“It took me ten years to build up the courage to actually go on a short-term mission trip.”
Impact Ministries has hosted over 500 Impact Trips in the past 25 years. They’ve come from across North America:
These short-term teams have a long-term impact on Guatemala. Children have felt God’s love through team members, patients have been cared for, the Gospel has been shared and souls have been saved.
But these teams inevitably also impact the team members who find the courage to come. Here’s just one of those stories:
Alvin remembers sitting in his church, listening to missionaries speak. He heard Les Peters share about Impact seven or eight times over the course of a decade, and saw teams from the Edmonton Christian Community Church leave for Guatemala and return. As he grew in his teaching career and as a leader in his church, he found himself longing for a deeper connection with God and with others in the congregation. And, after ten years of deferring, he signed up to help chaperone his church’s youth trip to Guatemala.
“I prayed for the Lord to show me Himself in action, and for my heart to be washed of the many frustrations I was dealing with.”
God abundantly answered Alvin’s prayers.
Alvin’s team participated in the devotionals at Vida Chamché School:
“Their outward expression and worship with love and longing for the Lord was something I had never personally experienced. It was my first immersion into Latin American faith and culture, and I found my soul lifted in that moment.”
He joined a hug line:
“Giving each child a hug, having just met them, left me with a hole in my chest. The longing for a human connection that these children have made it evident to me just how much I longed for the Lord’s love as well.”
He participated in a sponsor class party:
“Turns out that you can sponsor a class rather than an individual! Being able to witness our youth and the Guatemalan youth warm up to each other was magical. The Lord opened our hearts to each other. We ended in a massive group hug with many tears and smiles.”
He visited his sponsor child:
“It was at that moment I realized that it wasn’t the physical gifts that I brought which were so precious to my sponsor child, but my very presence. He had prayed for years and years to have me come and visit him.”
He attended a Guatemalan church service:
“I found myself befuddled in the church, witnessing those who have so little, offer up so much”
Throughout his Impact Trip, Alvin discovered that God truly works in amazing ways:
“God filled up my longing for Him more than I could have asked during this trip. I can only dream of the next time I can go back and visit once more. I find myself missing the many relationships and people I met along the way and thinking back to the things God has taught me on this short-term mission trip.”
Is it your turn to see what God has planned for you in Guatemala?
There are so many ways to go!
- Impact Ministries is hosting a sponsorship team at the end of August
- You can bring a team to Guatemala
- You can even share your skills through medical missions or otherwise serving in Guatemala
Fill out an interest form to start the discernment process!
(If you’ve already been on an Impact Trip, we invite you to take a moment to find your team on our newly-launched Teams Map.)