Though created by God, like God, and for God; they are now living without God.

This phrase struck our hearts, as we realized all those lives we’ve met along the way. For many years we
have had been doing mission trips without realizing that no influence makes people more human than
the Gospel does, that we, as people of God, should become deeply involved in relief aid, development
and the quest for justice and peace. And that we should evolve from aid to development. That the
Kingdom of God is both a present reality and a future expectation. That faith works through love Gal 5:6/
James 2:18. That evangelism is the proclamation of this Kingdom in the fullness of its blessings and
Promise, Jesus did more than only preach the Kingdom; He demonstrated its reality with ¨signs of the
Kingdom¨, and signs should validate our evangelism.

We are deeply convinced that the Christian conscience cannot come to terms with the fact that there are
people that live and die in poverty, while so many of enjoy an affluent lifestyle.

We used to visit the communities and build them houses, economical stoves, or something similar. But it
was until we started our bachelor’s degree in Bible and Theology at SETECA (Guatemala´s Theological
Seminary), that we truly opened our hearts to His voice. He was calling us as full time missionaries to the
highlands of Guatemala; the home of thousands of people that have been suffering a gross economic
inequality, due to an internal war that lasted more than 36 years (to be involved in a war is already bad
enough, but an internal war, is just devastating, it destroys a country from the core, it brings its people to
their knees). This war brought a hard and striking problem, a country with very fertile land suffering from
malnutrition.

The country of eternal spring (as it is known) figuring as the 6th country with the highest levels of
malnutrition (according to a report from UNICEF). And one of many reasons is that they don’t eat what
they harvest, they rather sell it to multinational companies who then export them worldwide. So the
villagers end up eating junk food, with no nutritional value. Drinking sodas, instead of water. Back to our
story; the last 5 years we’ve been working more with GBSI (Generando Bienestar Social Integral, which
means Generating Integral Social Wealthbeing), and we are strongly convinced that God has lead us to
become partners with them.

As missionaries in Guatemala, we will be focusing our efforts in the following:

- Educate the children from the highlands so they can break the cycle and thrive. (they need to now
there is Hope, there is a brighter future for them). Education will include: ***************

- Work with farmers so they can manage their soils better ********************

- Walk along the churches GBSI has planted in the highlands, and teach them more about the Gospel and
its implications. (We believe that the local church must thrive spiritually, over abundantly so it can give
and be light to others)

- Give counseling to the wives and families that are going to hard times.

- Pray for the villages, so God can prepare the ground and open their hearts to change.

- Visit new communities to seize new opportunities to expand the gospel.

- Teach English to the children from the communities, as learning another language has showed to help
to developed the brain.

- Teach Spanish to the adults from the communities, they speak other languages (at least 23 apart from
Spanish in Guatemala).

If they can improve their Spanish they can apply for better jobs, and so have more opportunities to
thrive.

- Teach new abilities to the adults and children. Many of them wish to study at the university one day,
but their lack of vision or abilities (due to a lack of opportunities to obtain them) is preventing them from
those opportunities.

- Teach the children bible studies so they can have a different morale. Gods Kingdom morale (one of the
main problems they face, in the highlands, is a lack of a moral compass. And the effect internal was has
on them, self-centered communities, even when the Mayan way is to be a whole as a community/ there
is a conflict between realities)

- Work with the very root-grounded syncretism (as a result of the conquest from the Spaniards and the
gospel. The Mayans had a very spiritual worldview, and where forced to quit their religion to embrace
Catholicism, not willing to forget their deities, they masked their gods with catholic idols, and so
Guatemalan syncretism was born, and the line has become more unclear as it has been a problem from
years not treated by the church)

-Creating more and new opportunities to ministry with an eternal purpose so short term missionaries
can have more impact (we are convinced that this impact goes both ways, for the people receiving the
help, and for those giving help/ It’s all part of Gods plan to be blessing for all Genesis 12:2, 22:18, 26:4).