El Chico is a small island off the southern coast of Guatemala with about 1500 people on it.  It has no electricity, running water, stores, healthcare, little employment, and only has education up to 6^th grade.  In 1951, a Presbyterian Guatemalan named Juan Mendez, an evangelist, went to El Chico to share the Gospel and begin the first church on the island.  The church at one time thrived.  Yet after 36 years of civil war, a denominational split in 1992 (which has greatly weakened all the Presbyterian churches in Guatemala) and the ongoing problems in a developing nation, El Chico is struggling to survive and so is the church.  They have asked for our help.  We have now had 5 BPC teams go to El Chico, including our first Youth team that visited in June 2007.

From its inception, Our El Chico partnership has always been unique in its purpose – to build up the Church through discipleship and not bricks and mortar.  Since 2005 we have been blessed to witness first hand the fruit that God has produced in His church on El Chico.  We have seen an increase in church membership, an increase in male participation, an increase in local lay leadership from within the congregation and even the desire of one man in particular to step up and to receive further biblical education and training to specifically respond to his sense of God’s call to serve in a lay-pastor role within this church.  And, not only are we seeing the fruit of this partnership in the lives of church members on El Chico, but we are also seeing growth and transformation in the lives of BPC folks making these mission trips.  Discipleship in both churches is growing!

There is a great hunger among the people to know and to be transformed by the Word of God and to engage the world around them.  Our visits have always included our bringing and sharing various Discipleship materials that provide a means to satisfy their hunger for Biblical knowledge and application.  Most recently, El Chico church leaders have spoken with us about supporting a Leadership Development Center where people from the community of El Chico could come and be taught various classes on Scripture and Scripture application.  We are watching God at work as He begins to provide in-country contacts and networks that look promising as a means of meeting these desires and needs as well as providing new partners in our relationship with El Chico.

In addition to eagerly pursuing ways of engaging in the teaching of God’s Word, church leaders have also been working towards reconciling and uniting with the other Presbyterian Church on the island, bringing together the two groups that were torn apart in 1992 following a denominational split in the National Church.  We are witnessing answers to their prayers and ours!  The Church is God’s instrument of reconciliation and restoration in our fallen world, and as our brothers and sisters in El Chico strongly expressed to us in 2005, the Church must be strong so that our lives, our families and our communities will be strong!

Prayer Suggestions for El Chico:

1. 1.  Pray that the Lord continue to be at work in the people of the two groups as they seek to unite and become one Body once again.
2. 2.  Pray for the Church in El Chico to continue be restored and grow strong.  Pray for God to continue bringing about renewal and that our visit will continue to be used as agents of renewal.
3. 3.  Pray for the Lord to continue to raise up and build a solid leadership team, especially now during this time of reconciliation.  The Church will seek a new Pastor to be their shepherd over this combined flock.  Pray for God’s appointing of the right Pastor for the Church.
4. 4.  Pray for our upcoming Youth Team heading to El Chico in June, 2008.  Pray for transformation in the lives of our Youth and the Youth of El Chico.
5. Pray for the Presbyterian Church in Guatemala that continues to have serious division, financial struggles, weak biblical teaching and theology.

There is another ministry in Santa Fe, a school that BPC also supports.  These children cannot afford education but BPC hires a teacher to teach them to read and write and learn basic math.  Here they are in their uniforms we purchased.  None of these children would know how to read if it were not for BPC’s support.  The school has been made possible not only from the financial support of BPC, but also due to the strong conviction of one woman who has been the teacher at the school for the past 6 years.  God has given Mercedes (the teacher) a strong desire to impact the lives of people in her community with the gift of education.  In addition to teaching the children, there are now 20 adult women who are able to read because of Mercedes conviction to be used as God’s instrument of transformation in her community.