The Board of Pensions has presented its first Healthy Pastors, Healthy Congregations seminar in Puerto Rico. Congregational leaders of three churches in the Synod of Boriquén and their pastors attended the seminar, conducted in Spanish at Aguada Presbyterian Church in Aguada.
The Office of Christian Formation in the Presbyterian Mission Agency partnered recently with the Presbyterian Church Camp and Conference Association (PCCCA) to bring Spanish-speaking camping leaders from the mainland to Campamento El Gaucio in Puerto Rico.
For two days, the five-member contingent worked with and learned from staff and board members at El Gaucio, discussing issues like prices, fund development, staffing structures and marketing.
Like Zacchaeus, many youth “live in a world where we are concerned about how others see us,” said Chicago pastor Sandra Van Optstal during a Wednesday sermon that highlighted a lively and earnest afternoon worship service at Presbyterian Youth Triennium. “People saw Zacchaeus as someone who was not gospel material. He had everything he needed, and it’s not likely he will would turn that around.”
For the first time in recent years, the Presbyterian Peacemaking Program is hosting one of its Travel Study Seminars in the United States, focusing on a place that’s been in the headlines for a variety of reasons.
It is not hard for visitors from the mainland United States to draw comparisons between Campamento El Guacio and Presbyterian camps back home. “You can just imagine kids there in the summertime,” says Bryce Wiebe, director of
Special Offerings for the Presbyterian Mission Agency, reflecting on the facility with the requisite dorms, dining hall and fields you expect at a summer camp.
