Guatemala - Friends World Committee for Consultation Section of the Americas

Young Adult Friends Section Meeting Retreat Report

Young Adult Friends (YAFs, ages 18-35) serve a vital role in the health of the Quaker community. They carry the weighty responsibility of the future of Quakerism. They provide a bridge for Junior Friends to step into the larger Meeting. They bring energy and vibrance to gatherings. They steward what it means to be a Quaker.

Hosting opportunities for YAFs to be with one another builds a collective identity of Quakerism for this generation and becomes a foundation for what Quakerism will become. It also offers YAFs opportunities to engage with people going through similar experiences and learn to navigate those challenges from a place of inner light.

YAFs from across the Section of the Americas (SOA) were blessed with a unique and historic opportunity which was made possible by the Friends World Committee for Consultation (FWCC). In March, 18 YAFs from Canada, the United States, Mexico, Guatemala, El Salvador, Costa Rica, Peru, and Bolivia gathered in Scottsdale, Arizona for three days leading up to the SOA Annual Section Meeting. This gathering was the first of its kind, and was inspired by the spirit of connection sparked at the YAF Gathering prior to the World Plenary last August. It marked a powerful moment of cross-cultural fellowship and spiritual deepening among young Friends.

YAFs were grounded in their shared belief of honoring the light within each of us while celebrating the unique facets of our local, regional, and national expressions of our faith. The first activity together was to establish the following intentions to aid the navigation of this diversity.

To learn and respect the differences between our cultures and worship / Para aprender y respetar las diferencias entre nuestras culturas y adoración
Speak on behalf of yourself – use ‘I’ statements / Habla en nombre de ti mismo – usa declaraciones ‘Yo’
Seek unity in our diversity / Buscar unidad en nuestra diversidad
We’re learning from God through each other / Estamos aprendiendo de Dios el uno a través del otro
Every experience is unique and valued / Cada experiencia es única y valorada
Enjoy being in each other’s presence / Disfruta de estar en presencia del otro
In building trust with one another, we learn how to share our light / Al construir confianza entre nosotros, aprendemos a compartir nuestra luz

YAFs deepened their spiritual bonds through a rich tapestry of shared experiences. Throughout the gathering, YAFs stepped into roles of leadership by guiding workshops, facilitating worship, and greeting the day together on peaceful sunrise hikes. A memorable excursion to the Desert Botanical Garden, led by two gracious friends from Phoenix Monthly Meeting, offered a space for reflection and connection with the natural world. With open hearts and willing hands, YAFs also gave back to the Phoenix Meeting community, providing much-needed yard care for its smaller, aging congregation. YAFs led the entire community in worship on the final day of the Section Meeting—an experience many described as spiritually moving and left a lasting impression on all who were present.

What young Friends do now shapes the future of Quakerism. Opportunities for YAFs to connect amongst themselves are crucial for the discernment of their identity and emboldens the brilliance of Quakerism for generations to come. This event is just one instance of the commitment that FWCC has in supporting YAFs around the world to honor their presence, engagement, and visibility.

Inspired by the depth of connection and shared spirit they experienced, YAFs left the gathering with a renewed commitment to strengthening their bonds and expanding their presence within the wider Quaker community across the Section of the Americas. While this may have been the first event of its kind, it is clear it will not be the last. The seeds planted in Scottsdale are already taking root, and are nurturing a growing movement of young Friends ready to walk together in faith, friendship, and service.

Meg Cody

Building the Future as Way Opens: Reflecting on our 2025 Section Meeting

Gathering of Friends from the 2025 Section Meeting

From March 20–23, 2025, 145 Friends gathered in Scottsdale, Arizona and 30 more connected online for the FWCC Section of the Americas Meeting. We came from all across the Americas and beyond, including the largest Latin America delegation in recent memory. Friends traveled from their homes in Bolivia, Canada, Jamaica, Mexico, Guatemala, El Salvador, Costa Rica, Peru, the United Kingdom, and the United States—to be together in the Spirit and celebrate our diversity in fellowship. The theme of our gathering, “Building the Future as Way Opens,” was drawn from Isaiah 43:19: “Look, I am doing something new! Now it emerges; can you not see it? Yes, I am making a road in the desert and rivers in the wasteland.”

