indians, able to adapt to living in different parts of
the country. They speak Spanish as their first language, whereas lndians usually
speak their native dialects and use Spanish--if they can speak it at all–only when
dealing with outsiders. Ladinos wear European-style clothing, while Indians often
wear the particular fashions of their native village. Ladinos usually practice orthodox
Catholicism, while the religion of Indians is a blend of pre-Conquest traditional
and Catholic ideology, though evangelical Protestantism has been gaining adherents
among both ethnic groups in recent years. Whereas Indians are usually farmers, laborers,
artisans or small-time traders, Ladinos are found in every profession and economic
activity.
The differences between Ladinos and Indians are often unclear. A man may be familiar
with the Indian dialect of his native town, but may live in a large town, speak Spanish
most of the time, and dress in western clothing. Guatemalans would say that such
a man is an indigena latinizada, a "Ladino-ized" Indian. Perhaps the best
way to find out if someone is Indian or Ladino is to ask the person. For most of
the history or Guatemala, Indians have been in the majority. The census of 1921 reported
that Indians made up 64.8 percent of the population. By 1973, the figure was down
to 43.8 percent.
Only a small part of the change is due to different birth rates or health standards.
Much has to do with Guatemala's modernization, and changing pattern of work. New
agricultural ventures have been started in the coastal lowlands, as small-scale industrialization
has provided jobs in the cities, as improved communication and education have brought
Indians more into contact with the national culture, the bonds with the traditional
culture of the village have been weakened. With a change in language from native
dialects to Spanish, a change in clothing and greater acquaintance with the non-lndian
world, many Guatemalans with an Indian heritage have merged into the new Ladino majority.
A few smaller groups complete the mosaic of Guatemala's cultures. Livingston the
Caribbean coast, is the center or the Carib people. Before the Europeans came to
the Americas, the Caribs were a red Indian nation inhabiting parts of northern South
America and the island of St. Vincent. The Caribs on St. Vincent rebelled against
British rule, and after they were defeated, many migrated to the coast of Central
America. There they intermarried with escaped slaves of the British. The mixture
created a people who are predominantly American Indian in their culture, but are
racially mostly of African descent.
Also in the Caribbean lowlands and all along the eastern coast of Central America
live a number of English-speaking blacks. Most of those in Guatemala are descendants
of laborers brought from the West Indies toward the end of the 19th century to build
the railroad and work on the banana plantations. Elsewhere in Central America, the
English speakers are descendants of slaves brought by the British to work their illegal
plantations in the Spanish colonies.
Separate from all the other groups in Guatemala are the Lacandón people of the
Petén and neighboring parts of Mexico. Never conquered by the Spanish, they
speak a dialect that is thought to be closer to Classic Mayan than any of the other
Indian languages of Central America. The Lacandones live in scattered encampments,
hunt and fish and cultivate corn, and keep their distance from outsiders. Their
matted hair and rough cotton clothing give them a fierce appearance. Only a few
Lacandones remain in Guatemala.
The Spanish who conquered Guatemala were not content to subject the inhabitants to
a new master sitting on a throne far across the ocean. As soldiers of the king and
cross, they sought to impose a new order on the Indians, to bring them into the fold
of the Catholic church, to change every aspect of their way of life. The ruling houses
of the Indian nations were destroyed and their written records burned. The populations
were forced from the countryside into villages built along the Spanish pattern, with
an administrative headquarters, a church and a trading area grouped around a plaza.
From these new fortified hamlets, the Indians went out to work their lands, and
the lands taken from them by their new masters. They were instructed in the Catholic
religion by the friars of the Church orders, who had to battle not only the old pagan
ways, but also the more avaricious Spaniards who saw the Indians only as cheap labor
to be used for their own enrichment.
The Spaniards forced a cultural revolution upon their new subjects, creating a society
that was not a miniature Spain, but which was not the old Indian culture either.
in their new villages, the Indians adapted to Spanish morality, and covered their
bodies with clothing modeled after the trousers, jackets, blouses and skirts of Spanish
officers and ladies. These new articles of clothing became standardized within each
village, evolving into the native hand-woven garments that one still sees today.
As new customs mixed with old, each town became more set in its ways. The native
languages broke down into dialects and accents peculiar to each village, and tribal
identification weakened. Indians went out to other towns when they took their goods
to market, but they married only within their own villages. Horizons shrank in the
towns imposed by the Spaniards, a situation much to the advantage of the conquerors.
Revolt was all the less likely when nationalism ended at the village boundary.
The Spanish were less successful in making good Catholics of the Indians. They got
the Indians to worship in the churches that they erected in every town, and the cross
was adopted rather easily--it had long been a native symbol of the four directions.
