Caring for Abandoned Babies

Impact Ministries.  For more than a decade Impact Ministries has been furthering education, providing local health services and establishing churches in communities around the town of Tactic in rural Guatemala.  Today, some of the teachers and administrators of these schools are themselves graduates of these schools.  And while education and medical care have been the key development components of Impact Ministries, one major need has not been addressed: the need to care for abandoned babies.


The Challenge.  Extreme poverty and already large family sizes have resulted in newborn babies being abandoned at hospitals (or even thrown out with the trash) once the mom has given birth.  These babies enter the care of Guatemala’s social services with no guarantee of proper care, a chance for adoption or access to proper education and future opportunities.  So in 2013, Impact Ministries assembled a committee to develop a proposal for an orphanage.  In the fall of 2014, a parcel of land was purchased for the orphanage and immediately, eMi was contacted about providing a design team.  On February 6th of 2015, our team of 13 arrived in Guatemala City and after resting their for one evening, made our way to Tactic.

Getting Started.  Walking the land and simply getting to know Impact Ministries were our first tasks.  Context is everything so we listened intently as we learned about the Guatemalan culture, witnessed the every day life of families, discovered the rules and regulations that govern the care of abandoned children and connected personally with the Guatemalan members of Impact Ministry’s Orphanage Committee.

Meeting the Kids.  Morning devotion at 7:00 am at an Impact Ministries school was where we met students and heard their stories.  In Canada we joke about walking miles barefoot through snow to school but for many of the children, if not for the one pair of shoes they receive through child-sponsorship, they would indeed walk barefoot for miles to school, through rain and mud from their small shack home on a distant hill.  And yet they smile big toothy smiles, express their thanks to God for their school, worship with songs sung at the top of their voices and give us bear hugs around our waist in thanks for coming from afar so that orphans, children even worse off than they, could be cared for.

My Travel Buddy.  Having Cameron with me on this trip was special.  In 2011 Caitlin came to Haiti with me and now it was Cam’s turn.  Cam and I have been travel buddies to his soccer tournaments for years.  But this trip was for him to see what dad does; the reason we left family and friends behind in Vancouver ten years ago to join eMi in Calgary.  If he was nervous, he didn’t let on…too much.

Lay of the Land.  Land surveying is a demanding job.  It is physical and conditions change with the weather (hot/cold/wet/dry), terrain (hilly/flat) and plant cover (trees/brush).  Tactic is hilly and cool but for most of our time there, it remained dry.  Hiking boots and fleece is not usually a part of Cam’s “urban” wear but he was a great sport, never complained and became a solid help to David, navigating tough terrain and standing still despite the many spiders he encountered along the way.  Dad stopped by every once in a while to provide a "beef jerky break”.

The Orphanage Committee. The Committee is made up of mostly Guatemalans who are already involved with Impact Ministries but who also have a burden in their heart to care for abandoned babies.  Sandra, a member of our team who also attends Foothills Alliance Church (my home church) in Calgary, is a many-time volunteer with Impact Ministries.  She has also been on the Orphanage Committee and so became both a catalyst for our conversations as well as our team’s translator of both language and culture.  We had both an envisioning meeting as well as a follow-up meeting during the week with the Orphanage Committee.  By week’s end at the Final Presentation, what they saw presented was a weaving of ideas from both the eMi team and the Orphanage Committee.

It’s About the Kids.  The eMi team proposed a phased development, a master plan that unfolds as the children grow and Impact Ministries welcomes a few more children into its care each year.  Each year new house parents are trained and the land that is now quiet will come to life. Community will grow and together, children and house parents will dwell in the goodness and sufficiency of Christ; in Him they have hope and life and in Him they will represent this hope and life to their community and far beyond.

Final Presentation.  Our Final Presentation was held on a Saturday morning following six days of master planning, surveying, designing and redesigning building layouts, digging & watering soakage pits, analyzing water & power supply distribution and establishing a structural design approach to combat earthquakes.  Whew!  When we see tears...of joy…in the eyes of those we came to serve, we are thankful and relieved.  God is good!

A Final Thought.  For our debriefing time, souvenir shopping and general winding down day we ended our week with a couple nights in Antigua, the old capital of Guatemala.  Quaint and picturesque though it was, it was impossible to miss the evidence of forced colonial rule, syncretic beliefs and clashing cultures: colourful, laid-back latin ambience set against an imposed order, a rigid grid of streets.  But I realize that this represents me as well because I too am a mixture of brokeness and hope, a story of what was, what is becoming and what could be.  Although our past may be unalterable, our future is not set, our stories are not complete.  I’m glad this part of my journey included my son, good friends and an opportunity to serve an amazing ministry and the beautiful people of Guatemala.

Photos.  A new set of annotated photos has been placed in my Flickr Photo Gallery with various options to view it.  If you want to browse the set, click here.

Thank you to all who make this work possible through your encouragement, prayer and financial support; you have been a part of making this project, and the resulting touched lives, a reality.

Homes For Kids With Impact

From schools to homes.  Impact Ministries has spent more than a decade establishing rural schools and agricultural programs, bringing healthcare and planting churches in rural Guatemala.  All the while they have been training and employing Guatemalan teachers, farmers, pastors and administrators.

