Building bigger hearts for 30 years with SJA and TN2

Pictures and delegate reflections from St Joan of Arc’s visit to Tierra Nueva 2 in October 2024.

by Nancy Wiens

My story with Sister Parish began 20 years ago when I met and married my husband Rick. He was already actively involved with Sister Parish and had been on SJA’s second-ever delegation to Tierra Nueva Dos (TN2) in 1996. He invited me into this Sister Parish relationship; he said “come and see”…and I did. Our first delegation together was in 2008 and it started me on a journey including multiple trips to Guatemala as well as a six-year term on the board of directors of the national Sister Parish organization. I like to say that I married into Sister Parish!

I’ve been on several delegations and I liken my Sister Parish journey to peeling the layers of an onion. The first layer is simply discovering that delegation travel is a unique way to experience another culture. Living with families and being immersed in their community is a great way to get “under the skin” of a country and a people.

And then I discovered how rich it is to travel in delegation. Delegates to our Sister Parish go through months of orientation and preparation together. When we are in Guatemala, Sister Parish staff and members of TNII are with us in the community and as we travel around the country. We gathered every day to reflect on our experiences and our faith, and those discussions were a diverse tapestry of ideas and opinions.

And I’m continuing to peel layers to reach the core of this experience. We go on delegation to learn, to grow together, to make connections and deepen relationships, to be inspired to take action toward a better world. The love we receive when we arrive is quickly apparent to everyone, but it’s even richer to share that love with people we’ve known for years. As fellow delegate Marty said: “Our project on this delegation is to build bigger hearts”.

This delegation felt momentous because we’re celebrating 30 years of relationship, or ‘hermanamiento’ in Spanish. In 1994 our two communities came together in tumultuous times — across different cultures, languages, economic status and thousands of miles — to forge a relationship in faith and solidarity that continues to grow and nurture us. To celebrate, the community of TN2 threw a big fiesta with a marimba band, dancing, a delicious meal of pepián and cake, and a piñata for the kids. We heard from people who had been instrumental in the beginning of the relationship. One of the early members reminisced that in the beginning she considered getting everyone rings, like wedding rings, to symbolize their commitment to this newly formed relationship.

I like to think of this relationship as a river that flows on and on. We’re on the river, our boats bobbing along with the current. Some people are sliding into the river now, for the first time. Others have put their boats on the river before us; they’re far ahead and out of sight. This 30-year hermanamiento has such weight and presence because we stand on the shoulders of those who went before us. They left a remarkable legacy.

Back home in Minnesota, during our final reflection as delegates, I was challenged to write a letter to myself stating what I had learned during my time in Guatemala and how I hope to build on those learnings. I’ll open that letter in a year’s time to see how I did. Here’s an excerpt of what I wrote to my future self: