Today’s guest post was written by the Christ Church Missions Team.
Christ Church,
We are happy to announce that our annual Guatemala mission trip is back! We have done this trip every year for well over a decade until the pandemic shut it down for a few years, but we’re now making plans to take a trip this summer, June 3–10, 2023, and we want YOU to consider coming with us.
We have a long-term partnership with Potter’s House, a Christ-centered Guatemalan organization that fights poverty through holistic development programs focused especially on the most vulnerable—children and youth. Potter’s House understands that poverty is complex—it is not merely the lack of material or financial resources. From spiritual to mental to physical, Potter’s House has identified 8 forms of poverty that overlap and reinforce one another. For 34 years, they have been walking alongside poor individuals, families, and communities to develop long-term relationships that bring lasting change. Potter’s House invites us into their ministry for a week to participate in their mission—together we embody the love of Christ by playing with children, building houses, delivering food, installing stoves and showers, praying with people in their homes, and listening to their stories of tragedy and triumph.
This is a multi-generational trip, and a wide cross-section of our parishioners have participated, from children (with their families) through our retirement-age folks. We of course go in hopes of being helpful, but we also know that a big part of this trip’s purpose is for how it will change us. It is good for us to step into the perspective of being a stranger. It is good for us to encounter the poor, to see with our own eyes the world in which they live, and to hear from them directly. It is good for us to work together with a team. It is good for us (if we are able) to set aside a week to dedicate to the service of people who our Lord Jesus loves. And it is good for us to step outside our comfortable, familiar worlds and to learn to depend on the Lord who strengthens us to do what he calls us to do.
This Sunday January 29th there will be an informational meeting in between services (at about 10:35am). Come hear what it might look like for you to be part of this year’s trip. Email the Mission Team for the details if you can’t make that meeting. The trip application link will be on our website this coming week.
Together with you in the mission of our Lord Jesus,
The Christ Church Mission Team