And we truly saw something new emerge among us.

Throughout our time together, worship set the heartbeat of our days. Each morning began with early worship—quiet, grounded, Spirit-led. We experienced rich and diverse forms of worship led by Latin American Friends, Conservative Friends, and Young Adult Friends. Each voice, each style, was a reminder of how our varied spiritual practices all seek and serve the same Divine source.

Bible study sessions opened the scriptures in new ways, inviting us to listen with fresh ears and softened hearts. Home groups offered a space to reflect, laugh, and share stories across languages and backgrounds. In these small circles, we grew in our understanding of one another—not just intellectually, but spiritually and as members of a greater community.

In addition to worship and fellowship, we came together in workshops and business sessions, exploring how FWCC can live more deeply into its calling. After a successful campaign “Becoming the Quakers the World Needs”, we feel some fatigue on committees and in our fundraising efforts as transition, new programs and reorganization require more new energy.

We saw progress on new programming made possible by the campaign. We shared a beta version of our Digital Quaker Glossary, an evolution of a collaborative tool for making Quaker terms and vocabulary accessible to all in English and Spanish. We look forward to the next phase of this project, supporting our active Bilingual Services team to develop a certified interpretation and translation program. We also announced new partnerships on our digital map, offering a single source to find Friends’ projects as well as meetings, churches and worship groups around the world. Our Quaker Connect program launched in the days leading up to the Section Meeting and apprentices from meetings across the Section joined our gathering for the first time with new perspective and enthusiasm for what is possible in the Society of Friends. To witness their excitement and growing connection was to witness the future unfolding before our eyes.

Young Adult Friends brought great energy to the gathering, not only in their worship leadership but also in their fellowship. They explored the desert gardens together, shared meals and laughter, and took part in a service project for a local Friends meeting—offering their hands and hearts in service as part of a first-of-its-kind pre-conference gathering for young people across the Section.

Evan Welkin, our new Executive Secretary, introduced himself and set his personal experience within our gathering theme and what is unfolding in the Section. Joined by FWCC General Secretary Tim Gee, they both invited us to trust God and in each other as an unknown path unfolds before us in a time of uncertainty and great possibility. Our plenary speakers, Ana Gabriela Castañeda Aguilera and Debbie Humphries, built on this theme and reminded us of examples from scripture and our own lives when we are invited to do new things: how do we respond? We are excited that Ana and Debbie’s remarks will be printed for distribution soon.

We are, as ever, a community of Friends seeking unity across languages, cultures, and traditions. This gathering gave us the opportunity to treasure our diversity and to celebrate our shared commitment to God’s leading among us. There were long conversations over meals, joyful singing in multiple languages, and celebration over the work we are doing throughout the Section. Embracing Friends from across the globe, not just physically but spiritually, helped us find new ways to speak, to listen, to walk forward together.

The Spirit is doing something new among us. We came away from this gathering excited about projects that inspire and unite us, energized by the possibilities that lie ahead. We are also clear-eyed about the clear and present challenges in the world around us today. As we return to our home countries and meetings, may we continue to walk forward in faith, trusting that the road will open, and rivers will flow, even in the wasteland.

As Ana Gabriela shared powerfully with us during her evening plenaries: “Sometimes, it’s the very act of stepping into the unknown that prepares us in ways we never imagined.” Like the road in the desert or the river in the wasteland, this gathering reminded us that new paths are revealed when we walk forward in faith, trusting the unknown. We are all grateful for every person who made this gathering possible and for each Friend who took that leap. Together, we are building the future—as way opens.

