Off to Guatemala…

Early tomorrow morning (and I mean 4AM early!), I am heading out on a 13 day mission trip to Guatemala with David Sutton and 6 of our college students. We’re working with Students International, an organization that is committed to meeting both the physical and spiritual needs of the people in Guatemala. I’m really excited about the work that we will be doing, especially because David and I were able to take a short trip to Guatemala in March and meet the SI personnel in Guatemala and see the work that they are doing. What I was most pleased with was seeing how they were meeting meaningful physical needs for the people of Magdalena, Guatemala while at the same time begin faithful to provide an opportunity for their most significant need, a personal relationship with Christ, to be met through sharing the gospel.

The work that is done by SI in Guatemala is divided into various sites with full time SI personnel leading each site. The different sites include:

Art site: workers will teach art to children in an after school program.

Education sites: there are two different education sites located in two area schools. Workers at this site will teach English, music, crafts, and ethics depending on the school.

Agriculture site: Workers at this site will help families in the community help families in the community build and maintain self sustaining chicken or hog pens. This provides needy families with a second source of income which can make a significant impact on their quality of life. A single hog raised over a few months can provide more than $100 worth of income. That may not sound like a lot of money, but consider that the average annual income in Guatemala is $1200. The families learn to reinvest a portion of their profits in their side business so that it continues to produce. The SI leader for this site is also the pastor of a local church which we will have the opportunity to attend on Sunday.

Appropriate Technology Site: Workers at this site will either be building water cisterns or sand based water purifiers for individual families or paving with concrete the dirt floors of local homes.

Medical Clinic: The small clinic that SI runs is the only one in a city of 18,000 people. The clinic if fairly new and most families who aren’t aware of it are forced to travel (usually by walking) to Antigua (5-10 miles away) in order to seek medical attention.

Social Work Site: Workers will serve in a hospital in Antigua which houses a large number of special needs children from birth to late teens. This is without a doubt the most emotionally difficult site. It was very emotional just for me to tour it when we visited in March.

Each of our students is assigned to one of these sites (they had the opportunity to voice their preferences during the application process). David and I, however, will be able to work at any site throughout the time that we are there although we will probably only serve at sites that our students are serving at.

Here is our schedule.  We’ll get there on Monday and have a general orientation. We’ll also meet the Guatemalan family that we will be staying with during the two weeks (I think that adds a lot to our experience). Tuesday-Friday we’ll be working at our various sites. Saturday and Sunday will be rest days. We’ll do some site seeing on Saturday and we’ll attend church on Sunday. I’m really excited about the worship service…hopefully I’ll be able to understand some of what is going on. (I’ve been working pretty hard on my Spanish) Then its back to work Monday-Friday and we’ll come home on Saturday, June 7th.

I’m looking forward to sharing what I experienced and what God did in a post or two when I get back.

If you’d like to pray for me and our team, here are a few things that you can be praying for:

No issues coming through customs: we’re bringing a bunch of bibles, vitamins, and other donations for the various sites.

Opportunities to demonstrate Christ’s love through our words and actions and opportunities to share the gospel.

Physical, spiritual, and emotional strength and health for our team.

Hasta la vista.