Franciscans and Dominicans learned Indian languages in order to write manuals of
religious instruction. But they could not create a new image o the world in the
mind of every Indian. Instead, a gradual fusion of traditional and Catholic religion
took place.
Theca Indian world was populated by gods of all kinds: the rain god, the wind god,
gods for the harvest, health, volcanoes, war, thunder and lightning. Their images
were kept in shrines in caves, and carried to ceremonial centers at times of celebration,
when they were invoked in order to obtain a good harvest or plentiful rains. individual
homes were dedicated to specific gods, and the skulls of ancestors were preserved
in stucco and worshipped. Each individual had a nagual, an animal co-spirit whose
good and ill fortune he shared..
The Spanish forbade the use of the names of the traditional gods, but the Indians
obliged by giving the names of saints of their idols. Jesus Christ became not the
center of religion, but one of the more important figures in the mix of old and new
theology. The old processions of idols came into the Church thorough cofradias,
brotherhoods of Indians whose duty it was to care for the image of a saint. On the
day of the feast of the saint, they would decorate the image with flowers and candles,
and carry it through the streets in a procession to the church, accompanied by the
music of flutes and drums, and the burst of skyrockets. in the very personal religious
world o the Indian, all doctrine was meaningless without the image of the saint.
Though outside authority was present in the Indian towns during the colonial period
and after independence, Indians had their own government both officially and in
shadow form. Over the years, a dual religious-civil administration developed, based
on the cofradias and the government positions allotted to Indians.
Laymen would become members of the cofradias, and over the years rise to positions
of authority. During his year in office, the alcalde, head of the brotherhood, would
be required to build a shelter for the group's saint, to play host to the other members
at meals throughout the year, and to spend large amounts of money for the incense,
fireworks and liquor that were part of the cofradia ritual.
The municipalidad indigena, the Indian government, operated in parallel with the
cofradias. A man would alternate years of service in the cofradia and civil administration,
slowly rising in position in each. in his early years of service in the local government,
a man's only duty might be to sit for long hours on the porch of the city hall, his
baton of office in hand, waiting for the mayor to send him on an errand. later,
as a member of the Indian council, he would sit in judgment on whatever matters could
be kept out of the hands of Ladino officials. Finally, as a principal--an elder
who thorough age and wisdom had come to earn the respect of his people--he would
act as a consultant in family matters and community affairs.
When it came time to choose replacements for one of the Indian government positions,
he and other elders would retire to shrines, where they would ask the gods for advice
as to who should succeed. An elder's authority in civil matters would be closely
tied with his religious prestige.
Today, the Indians of Guatemala retain much of the pattern of life that developed
after the Conquest. Hand-woven clothing is still worn in many towns, corn is planted
by had and carefully tended with a hoe, and religious processions accompanied by
drums, flutes and fireworks wind their way thorough narrow streets.
Nevertheless, change is taking place, and at an increasing pace in the last few decades.
The change is by no means uniform---some villages cling to their traditional clothing
and customs despite their contacts with the world outside, while others have rushed
headlong to adopt new ways.
Old religious structures are slowly breaking down. In some towns of Guatemala, the
folk Catholic rituals are still rigidly observed. But these days, fewer and fewer
people are willing to devote the time and money that the traditional religious and
civil structures require. The Catholic church, with more priests available than
ever before, is emphasizing the teaching of the standard forms of worship as an alternative
to the mixed practices of the Indians, and evangelical Protestants have been able
to gain converts in many towns. The new Protestant sects are the exact opposite
of traditional folk Catholicism. Instead of the ritual drunkenness practiced in
the cofradias, they promote the Bible, sobriety and preaching. instead of a religion
based on cofradias in isolated towns, they cut across geographical division s and
encourage contact between co-religionists.
Clothing styles are changing. Most women still wear huipiles--traditional blouses--
but the meanings of designs to indicate age and marital status are often lost to
today's weavers. in some areas, women make huipiles of material purchased in the
market, or use western-style blouses. men in many towns have given up their native
outfits, except sometimes for a sash or sandals or a woolen ponchito--a sort of short
blanket-skirt -- that identify them as Indians.
New patterns of work have done much to alter the Indian way of life. Before the
Conquest, some of the highland nations cultivated crops seasonally in the more fertile
lowlands. But with the introduction of large - scale coffee cultivation about a
hundred years ago, mass migrations began. Highland towns were left nearly deserted
as whole families moved to the lowlands for months at a time to work on large plantations.
