Tuesday, March 24

Homestead Presbytery

Nebraska

Barbara Hipple (Homestead Presbytery), Dennis Testerman (Charlotte Presbytery), and Melanie Hardison (Enough for Everyone) examining Eco-Palms in Guatemala. Photo by Jan Waago.

In eastern Nebraska, many churches celebrate on Palm Sunday using palm fronds that have been sustainably harvested by indigenous communities in protected areas of the rainforest in Mexico and Guatemala.

In 2007 and 2008, Homestead Presbytery participated in the Eco-Palm project, part of PC(USA)’s Enough for Everyone program. The University of Minnesota established the program in conjunction with the governments and environmental organizations of Mexico and Guatemala, and it coordinates distribution in the United States.

In Guatemala and Mexico, the xateros—the Mayan people who harvest the palms — are permitted to live with their families in the Maya Biosphere Preserve, their ancestral home, because they have been certified in sustainable forestry operations. They harvest quality palms, sort them, and put them on a truck for Texas. In return, the communities protect the forest from illegal harvesters and forest fires. Although palms are harvested and sold all year, the xateros receive a premium for Palm Sunday fronds.

Homestead involved 18 churches and coordinated orders for 1,800 palm stems in 2007. These churches joined 375 other Presbyterian churches and churches from seven other denominations in ordering over 36,000 palms — earning $17,088 for insurance, teachers’ salaries, and social programs for the nine communities that harvested them. In 2008, additional churches in Homestead joined the 2,123 congregations, purchasing a total of 582,900 stems!

Homestead Presbytery has 56 churches with 9,732 members.

Let us join in prayer for
Presbytery Staff
Rev. Dr. Lowell T. Knauss, interim executive presbyter
Elder Barbara Hipple, mission and outreach coordinator
Elder Kris Peterson, information, technology, media, and resources coordinator
Rev. Donald R. Steiner, stated clerk

PC(USA) General Assembly Staff
Marla Edwards, GAC
Stephanie Egnotovich, PPC

Prayer
Gracious and loving God, we lift up to you the peoples of the rainforest in Mexico and Guatemala who harvest palms sustainably. May they continue to prosper and may the rainforest that is their home continue to be protected. Amen.

Daily Lectionary
Ps. 34, 146 Ps. 25, 91
Jer. 17:19–27
Rom. 7:13–25; John 6:16–27