[This is from a Mission Trip to Guatemala in August, 2000. I went with my brother and 
 his church Wesley Methodist in New Albany, Indiana.  We went to help build an Orphanage
 started by missionaries Pam and Steve English (Pam had grown up in the Wesley church).]

Guatemala is more beautiful than I imaged and more third world. We flew into Guatemala City,
 which is at 5000 feet, surrounded by volcanic mountains that puff smoke into the sky.  
The hills are green with vegetation everywhere.  Since the soil is volcanic, the hills 
are easily terraced and vegetables grow right up the side of mountains.  We stayed in 
Antigua, which has been a city since Mayan times about 45 minutes from Guatemala City.  
One of the churches we visited was founded in 1670.  Right behind the house we stayed in, 
was a huge cone volcano Agua, Spanish for water.  They told us not to worry because it was 
dormant, I said so was Mount St. Helens.  To the west was Fuego (fire), and when it was 
not covered by clouds, you could see a line of smoke spewing from it.

In Guatemala, there is a major difference between the “haves” and the “have-nots”.  
The “haves” have large beautiful homes surrounded by tall, thick walls topped with broken 
glass and barbed wire.  Next door are the “have-nots” living in corrugated tin shacks with 
dirt floors and no running water.  Their lives haven’t changed much in 200 years.

Each morning at 7 o’clock, after a devotional, the thirteen of us climb in Steve’s van and 
make the 30-40 minute drive to the work-site.  We would drop some of the kids off at school 
in Antigua, travelling over its bumpy cobblestone streets.  Then we headed up into the 
mountains over simply terrible dirt roads to the Pan-American Highway and eventually to 
La Senda (Spanish for “the Way”).  This land, near Sumpango, in Sacatepequez, was purchased 
for the orphanage.  It originally was just the side of a hill and has since been terraced 
for the house and dorm rooms.  It has a gorgeous view of a huge green valley with mountains 
on all sides.  The main house and living area, fence, and utility buildings were well under 
way.  Our task was to start the rooms for the children.  

We started with just a foundation and twenty-foot rebarb columns sticking up in the air.  
We would be laying cinder blocks, building reinforcing rebarb, and making concrete molds. 
None of us had ever done masonry before and the few Guatemalan workers spoke no English. 
I was the youngest in the group, and we had members in there 40s, 50s, and one hard working 
couple in there 60s.  It was hard getting adjusted to working at 6000 feet but we eventually 
really got the hang of it and completed all the walls for three dorm rooms, each with a 
bathroom.  Twice as much as they expected us to be able to do.  My brother and I, “dos 
hermanos de la fijación”, spent part of each evening fixing or repairing anything 
mechanical or electrical, including phones, computer, fax, oven, water heater, 
drains, you name it.


Each day as we arrived home from a long day of physical work we were met by the children 
who warmly greeted us with hugs and wanted us to play and sing with them.  They were some 
of the sweetest kids I had ever been around, all full of love.  No matter how tired we 
were from the day’s work you could just not resist these kids and we played and rolled 
around on the floor until their bedtime. It truly made our work an act of love.  Over 
time we got to hear the stories of their lives of abuse and abandonment.  Many times 
when the kids arrived they would not make any contact to anyone and would be mean to 
the other kids.  After only a short time with Pam and Steve they became beautiful little 
kids again.

While we were there, one of the members of the group brought a small gift for each of the 
children.  Moises, who is five, ran up to each person joyfully showing the small car that 
he had been given.  I asked Pam why he was so excited and she said it was probably the 
first present he had ever received in his life. Yaquelin, seven, has fetal alcohol 
syndrome and will never be able to learn as quickly as the other children.  With the 
limited schools in Guatemala, it will be easy for her to fall through the cracks.  Pam 
told us she has been blessed with the power of prayer, giving long emotional prayers 
when called on.  Marta, is outgoing and bright, seeing her now it is hard to believe 
she spent 8 years living on the street and in doorways.  Sadly, many of the children 
arrive with sexually transmitted diseases.

Victor was abandoned at a hospital because he had medical problems.  The court was having 
trouble finding adoptive parents because he needed expensive surgery.  When Steve and Pam 
talked to the doctors they said it would be better to let him die than to spend over one 
thousand on one child.  Needles to say this convinced them to take him and have the surgery.  
With medical bills over $1500 he will now grow up and have a normal life.  How much would 
his life have been worth in the US?

I actually found the babies quite fun and could carry them around wherever I went, without 
them fussing, even doing odd chores.  Later I realized they hardly ever cried.  In there 
short lives they had found crying did not get them the attention they needed so they didn’t 
bother.

Pam and Steve currently have eight Guatemalan children and a 9-month-old of their own.  
Their plan is to get ten more kids a year until they reach a maximum of 50 kids.  They 
want to take children under 3 years old because the Guatemalan orphanages cannot handle 
children this young and they feel the sooner they can be raised as a part of a Christian 
family the better chance they have. They hope to move to La Senda in June of next year.  
Much work will need to be done before then and in the years to come.  They host mission 
groups whenever possible and receive mostly private donations.  People can be an encourager 
(sponsor) of a child for $25 a month, which takes care of basic costs including: clothing, 
medicine, schooling etc.  They ask that the sponsor send letters (birthday, Christmas, etc.) 
to the kids to let them know someone loves and cares about them and the kids send letters 
in response. 

To learn more about Pam and Steve’s Mission “The World our Parish” you can visit their 
website at: www.twop.org.

[So much has happened since this was written, they moved to the new site, lots more kids 
have come, some have run away, some have been taken back by bad parents, opened a refuge 
for older kids, trying to start a school, troubles with the well,…]