Often the labor was debt peonage, as families tried to work off money owed to landowners
by their fathers and grandfathers. Conditions improved over the years with the cancellation
of Indian debts by President Ubico, and the termination of a later system that required
Indians to work a set number of days for wages during each year. But mass migration
continues as the only way for many families to earn hard cash in order to buy those
goods they can't make for themselves. Indians working in the lowlands often must
adapt to alien ways, giving up their traditional costumes and the use of their own
language, if only temporarily.
The government's school-building programs are bringing primary education into many
of the smaller towns, and with it, new cultural values and instruction in the Spanish
language. Those who know Spanish can make their way more easily in the world outside
their villages.
Health centers and clinics bring nurses and doctors-in-training to remote areas.
Indians still often go first to their zahorin, the traditional healer, who with
charms, herbs and prayers will try to cure an illness. but many now rely on newly
available western medicine.
Military service and improved transportation have served to increase contacts with
the ways of outsiders. Foreign missionaries bring not only new religions, but new
aspirations to open the limited world of the Indian. Visitors pay well to acquire
Indian weaving, but paradoxically, with each such transaction, the weaving loses
some of its value as a part of a culture trying to preserve itself, and becomes instead
a medium of exchange.
The Indian villages, once ghettos whose inhabitants tuck to their own values and
traditions, are now opening--or reluctantly giving ground as the outside world forces
its way in.
But despite all the changes that have occurred, in may respects the daily life o
Indians remains as it has been for centuries. Most Indians live in simple adobe
houses with the barest of furnishings. The kitchen may consist of nothing more than
a few rocks of a wood fire set on a dirt floor in the corner of one room, with no
provision for ventilation. Sometimes a temaxcal, the traditional steam bath used
since pre-Columbian times, is found next to the house. In some parts of highlands,
the roof tiles are topped with a cross, or a figure of Tzijolaj, St. James on horseback,
who is thought to be a messenger of the gods.
When going to market, Indian men carry their heavy loads in wooden frames placed
on the back and supported by a mecapal, a sling paced around the forehead. Women
carry smaller burdens in perfectly balanced baskets set on a cloth atop their heads.
With the construction of new roads, at least part of the trip to market is now often
made by bus. But many of the traditional trade routes follow mountain trails from
one town to another.
The fields of corn that an Indian man cultivates may be a few hours away from his
home, high up on mountainsides or the slopes of volcanoes. No matter how great the
distance, however, a man will always rise early, often before dawn, trudge out to
his field, and get back home by nightfall. in more traditional towns, each stage
in the growing of corn, form the selection of seed to the plating to the harvest,
may be accompanied by and appropriate ceremony conducted by a native prayer man,
who sees that exactly the right procedures are followed to assure the most bountiful
crop possible.
Corn and beans and squash are the basic crops of the Indian. Wheat and other grains
are grown in the highlands, and vegetables are raised intensively on terraced hillsides
in irrigated plots called tablones. but these are cash crops. The Indians of Guatemala
eat tortillas and beans, a few native vegetables, a bit of meat on special occasions,
and little else.
Family roles have changed little. The man of the household works in the fields or
at his trade. His wife is in every respect inferior, walking a few paces behind
her man, taking his produce to market, and staying home to cook and weave, occasionally
pitching in with work in the fields. Indian children are carried around on their
mothers' backs, and breast fed whenever hungry. Sometimes a cap is pulled down over
the eyes of a newborn baby to protect it from the evil glance of strangers. Boys
and girls are kept apart, and at an early age they follow their parents to learn
to farm or trade, or to weave and care for the house and their younger brothers and
sisters. For Indian children, there is hardly a separate period of childhood. They
wear clothes identical to those of their parents, and by the age of six or seven
they can be productive members of the family. The strictness of an Indian's upbringing,
the limited number of acceptable paths to follow and the set ways of this town serve
to develop what seems to outsiders to be a passivity or fatalism. but emotion, like
everything else in an Indian's life, has its proper place.
Traditional marriage customs differ from town to town. usually, a young man first
obtains the consent of the woman he desires, sometimes with the aid of a love charm
worked by a prayer man. Parents and town elders consult and fix a price of the bride,
since the young man is taking a valued worker from her family. When all arrangements
are complete, the couple may start to live together without further ceremony. If
the marriage doesn't work out, the bride's parents return the value of the bread
and liquor and whatever else was paid for her. These days, the older customs are
followed only in the smaller and more remote towns. A couple may start to lie together
with a minimum of negotiation and no bridal price. And civil marriages and church
weddings are becoming more common.
