wfn.org | Elder forges a bridge across barriers of language and culture

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Note #5985 from PCUSA NEWS to PRESBYNEWS:

GA00039
June 26, 2000

Elder forges a bridge across barriers of language and culture

	by Edmund Doogue

LONG BEACH, June 26–Elder Sydney Nordt was born in Peru of American parents
and raised in Mexico. Her upbringing made her bilingual, fluent in both
Spanish and English, a skill that made her an invaluable support to her
Presbytery of The Peaks in the Blueridge Mountains of southwest Virginia.
The presbytery is in mission partnership with an ecumenical Central American
agency, CEDEPCA. The agency is based in Guatemala City and helps a string of
projects from schools to women’s projects to assisting the inhabitants who
live off the Guatemala City dump among the rats and vultures.

	Nordt, a wife and mother living in Salem, Va. and chair of the mission
support committee for her presbytery, initially got involved in the
partnership as an interpreter. She now leads groups of people from the 144
congregations of the presbytery to visit Central America, preparing them
before the trips so they have an idea what to expect. She has made 12 trips
to the region since 1991, but, each time the groups, Nordt included, are
surprised.

	“The groups go there to give, feeling full of benevolence,” Nordt, who is a
commissioner at the 212th General Assembly of the Presbyterian Church
(U.S.A.) said in an interview.

	“We return humbled by what they [the Central Americans] give us in faith,
strength and forgiveness. That’s what’s unique about it. The partnership
works both ways, they are giving their mission to Americans. It’s a
partnership between equals. We have voted a line in our budget for the
project, but we aren’t donors of money but partners, and we receive more
than we give.”

	

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