Board of Global Ministries/International Missions

Guatemala October 2024 

SHUMC Guatemala Mission Team had the opportunity to lead a group to serve people in the village of Santa Maria de Jesus, about an hour outside Guatemala City. They spent the week building a house and a stove for the Sunún Simón family who farm for a living and have three young children. Melany and Victoria are 7 and 4 years old and Jefferson is 6. Since over half the population in Guatemala lives in poverty, which can also lead to malnutrition in some cases, another ministry opportunity was packing bags of fortified rice (rice with protein, vitamins and minerals added) and distributing them to the families in the village. 

The theme verse was Philippians 2:3-4

^“Do nothing out of selfish ambition or vain conceit. Rather, in humility value others above yourselves, not looking to your own interests but each of you to the interests of the others.”

There were many opportunities to put this into practice! Being able to share the Love of Jesus by helping those in need was a joy, but we received as much as we gave. The people in this village, who have so little compared to the American way of living, still have so much joy and contentment.