Many remote Indian communities have up to now been almost totally unaffected the
forces of modernization. but in general, and at greatly varying rates, Indian
towns are giving up their old ways. By looking at the way people dress, listening
to them speak, and taking note of their religious practices, the visitor to Guatemala
today can get some idea of the way Indian life is changing.
Back to Top
A
word about how to select a Mission Board...
10 items to check:
- Doctrine
- Emphasis
- Finances
- Outreach
- Administration
- Turnover
- Training
- Relationships
- Finances
- Placement
Your choice of a mission board is a crucial decision......
Far more important than the place in which you work, or even the type of work
you do, is the group with whom you work. Geographical allocation and the work
assignment are secondary. Of greater significance is the team alignment. Tensions
and frustrations usually arise from difficult human relationships rather than
from undesirable locations or assignments. Here are ten vital areas to consider
in selecting a mission board.
1. DOCTRINE
A firm theological foundation is mandatory. In considering a mission board,
start by reading its doctrinal statement. Is it clear? Is it precise? Above
all, is it biblical? Can you subscribe to it without reservation? Give special
attention to doctrines that are not elaborated. Broad statements of general
beliefs may leave the door open to untold theological variants and, thereby,
create difficult tensions among members of the team. Make special note of
sensitive areas. For example, study the mission's position on the charismatic
issue or their stand on separatism to determine if you are in full agreement
or at variance with them. Beyond the doctrinal statement, question members
of the mission to determine what they believe. Is it in accord with the mission's
declared position? Is there doctrinal harmony among the members? Would you
feel at home in the mission? If not, you need to look for another team.
2. EMPHASIS
What is the major thrust of the mission? Is priority given to evangelism,
church expansion, theological education, missionary support activities, community
service, or some other ministry? Do you feel that the major objectives of
the mission are those toward which you would like to devote your life? Read
the mission's stated purpose, and question mission representatives about that
purpose. If your life goals are out of phase with the ideals of the mission,
you are headed for a collision. Avoid that collision by joining a mission
that is going the direction you are.
3. FINANCES
Consider carefully the mission's finances. First, identify the financial policy
used by the mission being considered.
Mission boards generally follow three basic financial patterns:
a. Budgeted salaries. Most denominational boards accept the responsibilities
of their missionaries' salaries through an integrated budget system and do
not, therefore, require the candidate to seek his own support.
b. Proportional shares. Some interdenominational or nondenominational missions
pool all their finances, and each missionary shares equally in the provisions
of the Lord. While they make their needs known, they do not solicit funds
for personal support.
c. Promised support. Most independent missions require the candidate to indicate
that sufficient funds have been promised by churches and friends toward an
established monthly allowance before he may depart for missionary service.
Beyond the missionary's living allowance, most missions have some arrangement
for work projects, travel, and other similar expenses.
Second, ask for the most recent financial statement of the mission, and evaluate
the sources from which funds are received, the manner in which those funds
are spent, and the accuracy with which full accountability is recorded. Obviously,
it would be in advisable to join any organization that refuses to provide
a recently audited financial statement.
Finally, investigate the manner in which all funds are handled. Does the Lord
honor the mission sufficiently to entrust it with sufficient funds to keep
the missionaries supplied and the Word unhampered, or must the mission resort
to all kinds of worldly methods to raise money to keep the machinery going?
What are the methods used for securing funds? How are those funds administered?
Is there prompt and accurate receipting? What part of every dollar contributed
is used for administrative expenses? Is there an equitable and prompt distribution
of funds for missionary support? Are the living allowances realistic, or do
they seem either excessive or inadequate? Don't let money matters destroy
an effective ministry; be sure that you are in full accord with the mission's
financial policies.
4. OUTREACH
How extensive is the vision of the mission board being considered? Is its
vision worldwide, or is it limited to one small area? If it has focused on
a limited area, is that by design or by default? Is the mission a going and
growing concern, or is it weary and static? Does the mission have a vigorous
and alert constituency, or must the candidates wait for many years before
they are sent out? What changes and progress have been evidenced in the mission
over the last five to ten years? Are new ideas welcomed and seriously considered,
or are they discouraged or viewed with suspicion? Do you feel that you could
grow and contribute to the mission's progress, or would you feel confined?
Make sure you board a vessel that is advancing. You won't go far on one that
is at anchor or, worse yet, sinking!
5. ADMINISTRATION
How is the mission organized? Are the lines of authority and responsibility
clearly drawn? Does each member of the team know where he fits and what is
expected of him? Does the mission have an active policy-setting board or merely
an advisory board? Is excessive, unchecked control vested in one individual?
