Interns needed to get away from mundane work and onto the mission field

Last summer's five Orphan's Heart
 interns all called their experience
 "life-changing."

Guatemala (MNN) ― Most college students are taking a break now after weeks of hard work and days of exhausting exams. Enjoying the rest could naturally lead to thinking about the summer.

This summer could be more than just enjoying the sunshine though. It could be life changing.

"Very rarely do students describe their internships as a life-changing experience, but all five of our interns said that very same thing at the end of the summer last year," says Howard Hooper with Orphan's Heart.

Most people at the university level need to do some sort of internship. Orphan's Heart summer interns are able not only to get that requirement over with, but to do it while impacting the lives of precious children.

"With Orphan's Heart, you have an opportunity to make a lasting impact on the lives of some of the neediest children in the world," explains Hooper. "Guatemala's known, unfortunately, to have a 45% malnutrition rate among its children."

Interns spend a great deal of their time at the Orphan's Heart Malnutrition Center where kids are nursed back to health. The interns' job is to help direct and administer the volunteers that come to the Center, but also just to love on the children.

While most internships involve being stuck in an gloomy office doing mundane work, Orphan's Heart interns are able to get out on the field and work as a missionary would--living out Christ's love to everyone they encounter in Guatemala.

"We're not only ministering at the Malnutrition Center, but we're also ministering in the grocery store, we're ministering in the local market....We're able to witness, we're able to share, we're able to be light in a dark world wherever we go," says Hooper.

As if these life-changing elements were not enough, the logistics of the Orphan's Heart internships are icing to the cake. Interns essentially get to choose their own schedules: they need to be available for at least four to five weeks over the summer, but it can be in June or July. Orphan's Heart will work around schedules.

As any missionary would, students are required to raise their own support, which, including airfare, is about $3,500. Orphan's Heart will help you get started.

If you or someone you know would be interested in a life-changing summer for college credit with Orphan's Heart, check out the details at the ministry's Web site. Potential candidates can apply atwww.orphansheart.org. 

CBI announces two new prison ministry satellite campuses

Guatemala/S. Africa (MNN) ―There are billions of people who don't know Christ across the world, but there is one consistently-overlooked people group on every continent: prisoners.

Crossroad Bible Institute (CBI) has been reaching out to this group of men and women on society's fringes through a long-held model, proven effective worldwide, in which students are mentored by volunteer instructors native to their countries. Indigenous campus directors oversee their activity, teaching them about Christ and discipling them as they learn.

CBI currently works on all six populated continents and has over 40,000 students learning through their program. On November 15, CBI announced the opening of new satellite campuses in two more nations.

South Africa and Guatemala each will now have their own CBI prison ministry campuses.

CBI Guatemala was launched in partnership with Christian Reformed World Missions and Estrategia de Transformación. The local pastors helping implement the program have established a strong foundation through their prior work with the new students.

CBI International Program Coordinator Cynthia Williams, who visited Guatemala to assist in the campus launch, told CBI, "Through the changed hearts of prisoners, this country could become free from the ravaging violence now dominating the landscape. CBI Guatemala is poised to help bring about that change."

CBI provides people in prison and their families with faith-based reentry education and mentoring for 27 years--assets that could be extremely valuable in Guatemala in particular.

CBI South Africa was initiated by contacts established through CBI's membership with the World Reformed Fellowship, an international organization linking like-minded evangelicals. The campus director visits the students each week to present a message and distribute lessons. Backed by support from prison officials, the program will expand into additional facilities in 2012.

Director Alwyn Bezuidenhout told CBI, "Due to the positive support of the staff of correctional services, local churches, and most of all, the inmates, we see the Lord's blessing on our work."

Dr. H. David Schuringa, CBI President and CEO, stated in a recent press release, "Incarcerated people across the globe have been ignored and under-served. CBI's unique discipleship and mentoring program responds to God's call to remember them, and we plan to continue extending this response worldwide."

With several new openings pending for 2012, CBI's international expansion promises to continue, giving hope to prisoners and unifying diverse cultures with the Gospel message. Learn more about ways you can get involved and even become an instructor with CBI here.

Orphan Outreach team in Guatemala as floods kill 13 nearby

Mission Network News: "Guatemala (MNN) ― Tropical depression "12-E" has slammed Central America with heavy rains and is responsible for at least 13 deaths in Guatemala already.

President Alvaro Colom reports that at least four of those deaths were a result of electrocution. Others drowned, or were caught in mudslides."

Read more...

GAiN cautious but optimistic about Guatemala elections

Guatemala (MNN) ―Ministries have cancelled mission trips. Some reports say violence has increased. So what's the danger in Guatemala? Presidential elections.

President Alvaro Colom will conclude his term as president this January when the winner of the September 11, 2011 elections takes office. Currently, most sources agree that Otto Perez Molina, who lost to Colom in the 2007 elections, is the frontrunner in the race.

The winner will be stepping into a difficult role. The struggling country of Guatemala is still trying to recover from a civil war that ended 15 years ago. It's one of the 10 poorest countries in Latin America, with approximately 29% of the population living below the poverty line.

