Leslie's Summer Mission Trip to Guatemala

I am thrilled to be heading back to the city of Antigua, Guatemala, on a five-day mission trip to help local villagers living in extreme poverty. Our team will be working on construction projects for several families who lost their homes and were displaced by flooding, and collaborating with a local pastor to provide shoes, clothing, personal hygiene kits, school supplies, and Bibles to dozens of women and children.

 

As you can see from the photos below, these families live in shanties made of sheet metal, scrap wood, and cardboard, with dirt floors and little shelter from summer rain storms. We will be shoring up the structures to make them safer and more weatherproof, and also adding on a room to the existing home of a large family that are laborers at a local coffee plantation. Our team also will be ministering to families through a small church outside the city. We will be joining them for service the day after our arrival and hosting a special dinner for them on our last evening in Guatemala.

 

The picture I have selected as the cover photo for this fundraiser was taken by our group coordinator on a planning trip earlier this year. The little girl lives in squalor. Her mother is schizophrenic, and although her aunt was able to take in her older sisters, she could not afford to take the young girl into her home. In addition to our construction projects and outreach initiatives, we hope to raise funds so the aunt can give this precious child safer living conditions, as well.

 

Thank you so much for helping me be a part of this mission trip, and helping to bring the gospel to the four corners of the earth. This is my fourth mission in Latin America, and my second time going to Guatemala with members of The Branch Church. I am blessed and privileged to have another opportunity to be the hands and feet of Jesus, and very grateful for your support!