CANCELLED xxxxxxxPlans for the summer 2011 mission trip are in full swing. Co-leaders Edward Esparza and his daughter Arlene Esparza are working out the details. Trip will be 2 July through 9 July. What ever it is that will be done on this trip rest assured it will be God's work and something everyone can do. No major contruction project is planned at this time. If you are interested please contact either Edward or Arlene. Lets make this a successful trip bringing God's love to our brothers and sisters in need.

Arlene This e-mail address is being protected from spam bots, you need JavaScript enabled to view it Edward This e-mail address is being protected from spam bots, you need JavaScript enabled to view it

Thank You for Your Support for Guatemala

Thank you for your prayers, support, encouragement, and contributions to help make the mission trip to Guatemala possible. It was a wonderful experience—we all returned safe and sound. We worked physically harder on this trip than any other mission work trip I have ever been on—each morning you would put your feet on the floor and wonder which muscles would ache today! But what an excellent reason for muscles to ache—to begin the work of building a new church in a rural community an hour drive into the mountains from Quezaltenango [Xela]. We dug trenches, hauled rocks, unloaded trucks full of cinderblocks, shaped rebar (support) towers, moved rocks, stacked cinderblocks, moved cinderblocks, moved rocks, stacked cinderblocks, moved rocks. . . . Where we have joked about the piles of rocks on the property at Community Fellowship, we now have a new appreciation and respect for the value of those rocks! Our Guatemalan brothers and sisters showed us that these rocks are a tremendous asset for a variety of building projects, and made us realize that we will be using all of the rocks on the property. [We already have two offers from two different youth groups to help with projects for these rocks!]

We spent time in worship, prayer, and fellowship with the congregation of Iglesia Liberación Divino in Aldea Nueva Candelaria in the mountains. We also enjoyed a cross-cultural city experience in the evenings where we slept and ate in the metropolitan city of Quezaltenango [Xela]. My personal greatest joy was two-fold: spending time with the foursome from Community Fellowship and preaching and leading worship with another female pastor [Rev. Caryn Thurman, associate pastor at Holy Trinity]. What an honor, joy, privilege, and responsibility to witness to our Lord and King through proclamation of the Word and serving the Lord’s Supper in a country that does not ordain women. It also was a joy to get to know all the people on the 14-member team and to experience the unconditional love flowing from our host congregation. The experience was grace upon grace…I recommend it to each one of you.

Thank you all for helping to make this trip possible. Special thanks to Rev. Carolyn McGuire for standing by for pastoral care, to Kay and Carl Miller for the airport shuttle and for coordinating the Taste of Cursillo worship event yesterday at Community Fellowship, to Jeff Friedman for keeping the plants watered and thriving at Community Fellowship, and to Roberto and Mary Salmón for looking after the “parsonage” and for meeting with the foursome from Community Fellowship to help us with Spanish during the weeks prior to going to Guatemala. Muchas gracias mis amigos.

La paz de Christo sea con ustedes. [The peace of Christ be with you all.]

Blessings+

Helen

Rev. Helen Taylor Boursier

A new experience in Presbyterian worship

6761 FM 1102/Hunter Road <> New Braunfels, TX 78132

830.643.9703 <>  This e-mail address is being protected from spam bots, you need JavaScript enabled to view it

Look Close To See the Old Church

Can You See It

Inside the New Church

A trip to Guatemala was called for June 2008 and leaders requested. I answered the call and became a co-leader. This was my second time co-leading and I was anxious to have things done right.