I have been on many mission trips through the years. I thought I had seen it all. I had never been south of the United States. I don’t know what I expected but I was surprised.

We took a team to Guatemala to work with a local church. They needed people to help paint rooms and to hold healing services. The team God put together was amazing. We had Sonny, who is an evangelist and has a healing ministry. At least he did for that trip. We had young people who could minister to the children and who also had energy. We had many people who are equipped with the gift of helps and filled in where needed. We even had a young lady who took Spanish in college and could interpret for us so we were not dependent on some one else.

The church we went to serve was amazing. They also had a Christian School. They showed us the school and what they were teaching. They not only taught the basics they taught life skills such as cooking and wood working. We had brought back packs with school supplies for the children.

The pastor took us to a place where they went to minister. I thought I had seen poverty before. I had been in third world countries but I had never seen anything like this. People had gotten anything that would keep the weather out and put them together to live in. There were whole families who lived in one or two small rooms. The houses were built so close together there were no yards. The pastor told us the people would come to church but they had no way to get there and it wasn’t within walking distance of the church.

The people were thrilled to see us. They made us feel so welcome and our hearts just over flowed with love for them. If they wanted a Bible we gave it to them. A couple of families had no food so we got food for them.

I had seen people sleeping on the street before but for some reason I had not expected to see it in Guatemala. Was it because it is in the western hemisphere? I don’t know but there were many people sleeping on the streets. We also saw prostitutes. When we drove past we would stop and Sonny would get out and give them a Bible. You never know how God will work through His word.

During the day we worked painting the rooms and at night we held healing crusades. God showed himself faithful and many people were healed. Truthfully, it was the church who had billed it as a healing crusade not us.

We were there for a week and we came home exhausted but with full hearts. Some of the team members went back for a couple of years after that. If I learned one thing it is that people are poor everywhere and they need Jesus everywhere. It is not up to me or you to get them to accept Jesus it is up to us to give them the gospel and let God do the work.

Thrilled to tell the gospel,
Jan