FWCC-COAL Report on Working with Right Sharing of World Resources

by Karen Gregorio de Calderon, Coordinator for COAL-FWCC

Right Sharing of World Resources (RSWR), a Quaker nonprofit, came to Guatemala from May 23-29, 2022 to investigate the potential for doing projects in Latin America and using Guatemala as a pilot project. For FWCC-COAL, it was beneficial for us to be a part of the working process for this visit because one of our objectives is to work on joint projects with a community improvement focus with Quaker organizations that wish to do this work in Latin American countries.

RSWR was for many years a program of the Friends World Committee for Consultation, but has now been an independent organization for over 20 years. RSWR works with marginalized women, offering them seed capital so that they can start their own businesses and become productive women, thus changing the lives of themselves and their families. This project would bring great benefits to the people of Guatemala.

How would work be done in Guatemala?

RSWR would work in conjunction with the COOSAJO Savings and Credit Cooperative located in Esquipulas, Chiquimula in eastern Guatemala. With this institution, the pilot project could be executed in the eastern region of the country. The staff of the Cooperative had the opportunity to learn who Quakers are worldwide and the work that Quakers do.

It is important to emphasize that the cooperative already carries out community work in the region with women, the pilot project would be a further development of their work. Two field technicians would be hired, who would form and train the women’s groups and accompany them in their training process, which is similar to RSWR’s work in Sierra Leone and India.

What activities were carried out during the visit?

Meetings with the management of the Guatemalan institution COOSAJO, to learn more about its work, its achievements and its values.
Meeting with the middle managers of the institution to share information about the projects and both organizations.
Meeting with the COOSAJO Board of Directors. We introduced FWCC and RSWR.
Meetings with leading employees of the institution: To learn about their testimony, their achievements and how the institution has been part of the change in their lives with the value of inclusion of women.
Field visits to the villages, where we were able to share with women who need to be taken into account and be benefited.
Meeting with young women leaders: to learn about the work COOSAJO has done with them, providing study scholarships, scholarships to study English, etc.

What did COAL-FWCC contribute during the RSWR visit to Guatemala?

Lodging
Food for two people.
General orientation on the region to be worked in (Statistical data and cultural information)
General information on Quakers in Guatemala, how they are organized and where they are most concentrated in the country and how Quakers work in this area.
Review of the information in PowerPoint and translation of the same, to present it in Spanish to the organization. Focus on the objectives with correct Spanish vocabulary.
Intervention in meetings, when it was necessary to make the idea of RSWR clear.
Support in decision-making processes when help was required.
Clarification of ideas
Accompany RSWR in each planned meeting, to support them in these processes (with the language, with small translations, synthesize the information, etc.)
Lead and facilitate scheduled meetings, to obtain the necessary information from each group.
Work meetings (RSWR-FWCC-COAL) at the end of the day to draw conclusions and learn from each scheduled activity.
Coordinate and manage meetings with Quakers in the region
Coordinate visits to the churches in the region
Coordinate a visit to the largest Friends campus in the Region. National Friends Church.
And the most important thing is that due to the support that can be provided by COAL and the Quakers in the region, Guatemala is a potential country for RSWR to start a pilot project in Latin America and that could later be extended to other countries.

What benefit do local Quakers have with this project?

Job opportunity: One of the benefits is that they will be considered in the process of hiring field facilitators. In other words, when the call to hire people is launched, it will also be sent to the Quakers in the region so that they can apply.
Opportunity for the women of our churches: The women of our Friends Churches will also have the opportunity to be taken into account, to provide them with seed capital, according to the RSWR processes.

What did COAL achieve during the RSWR visit?

First, connecting the affiliated and non-affiliated yearly meetings.

During RSWR’s visit, representatives and leaders from our affiliated and unaffiliated Yearly Meetings were invited to a meeting. At the meeting, the work of FWCC, the work of COAL, the future plans and an invitation to work together were announced. In addition, the RSWR project was presented to them, as a fulfillment of the mission and objectives of FWCC, making our slogan a reality: Connecting friends, crossing cultures and changing lives. This meeting was fruitful; we were together in harmony sharing the love of God that unites us.

