January was a busy month for those of us here in Guatemala. The first week of January we had 4 new missionaries arrive who will now be serving in the Serving At Risk Families (SARF) ministry. It is great they were here to help our missionaries who have been in Guatemala for awhile because they all faced the challenge of preparing and delivering 30 backpacks for the families that are served through the SARF ministry. Now you may think “how much of a challenge can it be to prepare and deliver 30 backpacks?” So we want to share a little more about the “backpack process.”

First off the schools and teachers here in Guatemala don’t have money to provide any school supplies for the students like they do in the states. This means that each child gets a LONG list of things they need to supply when they register for school. You can see one of the lists in the picture below. These lists include everything from writing paper to toilet paper…as you can see, the schools provide NOTHING.

This is the list of school supplies for just ONE of our children. Each family has to provide a list like this for each child attending school!!

Our missionaries spent 2 days (3-5 hours each day) running around ordering all the supplies for the students. The main store where we usually get our supplies didn’t have everything so we went to another store. The blessing in this is that the new store we went to told us they can pack all the supplies in individual boxes per student…what a blessing to find this out!! We are definitely doing it that way for ALL of our students next year!! 🙂

After our missionaries finally got all the supplies they spent a total of 8 hours sorting all the supplies and packing the backpacks for each individual student. It took them a little while to figure out the most efficient way to do things but eventually they got into a groove and finished.

Finally, once all the backpacks were ready each family met the missionaries at one central location and picked up their backpacks. This was a great opportunity for all of our missionaries to spend time with the families and for the new missionaries to get to know the families we serve. The kids were all so excited to get their new backpacks and school supplies and it is a blessing to all of us to be able to give them that opportunity. School supplies are one of the biggest reasons families don’t send their children to school in Guatemala because it is such a large cost all at once most families can’t afford it. After giving out the backpacks our missionaries prayed blessings over all of the families, for the kids to have a great year in school, and most importantly for all of the people in each family to continue to grow closer to our Lord and Savior who makes all of this possible.

For all who pray for these families faithfully, for those who donated backpacks, who sponsored a child for a backpack filled with supplies, or those who sponsor families monthly thank you! Thank you for partnering with us to serve these families, to make this blessing happen and for allowing Jesus to use you to give hope to the children we all serve together here in Guatemala.  For any of you who were not able to help financially with the backpack campaign please continue to pray for these children to have a successful year in school.  If you would like to be a part of helping us meet the additional $1000 per month that we still need to raise please follow this link and sign up to sponsor one of our families.  Thank you for all you do!