Is the home office well-organized and efficient in its administration? Is
it prompt and precise in its answers to inquiries? How does the public relations
department function? Is it keeping the home constituency well-informed and
interested in the work? Are the mission's administrative policies of a nature
that you can wholeheartedly support and uphold them? Cooperation with the
mission administration and willing subordination to its direction are most
important.
The mission's principles and have confidence in its leaders, your relationship
will not be a happy one, and the work will not succeed. Organizational tensions
are like a can cer in the life of a mission. They sap and destroy needed vitality
and joy.
6. PERSONNEL
Try to become acquainted with as many of the members of the mission as you
can. Does it appear that the mission is comprised of a carefully chosen and
well-screened group of men and women? Do you fit into the spirit of the team?
Would you find difficulty working with those you have met? Are you sympathetic
to the policies and with the methods they are following? Disunity among mission
personnel is one of the gravest dangers to effective ministries. Unity among
the mission staff at all levels is essential. Be certain that you would contribute
to that unity if you were to join the team.
7. TURNOVER
Consider the casualty rate. Have there been large numbers leaving the mission?
Are missionaries readily transferring to other societies? Try to determine
the reasons for the departures or transfers. If you are able to do so, contact
some of those who have left the mission. Are they bitter, or do they still
speak favorably of the mission? How deep are the loyalties among the present
missionaries; how close is the tie that binds them together and to the Lord?
Beware of a mission that has as many people slipping out the back door as
are entering the front gate.
8. TRAINING
What provision does the mission organization have for initial orientation,
in a service training, and advanced educational opportunities?
a. Initial orientation. What instruction is given to entering candidates?
Is it adequate? Does it prepare the new members for an effective and fulfilling
role in the mission? Is an ordered and thorough language training provided?
If an individual required further help in his language preparation, is it
permitted or encouraged?
b. In-service training. What orientation and instruction is given at the time
of arrival in the assigned location? Are senior missionaries assigned to assist
in this transition? Does the mission conduct workshops and seminars to better
equip its personnel on the field.
c. Advanced education. Are time and finances made available for continued
training? Does there seem to be evidence of emerging leadership in the mission,
or have the members become stagnant in their personal intellectual advancement
and spiritual growth? A mission is not really growing unless its members are
growing, and it is unlikely that you would want to be a part of a group that
will stunt your own development.
9. RELATIONSHIPS
Is the mission isolated and self-contained, or has it established effective
relationships with both supporting churches and churches of the areas in which
they serve and with other mission organizations?
a. Supporting churches. Are the supporting churches pleased with the contact
and communication they have had with the mission? Is the mission truly serving
as an arm of the church, or is it, as one pastor complained, an "arm
totally detached from the body"?
b. Area churches. What relationship does the mission have with the area churches?
Is there a healthy partnership in the work, or is each one functioning separately?
Are the churches that have been created through the mission's efforts truly
evangelical, evangelistic, and growing? A mission that is producing static
churches has not transmitted the true spirit of the New Testament.
c. Other missions. Is there an awareness of what other church groups and missions
are doing in the area served? Within the limitations of its doctrinal convictions,
does the mission cooperate with other Christians, or is there a spirit of
antagonism and competition? Is the mission denominational, quasi-denominational,
interdenominational, or nondenominational? Is the mission a member of a national
or international fellowship or association of missions? Are you willing to
support unreservedly that affiliation and to contribute to the association's
development and advance? What do other missions who work in the areas say
about the mission being considered? Is there praise or reservation in their
reaction? Just as interpersonal relationships are vital to the health of an
organization, so the interorganizational relationships can aid or destroy
an effective ministry.
10. PLACEMENT
If you were to become a member of the mission, how would your final place
of assignment be determined? Who makes the ultimate decision–the mission administration,
the local church, or the individual missionary? Ideally, all three should
be involved in the decision. Is there provision made for full evaluation of
the missionary's gifts and abilities? Is the missionary given opportunity
to express his desires and aspirations in the placement decision? Is the assignment
periodically evaluated, and, if so, what is the procedure? Do you feel that
the placement policy is adequate and is one to which you could ascribe with
satisfaction? Are you willing to subject yourself to the degree of authority
imposed by the mission?
After you have considered these important factors, you are in a much better
position to decide on a mission that will be God 's choice for you.
Nonetheless, it must still be God's choice. Don't be hasty in your decision.
Be sensitive to the unfailing and ever-faithful Guide. The Lord is more concerned
than you that you be in the right place, at the right time, with the right
mission board. Walk in the Spirit, pray without ceasing, rely on the Lord,
and He will enable you to make the right choice.
Prepared by: Department of World Missions/Dallas Theological Seminary 1979
by Dallas Theological Seminary.
All rights reserved. Reprinted by permission.
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