More frightening still -- and an issue that has been a frequent topic of Guatemala's presidential debates -- is the nation's alarmingly-high homicide rates. Some estimates place Guatemala as the fourth in the world for homicide rates in 2010.

"If the current frontrunner is elected, things should be fine," says Steve Watson, Guatemala Liaison and Trip Leader for Global Aid Network (GAiN). Watson took a group to Guatemala at the beginning of August to work with Campus Crusade for Christ in the city of Chiquimula. They had the chance to help develop ministry with an indigenous people group known as the Chorties, and to bring aid to teachers and students.

During that time, Watson says he was nervous, but things went fine. Beyond political rallies and strikes, nothing disruptive occurred.

Although GAiN's ministry partners are expecting things to go smoothly, Watson says the ministry is still taking precautions.

"We have held off on shipping containers because you never know what the change of government is going to do," says Watson. "So that's the only major disruption we've seen: we're not shipping containers right now."

GAiN cleared its last container in the country last week until the elections end, but the ministry hopes to pick back up with their work to send aid to partners in Guatemala as soon as the coast is clear.

"I do have containers of food, Bibles, clothing and things like that which are ready to ship. Once we see that things are okay, we're going to start shipping again based on how much money we have to ship."

Funding for shipping is always a need. You can help when you click here. Aid goes not just to provide physical needs for recipients, but to share the love of Christ with people who otherwise may never experience it.

Pray for Guatemala as they approach election day. Pray for a leader who will cling to Christ, care for Guatemalans, and bring the nation out of poverty.

Backpacks help show 'JESUS' in Guatemala

Guatemala (MNN) ― A partnership in Guatemala is not only showing "JESUS" to people, but helping them grow in Him, too. The partnership is between the JESUS Film Project and Faith Comes By Hearing.

According to Campus Crusade for Christ's Guatemala Country Director Anibal Duarte, "There are 26 teams showing the film 'JESUS' around the country, working in 10 different languages."

The "JESUS" film is the dramatized book of Luke dubbed and created for 1,129 languages around the world. The drama has been seen billions of times, and millions have come to Christ in every nation on earth.

Team members used to have to carry a heavy film projector, generator, and screen to show "JESUS." Now, through new technology, a single "JESUS" team member can carry the equipment in a backpack. "We have right now eight backpacks. They walk, sometimes hours and hours. Sometimes I hear of teams walking 12 hours."

These backpacks are allowing "JESUS" team members to penetrate jungle areas who may not otherwise hear the Good News of Christ.

The first film team has planted 81 churches going from village to village to share the story of "JESUS." But planting a church is only the first step. These congregations are followed up and grounded in their faith. As these groups are established, Faith Comes By Hearing provides a Proclaimer. It's a digital audio player with the dramatized New Testament in their language.

Sometimes the only pastor they have is the very film team member who showed them the film "JESUS."

However, more "JESUS" packs are needed. Your support of $50 will help reach up to 500 people with the Gospel. Your gift of support will make an eternal difference in the lives of many.

Click here to get involved. 

God provides for the tiniest as Diaper Drive takes off

Guatemala (MNN) ― Start saving those diaper coupons in your weekly ads, because Florida Baptist Children's Home needs your help.

Between its domestic and international childcare programs, Florida Baptist Children's Homes uses nearly 30,000 diapers a month. To offset significant childcare costs for their foster parents and for the Orphan's Heart Children's Malnutrition Center in Guatemala, Florida Baptist Children's Home is hosting a drive.

The goal is to collect a large quantity of disposable diapers for use throughout the year, but it's really more than just diapers. Defraying the high cost of this one item allows the Children's Malnutrition Center, in particular, to worry about one less thing, and instead focus their attention more fully on the main reason for its ministry: sharing the love of Christ with children who otherwise might never know it.

(Learn more about the Children's Malnutrition Center here.)

If you live in Florida, you can help by actually delivering disposable diapers to any of Florida Baptist Children's Home's locations from September 26 to November 4. All sizes of diapers are needed, but the greatest need is for size 1-2 and size 3.

For the majority of you who are not from Florida, you can still get involved with this project. Diapers can be donated online. Options range from 40 diapers for $8.99 to 300 diapers for $39.97. Click here to give.

Everyone who makes an online contribution to the diaper drive or delivers diapers to one of the campus locations not only has the opportunity to be part of an effort to give children hope through Jesus Christ, but each donor can also register for a chance to win a free mission trip to the Children's Malnutrition Center in San Juan, Guatemala.

If a church or organization collects diapers, they can register to win two mission trips for their organization. For more information, e-mail children@FBCHomes.org, or call (863) 687-8811.

As you give, pray for the precious babies who will be wearing these necessary items, placed on them with loving hands of dedicated Christ-followers. Pray that these children would grow up to know the God who loves them enough to provide even the smallest of needs for the smallest of bodies.

To learn more about Orphan's Heart and their ministry, click here.