Guatemala (MNN) — The orphan population around the world is staggering. According to the United Nations, 16.2 million kids don't have any parents. 143 million young people have lost at least one parent. Mission Network News is concerned about orphans around the world, and we're doing something about it. We're educating the Christian public so they'll get involved in helping orphans. And this year we're taking a team to Guatemala.
Orphan Outreach and Mission Network News are taking a trip to the country October 5 – 11, and we'd like you to go with us. Amy Norton is with Orphan Outreach and describes the need. "There are approximately 370,000 orphan children in Guatemala. There are also thousands and thousands more children who are living in extreme poverty and who are not living in a family setting."
According to Norton, they may be living with a relative or living on the street. She says the need to help these kids is great. "They're children that need to know the love and the hope of Christ, and they need to see it physically through trip participants who can go over there and love on the kids and do a Bible story with them and tell them about the Lord and just have fun with them."
So, MNN and Orphan Outreach are partnering together to recruit people just like you to help make an eternal difference in the lives of these kids. Norton adds, "Some of them have been living on the street and are coming in to go to school. And reaching out to these kids is something that is so desperately needed. They need to hear the Gospel, and they need to know the hope that they have in the Lord because they live in such a desperate situation every day."
This trip is being done in coordination with local ministries, says Norton. "The team will be doing some vacation Bible school programs, we'll be passing out backpacks and school supplies. And we'll be traveling to Santiago, Gautemala and doing ministry with a local Baptist church there where a hurricane hit three years ago."
Hundreds of family members were killed when a mud slide hit the area.
A $250 deposit is needed by June 30 to hold your spot. Norton says, "Guatemala is great place to go especially for a first mission trip because it's not that far, there's such need, and it's not a completely different culture."
