Report from New Denver Guatemala Trip
Bob Hyatt
November 5, 2015

Earlier this year New Denver church took another mission trip to Guatemala, a country they are heavily invested in. Here’s a report on the trip from one of their leaders.

 

When our team arrived in Guatemala this Spring, I was thrilled to experience the culture of the lakeside villages, witness the school and church in action, meet Pastor Antonio and hear his stories of faith. I teared up while watching the NDC videos of others meeting their sponsored children but I started out with mixed feelings about meeting Yahir, the child I sponsor, and his family. Something about it made me feel uneasy. I wasn’t sure that it would be helpful – in nurturing the sustainable partnership between New Denver and Vida Real – for me to be the face of the support that allowed Yahir to go to school.

Antonio led our team members around the village to visit the homes of our sponsored children. When it was my turn, I followed Antonio, winding from the street through narrow alleyways, back to a small concrete home with laundry hanging from clotheslines and tree branches. Unsure in my language skills – and emotions – I brought my roommate and fellow NDC attender Meghan with me for translation and support. I shook hands with Yahir and he gave me a hug. I used my limited Spanish to ask him about his favorite classes and favorite activities (fútbol, of course!) Antonio then introduced me to Yahir’s mother, a beautiful woman in traditional Mayan clothing, holding a baby. She came out of the house and began speaking to me, showing me her home and introducing me to the rest of her five children. I wasn’t sure how to react when she pointed to all of her laundry hanging outside and asked me for laundry soap. She told me that she couldn’t afford it, and with her five kids, there was a lot of dirty laundry!

Two days went by as we continued to do work on the land next to the church and spend time with the children, and my thoughts kept returning to Yahir’s mother and her request for laundry soap. I knew that I could afford to buy her laundry soap for the whole year if I wanted to, but also that doing so could create a relationship where she depended on me, and likely wouldn’t help her become more self-sufficient in providing for her children in the long term. On the other hand, I saw that she had a very real, simple need that I was able to meet. If I didn’t do something, would I be ignoring an opportunity to show grace? I told these concerns to God and a few members of the team, and then brought the idea to Pastor Antonio.  We decided that I would give him money to buy some laundry soap and take it to Yahir’s mother. This way, Antonio – the pastor of the church and a permanent member of the community – would be the one giving my gift and connecting with this family.

In spite of my initial mixed feelings about meeting Yahir and interacting with his family, I came to take joy in the fact that because of me, this child is able to attend school. A school that not only keeps him safe, but provides greater opportunities for his future as well as teaching him about following Jesus. I am incredibly grateful that God has given me the chance to see how my contribution has made a very practical difference in the life and future of a child and his family. So thank you for your support of the partnership between New Denver and Vida Real School in San Pablo. Your support has a positive impact on the futures of some pretty amazing young people. But don’t just take my word for it; go see for yourself!

Sincerely,

Katie TenHulzen

By Bob Hyatt September 15, 2025
A New Ecclesia Network Benefit! 
By By Jim Pace September 15, 2025
In the aftermath of Charlie Kirk’s shooting, social media has been filled with perspectives, as is typically the case. I am reluctant to add mine as there seems to be no lack one way or the other. To be clear, this is not just about Charlie Kirk, this is about violence across the board. I did not feel led to write this because it was Charlie Kirk specifically, but rather another in a long and winding line of acts of violence, that my ministering at Va. Tech gives me a bit of personal experience with. But as I have just finished teaching two classes on Christian Ethics, and as I was encountering again the spread of responses from my Christian sisters and brothers, I felt led to look at this event through that lens. Ethics, at its base, seeks to answer the question, “What is better or worse? Good or bad?” As a follower of Jesus, this is what seems right to me… 1. We never celebrate harm. Whatever our disagreements, rejoicing at a shooting violates the bedrock claim that every person bears the imago Dei (Gen 1:27). Scripture is explicit: “Do not rejoice when your enemy falls” (Prov 24:17); “Love your enemies, pray for those who persecute you” (Matt 5:44); “Do not be overcome by evil, but overcome evil with good” (Rom 12:21). I don’t love blasting verses like this, but you cannot get away from them if you are reading the scriptures. 2. Moral responsibility sits with the shooter—full stop . Saying “his rhetoric got him shot” smuggles in a just-world logic that excuses violence. As a contextual theologian, I have an enormous amount of respect for the impact our various narratives have in shaping our understandings of the world around us. They are inescapable. But that is not what I am talking about here. Ideas can be wrong, harmful, or worth opposing vigorously, but vigilante ‘payback’ is never a Christian category. My primary gig is that of a consultant for churches and non-profits. Today, in my meetings and among friends, I have heard some variation of “He got what he deserved,” and “I vote for some very public justice for the shooter.” Both of these views speak of revenge; the follower of Jesus is called to lay these down as our Messiah did. Not asked to, told to. 3. Grief and outrage about gun violence are legitimate; schadenfreude is not . Channel the pain toward nonviolent, concrete action (policy advocacy, community intervention, survivor support), not dehumanization. Here are four thinkers who have had a profound impact on the Christian ethic I try to work out in this world. As I share them, three things are worthy of mention. One, I certainly do not claim to follow their guidance perfectly, and at times I do not even do it well, but they have all given me what seems like a Jesus-centered and faith-filled direction to move in. Second, I do not claim to speak for them in this particular matter; I am merely showing how my ethical lens has been formed. Third, clearly I am not dealing with all the components of our response to these types of violence, this is not a comprehensive treatment, merely the reflections in the moment. Stanley Hauerwas : “Christian nonviolence is not a strategy to rid the world of violence.” It’s part of following Jesus, not a tactic we drop when it’s inconvenient. Stanley Hauerwas, Walking with God in a Fragile World, by James Langford, editor, Leroy S. Rouner, editor N. T. Wright : “The call of the gospel is for the church to implement the victory of God in the world through suffering love.” Simply Good News: Why the Gospel Is News and What Makes It Good. In other words, we answer evil without mirroring it. David Fitch : Our culture runs on an “enemy-making” dynamic; even “the political rally… depends on the making of an enemy. Don’t let that train your soul.” The Church of Us vs. Them. Sarah Coakley : Contemplation forms resistance, not passivity. For Coakley, sustained prayer trains perception and courage so Christians can resist abuse and give voice against violence (it’s not quietism). “Contemplation, if it is working aright, is precisely that which gives courage to resist abuse, to give voice against violence.” Sarah Coakley, God, Sexuality, and the Self. Coakley would say that far too often we react before we reflect. This is the problem that Fitch is getting at in much of his writing, that our culture actually runs on antagonisms, the conflict between us. We need to find a better way.