Dear friends:  
     Neomí wore a quiet smile and the typical clothing of San Juan Cotzal: a colorful hand-embroidered blouse, her güipil, and a long multi-colored piece of cloth, known as a corte, wrapped around her waist. In Cotzal, the traditional güipil is covered with birds and flowers depicted in brilliant blues and greens. But Neomí's güipil and corte were no longer beautiful; they had been carefully mended with two dozen small pieces of cloth that covered most of the beautiful designs. Neomí rarely spoke, and when she did it was in Ixil so Lyda could never converse with her without a translator, but she often came to smile and gently pat Lyda's arm. Neomí was obviously the poorest, and apparently the most lonely of the 30 women waiting for Lyda when she arrived in Cotzal during May.  
     The day before, Lyda left home with her two indigenous coworkers and drove our jeep for nine hours, fording a deep river and navigating steep one-lane roads literally carved out of sheer mountainsides. Late in the day, when they arrived in the Ixil-speaking village of Cotzal in the far north of the department of Quiché, it seemed like they'd arrived at the end of the world. Indeed, the dirt road ends in Cotzal, but you can see to the north where the jungle stretches down to the Mexican border.  
     Lyda and her team had chosen Cotzal for the first of a series of leadership retreats for women because the Ixil-speaking area is the most isolated and marginalized area served by the National Methodist Church of Guatemala. The women waiting at the Methodist Church in Cotzal were from Cotzal and two outlying villages. Some had walked several hours to come to the retreat. About a third of the women, the youngest ones, could speak Spanish. Two of them served as translators for Lyda and her K'iche'-speaking colleagues. The majority of the women only spoke Ixil and couldn't read any language. For all of them, it was the first time they had gathered as just women--without a man present--to talk about their lives as women.  
     In preparation for this workshop, Lyda's team had reflected on what an Ixil-speaking Maya woman needs to become a leader. They came up with a list: self-esteem, confidence, experience talking with and in front of people, motivation, acceptance by herself and others that God uses women as leaders, knowledge about things of interest to others. They knew that in three days they could only plant some seeds, but they trusted that God would water these seeds with the solidarity of mutual support among the women.  
     The women broke into small groups and drew large pictures of women. They discussed the multitude of skills that women possess as cooks, cleaners, healers, weavers . . .and how God had made each women with many talents. Each woman is a precious and talented daughter of God. To say anything contradictory is heresy, a denial of God's wonderful creation. They then looked at different forms of abuse and violence that hurt women and tell them they are worthless. For most of those present it was the first time anyone had ever told them that it was not proper for your husband to hit you because the tortillas aren't ready the moment he walks in the door for dinner. We talked about mistreatment of domestic workers by their employers, about danger in the streets, and about being insulted and discriminated against for being indigenous. The women spoke with unexpected frankness, although the political violence that took thousands of lives in the Ixil area during the 80s remained largely untouched. That's a topic the women still don't feel safe speaking about in public. Yet.  
     The second day was devoted to heath care: herbal medicines, treatments for parasites, rehydration therapies for diarrhea, and the prevention of HIV/AIDS. None of the women had any idea of what AIDS was, much less how to protect herself from it, and as it was the first mention of it they didn't seem to be very concerned about it when we started the discussion. The nurse on the team, Rosa, shared information about family planning. The women were most excited about herbal medicines and rehydration drink--inexpensive ways to treat common ailments in their families. They decided they wanted to create a common herb garden, and Lyda's team said they'd help provide funds to get them started. A representative of the Mennonite Central Committee who works in Cotzal will help the women plant the garden and provide followup education about herbal medicines.  
     The third day was the most fun. The group probed the theme of women in ministry by reflecting on the Biblical story of Deborah and the visit of Jesus to the home of Martha and Mary. They did sociodramas together, acting out the Biblical stories, something the Ixil women had never done before. They enjoyed it so much that the group had to enact the story of Martha and Mary four times to include everyone who wanted to be "on stage."  
