Tim B. and Pastor Pablo from New Hope Church
Corbey Dukes the field director of Kids Alive Guatemala
Pastor Merari from Galilea church in San Lucas
and the Principal of the school in Zapote ("Source of Hope")
Galilea church in San Lucas planted a church in the remote village of Zapote several years ago, they saw a need for a school and through a partnership with Kids Alive and construction teams from the U.S. built a school that now houses over 200 kids who receive not only an education, but spiritual discipleship, meals and health care!
Two factors are now causing us to consider what the future looks like for this ministry. Firstly, the team rooms at the school are now complete - this will allow short term missions teams to stay out at Zapote in the future (we were hoping to do that this year, but it didn't come together in time). With the majority of construction at the school complete the question is what would these team do? Secondly, the school will be graduating it's first class at the end of this year. The original vision would be that these students would go on to some form of higher education. However, the reality is that there is often neither the financial resources or the desire to continue academic education.
One of the ideas we talked about would involve teams offering clinics in practical skills that would help the kids earn a living to help their family and/or pay for school. Another thing we discussed was the potential for outreach into the community. With the school having such a huge impact, not only on the kids but on the whole village, an active and supportive local church and a very well defined, remote geographical location this makes for a very fertile missions field.
While construction has been an important part of our mission in the past (and will be in the future) our mission as a church is to spread the Gospel and we can see many different ways of doing this in the future in partnership with Kids Alive and Galilea church.
Oh how I thank each of you for serving this past week. I have continued in prayer and was joined in prayer with others yesterday during our weekly 6:30 am prayer time at NHC.
ReplyDeletePraying this morning now ... Rev 7:8-9
After this I looked, and behold, a great multitude that no one could number, from ever nation, from all tribes and peoples and languages, standing before the throne and before the Lamb, clothed in white robes, with palm branches in their hands, and crying out with a loud voice, "Salvation belongs to our God who sits on the throne, and to the Lamb!"
You all have surely Loved one another because God sent His Son and gave you all His Holy Spirit freeing you all to love one another. Thank You!
Thanks for the efforts of everyone on the team. Great to see this time of reflection about the future. It is a wonderful insight to see the core of what we do as supporting the work of the church in projecting the gospel into a culture. Praying for you.
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