In recent years they have seen their students graduate and find employment or attend university, some returning to become teachers for the next generation.  Now, after two years of planning, they have the land and resources to address a long-known need, establishing an orphanage to care for abandoned children in poor, rural Guatemala.  The task for our eMi team will be to master plan this new property and design the first facilities, a “baby house”, along with all the required water supply, sanitation and power infrastructure.

Back to Central America.  This will be my first project lead in Central America and my first project in a Spanish speaking country since serving in Honduras as an eMi volunteer 12 years ago, when Julie joined me for an eMi project experience.  This is eMi Canada’s second project with Impact Ministries (the first was a school exactly 10 years ago) and my home church in Calgary has many ties to Impact Ministries so I’m excited to be serving a ministry that in many ways is both “close to home” and a wonderful example of “walking alongside”; encouraging, enabling and growing the capacity of the local Guatemalan people.

Added Bonus.  An added element of joy and excitement is that Cameron, my 15 year old son, will join me for an eMi project trip for the first time.  He and I have been looking forward to this since Caitlin (now 17) joined me for a project in Haiti in 2011.  As part of the team Cameron will join the survey crew to document the 40 acre parcel of land.  He will also have a chance to interact with the local children...especially looking forward to playing soccer with them!

To read more about this eMi project click here.  To visit the Impact Ministries website click here.

Please keep us in prayer as we travel in the air and on the ground in rural Guatemala and also remember all team member families while we are away.  Thank you to all our supporters and friends who make it possible for me to do this work!

Balloon Animals, Shoeboxes and Concrete

Our team had an awesome time and learned a lot about God’s work in the communities we visited. We had opportunities to be involved in many different ministries like when our team organized and led a children’s program using balloon animals, face painting and fingernail painting. We also unloaded Operation Christmas Child [OCC] shoeboxes from a container and did a distribution of the shoeboxes and also Toms shoes.

The majority of the work we did was on a construction site, pouring concrete to create bleacher seating for a local school’s future gym. A few of us also put on an anti-bullying presentation at that same school.

During this trip, I was impacted by the willingness of the people to serve the Lord in their community and their sense of gratitude for the things they had as well as the things they received from us. I am so thankful for the people who supported me on this journey. Their generosity and sacrifice blessed me and the people of Costa Rica.

A School to Give Children a Chance

STEP.  The Society for Transformation, Education and Progress (STEP) was established by second-generation Indian Christians in Odisha state, a part of India that is very hostile to the Gospel.  In fact, in 1999 a Christian missionary, Graham Staines, who had spent many years establishing schools and community development projects was burnt alive along with his two sons in their car.  But from that tragedy the Indians whose lives were positively touched by their efforts established STEP to carry on the work of the Staines to love the people of this region.

The Location.  In early February our team of seven, with team members who call Canada, USA, Scotland and India (Delhi) home, arrived by SUV into the rural village of Hatigarh, five hours north of Bhubaneswar, the state capital of Odisha.  In this village off the beaten track from the main highway, most houses are built with traditional mud brick, mud plastered walls and grass roofs. Our task was to design a K-7 school, some children’s residences for those who live too far to walk to school and housing for staff and teachers.

The School.  The goal of STEP in building this school is to provide over 500 rural children from families of all castes and religions a chance to receive a good education and have hope for the future.  Children in this very disadvantaged area of Odisha in eastern India attend public schools where it is common to find 100 students in each class.  So one vision is to build a school with affordable tuition (even public schools charge fees for books and uniforms) where classes will be 35 students per teacher.

Sewing Class.  STEP also recognizes that vocational training and employment opportunities are very hard to find in a place where most families rely on subsistence farming on small plots of land.  So STEP started a sewing school for women.  Our team was able to not only attend the graduation of the first sewing class but we were invited to the opening of a tailor shop so the women would have employment.  I was given the immense privilege of cutting the ribbon!

Love of Jesus.  At the root of all their efforts STEP is motivated by love; their love for God and for the people of India.  While the school and all vocational training opportunities are open to all faiths and castes, it is no secret that living out the love of Jesus is a foundational motivation for the work of STEP.  And the people are not complaining.  Certainly not the ladies in the first graduation class who gladly told us with joy how their new skills and employment would greatly help their family and how much they looked forward to having a school of quality for their children.

Our Work.  On the long, narrow STEP property (until they acquire more land for Phase 2) we developed a school with a multi-purpose auditorium and a library, both of which will not only serve the school but the community as well.  India requires all school children to receive one meal each day at school so there is a cafeteria and of course, open space for the children to play.

Further into the property will be residences for teachers and staff adjacent to medical clinic.  At the rear of the property will be STEP’s guesthouse and boarding residences for children who live to far to walk to school each day.

Project Photos.  A new project video has been added to the right-side menu and a new set of annotated photos has been placed in my Photo Gallery with various options to view it.  If you want to browse the set, click here.  If you want to see the titles and read the captions of each photo, click here.

Thank you to all who make this work possible through your encouragement, prayer and financial support; you have been a part of making this project, and the resulting touched lives, a reality.