     Acting out Deborah was harder. Everyone present had been Martha and Mary, and had struggled in their personal lives between attending to or sitting with a guest. Yet for these poor, mostly illiterate women to imagine a woman as the highest political, religious, and military figure in her community took quite a stretch of the imagination. Nonetheless, they gave it a try, in Ixil. Lyda was surprised when Neomí came forward as a volunteer. She was elected to play the part of Deborah's messenger, which meant that she would have more speaking parts than anyone else. She giggled. She put her hand over her mouth. But she did it. Twice, in fact: once for practice and once for show. Thanks be to God.  
  
     That's the good news. Yet, as is too often the case, what is good news for some is seen as bad news by others.  
     A couple of weeks after the Cotzal retreat, as plans were shaping up for three more similar retreats for women in the K'iche'-speaking highlands and in a Spanish-speaking community on the southern coast, a consultation took place here between the all-male executive committee of the National Methodist Church and a representative of the United Methodist General Board of Global Ministries. During that discussion, the men expressed their strong opposition to Lyda's ministry. They complained that she "had taken the side of the women" and had introduced "foreign ideas" with workshops about domestic violence and women's leadership skills. None of them had any first-hand experience with Lyda's program, but they wanted her to leave. The men also expressed their opposition to Paul's work, complaining that his writing about human rights put them unnecessarily at risk. They were also annoyed by Paul's friendship with Presbyterians and Catholics, and bothered that he asked too many questions about questionable church finances.  
     As a result of the consultation, it was decided that the three of us serving as United Methodist missionaries in Guatemala will all leave the country. No personnel will be assigned here in the near future.  
     This whole process has been very difficult for us, as well as for friends and colleagues in the church here who appreciate and support our work and who disagree with the attitude of the executive committee. We're particularly concerned about Rosa and Loyda, Lyda's two colleagues, and hope they will continue to have the courage and the funding to continue the work the team had only just begun.  
     It's painful to leave this beautiful, tortured land after only two years here. In the past weeks we have wrestled with a variety of issues relating to our personal and professional lives. We've talked a lot about personal security, which, unfortunately, has been a significant issue for us here. In the end, we decided to accept a new assignment with the General Board of Global Ministries.  
     So, we're moving to Honduras, which borders Guatemala to the southeast. We're going to live in Tegucigalpa, the capital, and have already rented a house in the woods just outside the city and registered the kids in a bilingual school in Tegucigalpa.  
     Lyda will be working there on the staff of the Christian Commission for Development (CCD), an ecumenical organization that works in over 60 communities throughout Honduras. It's similar in many ways to CEPAD, where we worked for many years in Nicaragua. Lyda will join the staff of CCD's program on gender issues.  
     Paul will be assigned half-time to Latinamerica Press, a Peru-based ecumenical weekly providing news and analysis of Latin America and the Caribbean with emphasis on human rights, democratization, and indigenous and women's struggles. He'll be covering Honduras, El Salvador, Nicaragua, and Guatemala. (Since Honduras sits in the middle of Central America, it's a good base from which to cover the region.) The other half of Paul's time will be devoted to writing about the region for church-based media in the U.S. and Europe, as well as consulting some with CCD.  
     As we write this, we're beginning to pack. Paul leaves shortly for a five-week reporting trip to Bolivia and Brazil (he claims it was planned long in advance). While he's gone, Lyda and the kids will pack up and move to Tegucigalpa the middle of August. Paul will join them there in early September.  
     We'll write you in November and tell you how we're doing. For now, please keep us in your prayers. These recent weeks have been hard for our family, and we face many challenges in the weeks ahead. But we also ask your prayers for Neomí and the other women in the highlands who have begun to wake up to a new understanding that they are full daughters of God. Neomí and her sisters face difficult challenges ahead. Please hold tenderly them in your prayers.