News from GRACES
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Second mission team from St. John’s Lutheran Church helps children learn about dental hygiene
St. John’s second high school group arrived safely in Antigua on Sunday, July 9, ready to dive into mission work. They are spending the week helping the students and families of Escuela Integrada through projects at the school, the families homes and a nearby nursing home. “The poverty in other countries is worse than the poverty in the U.S.,” said Kevin Agner, 16. “I tried to come here with…
Encountering the trap of poverty in Guatemala
“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…
High schoolers experience service of accompaniment
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,…
High school graduate Juliana Anderson will carry mission from Antigua to college
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…
St. John’s mission group arrives in Antigua, eager to meet kids at Escuela Integrada
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…