Everybody has dreams even when they may not be realistic.  Ten years ago the Guatemala association had a dream to have a pastoral training center.  They wanted a school that would train the poor and undereducated in theology, pastoral care, and Christain leadership.  They started classes but quickly ran out of room in the small churches where they were meeting.  Six years ago they came to Beyond Partnership and asked if we could help raise money to buy land and build a training center.   Through several generous gifts, the association was able to buy a great piece of land near many of the churches.  Then a church and several individuals donated money for the construction of the first phase of the center.

The association has done all the construction with volunteer labor.  They have the labor; they do not have the money for materials.  So often I hear that we will take away the self-motivation of poor church associations if we send them resources.  That has not been our experience.  Through volunteer labor, they have finished the first phase and are working on the second phase.  They have a large meeting room and have put up the walls for the classrooms.  As soon as they get funds, they will use volunteers to put on a reinforced concrete roof on the classrooms.

One of impressive realities for me is that they have been using the center for classes and retreats since they bought the land.  They look forward to finishing the center but that has not stopped them from using what they have to advance the Kingdom and train leaders.

Blessings,

Steve Reed

This entry was posted on Tuesday, January 26th, 2010 at 1:15 am and is filed under Updates. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.