Among attendees were:

Ambassadors Friends Monthly Meeting, represented by Susy Ramirez
Holiness Friends Yearly Meeting: With the participation of two representatives to FWCC, Teresa de Hernandez and Abner Garcia. In addition, 4 women leaders from the different churches of the yearly meeting participated.
National Friends Church: It was represented by its president Rigoberto Vargas and by 3 more members of one of the churches. That they are also part of the Shalom Jiréh Organization, who distributed the funds that FWCC collected, for the victims of Hurricanes Eta and Iota
We also achieved the participation of two disabled women entrepreneurs, who have not been supported by other organizations.
Total, we achieved attendance of 16 people.

All attendees were pleased and grateful for having been invited to the meeting and expressed their desire to be taken into account in the process of this project or others that we can work together as a region and as a church through FWCC.

What potential do we have after the RSWR visit to develop other projects with the Guatemalan institution COOSAJO for the benefit of local Quakers and society in general?

The institution has community development programs, with established processes.
Provide entrepreneurship training
They carry out projects to take care of the environment
They design training processes according to the needs of the projects to be worked on.
Provide scholarships to people with limited resources.
They have an agreement with the US embassy for young people who want to study English in a free program. This with the purpose of curbing migration, since Chiquimula is a department bordering Honduras and El Salvador vulnerable to the formation of migrant caravans. There are many bilingual youth who benefited from these programs.
Recruit new interpreter volunteers who already have command of the English language and who serve as interpreters among the international cooperatives.

Conclusions:

FWCC has the opportunity to start a closer relationship with this institution and manage benefits that are possible for our Quaker community. In this way, achieve that the yearly meetings have something in common and gradually break down the communication barrier between them.
An important point to emphasize is that the yearly meetings are interested in working together on projects for the benefit of the community.

[Translation by Diane Zappas and Robin Mohr]

Hurricane Relief Efforts

The impacts from hurricanes ETA and IOTA continue to affect our Central American neighbors, particularly in Nicaragua, Honduras, and Guatemala. Friends locally have been very active in relief efforts, though they are limited by funds.

FWCC has been raising money to pass along to the Yearly Meetings doing this on-the-ground work. As of mid-January, FWCC has raised over $4,500 for Friends in Central America, in addition to other ongoing fundraising efforts in the United States. We are extremely grateful for those of you who have felt able to support this work!

We continue to pray for those in Nicaragua, Honduras and Guatemala who are are still suffering. May God also sustain our brothers and sisters who continue to bring aid and assistance to those in need. More detail about the relief efforts is as follows:

In Guatemala

Embajadores (Ambassadors) Friends Monthly Meeting in Chiquimula and Friend Elder Morales (a current member of the Section’s Finance Committee) have been assisting a group of families, most of whom are Quakers.
The Chaplain Team of Holiness Yearly Meeting of Friends is working with Friends from the National Yearly Meeting to bring food, clothing, mattresses, etc. to families in need.
Shalom Jireh (NGO) and FM Vida: This is a well established ministry including a radio station that has been organizing the purchase and distribution of articles for the victims. They work through a network of local church leaders and transportation volunteers who have been working to organize a fair distribution of food, clothing, etc. to at least 200 families.
Junta Nacional Amigos: This national yearly meeting is working through its regional superintendents at two points in the most affected zone.

In Honduras

Junta Nacional Amigos de Honduras: YM president Arody Ruiz and the pastoral teams in District 8 are located in the most affected zone of Honduras and have been working tirelessly. At the beginning of December they placed an order for new beds to be manufactured, to provide along with other needs.
Hno. Bernabé and Maria Felix Sánchez: (Pastors, First Friends Church, Santa Rosa de Copan) These Friends have been working on providing stoves and work tools so that people can continue their basic tasks, cook their own food and begin to earn money again.

In Nicaragua

We are receiving news of the victims in Nicaragua via El Salvador Yearly Meeting, which includes one of the Salvadoran missionary families, Doris Guardado (former FWCC Regional Coordinator) and Alcides Mejia, who continue ministering to their neighbors, despite the storm and looting damage to their home.

