News from GRACES

“Woman in large parts of the civilized world has been forced back by war, by poverty, by collapse, by the sheer struggle to survive, into a smaller circle of immediate time and space, immediate family life, immediate problems of existence” — Anne Morrow Lindbergh Luis is nine years old. He is in third grade at Escuela Integrada. He and his fifteen-year-old sister Pamela take two chicken buses each way to get from…

This week, 20 high schoolers and four chaperones from St. John’s Lutheran Church in Salisbury, North Carolina, helped the students and families of Escuela Integrada. At the school, they gave the second floor a fresh coat of paint and filled food bags for home visits. They also formed relationships with the students at Escuela Integrada by working on collaborative craft projects, playing soccer at Jocofut and serving together at Casa Maria,…

Juliana Anderson walked along Calle Ancha de los Herreros in Jocotenango, passing many children who were not going to school. Instead, those children carried shoe shine boxes or other things to sell and walked toward the center of town to work for the day. “It’s a totally humbling experience,” said Juliana, who is 17 years old and a recent high school graduate. “I don’t have to work to provide for…

Twenty high schoolers from St. John’s Lutheran Church in Salisbury, North Carolina, arrived in Antigua on Sunday afternoon for a week-long mission with Escuela Integrada. The group met at St. John’s at 3:30 a.m. Eastern Time and traveled over 12 hours to Antigua. Though tired from a long travel day, members of the group expressed excitement about the days ahead. “I heard a lot about the school from other people…