Carrie Prestwood-Taylor(behind) stands back-to-back with Debora Martinez during the “Walk, Sister, Walk” presentation last Thursday.

Photos and story by Samantha Bridgman

Bright lights, laughter, and the smells of homemade soup chased away the bitter cold of winter and created a sense of belonging last Thursday during “Walk, Sister, Walk”, a presentation at the United Parish Hall.

    The program, conducted by four women from Chile, Paraguay and the United States, was hosted by Reverend Karen Nell Smith and Sharon Kimball and sponsored by the Massachusetts Conference of the United Church of Christ (MCUCC).

    “‘Chile’ literally means ‘ends of the earth’, said “Walk, Sister, Walk” organizer Elena Huegel. “We come back [to the states] and offer stories from the ends of the earth – stories of loss and of hope. This year we are telling the stories of women empowered by tragedy and faith.”

    Huegel is the program director at the Shalom Center, a non-profit Foundation of the Pentecostal Church of Chile. She has devoted two decades of her life to mission work in the states as well as Mexico, Paraguay and Chile, which has also been her home for the last sixteen years. With the help of fellow travelers and mission workers, Carolina Fernandez, Carrie Prestwood-Taylor and Debora Martinez, “Walk, Sister, Walk” shared moving stories told through dance and song. The program included stories told in English, Spanish and Guarani, the native language of Fernandez.

    Last week’s presentation of “Walk, Sister, Walk” was part of a special month-long tour of Massachusetts. Huegel typically gathers a group every four years to visit churches nationwide. The change this year was due to Huegel’s experience of the catastrophic earthquake and subsequent tsunami in Chile in February 2010.

    The presentation included a short dramatic piece, “Remembering September 11, a dialogue,” written by Huegel. The play featured a two-woman piece spoken in  English by Prestwood-Taylor and Spanish by Martinez with narration from Huegel. Shoulder to shoulder, Prestwood-Taylor and Martinez told the stories of two women who encountered tragedies on September 11, 2001 and September 11, 1973, respectively: terrorist attacks of September 11 in the United States and a violent military coup, September 11 in Chile.

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