Casa De Sion: Los Robles, Guatemala

 

"I write these things to you who believe
in the name of the Son of God that you may know that you have eternal
life. And this is the confidence that we have toward him, that if we
ask anything according to his will he hears us. And if we know that he
hears us in whatever we ask, we know that we have the requests that we
have asked of him."
1 John 5:13-15

Panajachel, Guatemala

I'm writing you from an organic coffee shop in Panajachel, Guatemala (about a 20 minute bus ride from our ministry site this month) where coffee is less than 90 cents and internet is a little faster than dial up and free 🙂 We have weekends off this month, which we're told not to get used to, so we're taking full advantage of it! Each weekend we have been packing up our dirty laundry (and when I use the word dirty… I mean 4 days worn working kind of dirty) and taking the bus for 76 cents to Panajachel which is on the shore of Lake Atitlan to explore, site see, wash laundry, write letters home,  post blogs, and rest. It has been such a time of rejuvenation before a week of work for our team. 

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Welcome to Los Robles, Guatemala:
Month 1

We are in the country this month, living in the beautiful mountains of Los Robles, Guatemala. Los Robles is a village of 300 people. It's a little over 6000 feet altitude here and the weather has been beautiful… once the tropical storm passed.

Our ministry site: Casa De Sion

Jody and Vicki are our ministry contacts this month; they are a couple from Utah  who began work in Guatemala City in 2003 at an orphanage. Casa de Sion took abused and neglected children from the court system. They eventually moved to an orphanage near Lake Atitlan in the Guatemalan Highlands where the poverty and need was so much more pressing. Most of the children in these rural pueblos needed to be in orphanages. They needed parental attention, a better diet, help succeeding in school, and medical and dental care. 
 
It became obvious that for the same amount of money it was taking to run a small orphanage they could help hundreds of children that lived at home. Eventually, these thoughts formed into the “orphans at home” a program that is now lifting a community of children up through their feeding and educational programs. So these children can still live with their families but get meals and schooling at Casa De Sion. 

They run a Tutorial Program for the elementary kids here. The middle school kids are provided with scholarships and they run two mother/toddler feeding programs with 90 mamas and 200 plus infants and toddlers.

Most recently they have started an organic garden growing program and raising chickens. The farm is to help supply more food for the children. We have been able to do some work with it since we have been here.