If you are able to give financially to support this ongoing work, you can send a check made out to FWCC Americas with Central American Disaster Relief in the memo. To make an immediate online donation, click here and choose Central American Disaster Relief.

Introducing the 2018 Traveling Ministry Corps – Spanish speakers!

The Traveling Ministry Corps has named five new members from Central and South America, and they are preparing to serve your meeting or church. In January, the new cohort will meet in the City of Coroico, Bolivia for training.

Get to know each of them, and invite them to share with your Yearly or Monthly meeting. Remember that it does not have to be a large event but a time to share fellowship and the word of God.

Betriz

My name is Beatriz Apaza. I am a member of INELA Bolivia Yearly Meeting. I have had opportunities to serve in missions, first within the Unión Jeventud Evangèlica Los Amigos in Bolivia. Currently, I am volunteering at the Friends International Bilingual Center, a new project that aims to promote teaching based on Quaker principles in service of church and society as a whole. The search for the will and purposes of God led me to meditate on Faith, Hope and Love (1 Corinthians 13) as eternal principles that allow us to transform our way of seeing and understanding things, being guided by the Spirit Holy to be convinced of the Love of God as the greatest gift that man can have without deserving it.

“Let your dreams be bigger than your fears and let your actions be stronger than your words”

Oscar

My name is Oscar Eduardo Rodriguez Merino. I am 22 years old and I am a member of El Salvador Yearly Meeting. Since I was born, my parents instilled in me values of brotherhood and holiness that helped me to grow as a Christian and as a person in society. I am the son of a pastor. I love working with young people. My passion is to give my whole life to the one who loved me on the cross of Calvary, to surrender in adoration. I am Vice President of the Youth Society Friendly Ambassadors in my country, and member of the district board; Serve, the blessed Jesus said! I am very excited to visit and meet more Friends.

Elvis

My name is Elvis Ivan Calderon Morales. I am 21 years old and I am from the Yearly Meeting Embajadores Amigos of Chiquimula, Guatemala. I am an industrial engineering student, and currently serving as the secretary of the council and president of the youth society of my church. I like to play soccer, to play the guitar; I like to serve, to help people. I am very happy to be part of the FWCC Traveling Ministry Corps and I hope to share with many Friends of the Americas.

Yulieed

My name is Yulieed, I am 20 years old and I belong to the Friends Church of Ciudad Victoria, where I attend regularly with all my family. I am a third year Civil Engineering student and what I most enjoy doing is taking care of my large collection of cacti and succulents, and attending the university where I study. I love to run in the afternoon and be in contact with nature. I am very happy to participate in the Traveling Ministry Corps and in to share my testimony with various Friends around the Americas.

Jonatan

My name is Jonatan Mamani, I am from La Paz, Bolivia, and a member of the INELA Bolivia Yearly Meeting. Since I was a child I have been blessed to be part of the Friends Church and to participate in all of its activities. In the last four years I have been integrating the youth board of UJELAB (Union of Evangelical Youth Friends of Bolivia), visiting rural and some urban churches, and sharing with young people the teachings of the Word of God. All this has been a great experience that the Lord has allowed me to live. Now, as part of the leaders traveling in the CMCA ministry, I have much more to thank God for.

Virginia

My name is Maria Virginia Jalire Pisque. I am 24 years old. I am a member of the Evangelical Friends Church of La Paz, Bolivia. Since I was little I was raised in the Christian life by my parents and grandfather, and I received the call of God at age 15. God has shown me great wonders along the way, showing me my talent in praise, in the solidarity of being able to raise many people internally. I work with people in rural areas, giving help and offering support with the profession of nurse and pharmacist by profession that God proposed. I am now about to finish the career of physiotherapy kinesiology. I believe God showed me these careers so I can help people with limited resources and I feel satisfied because I can talk about the word of God in hospitals.