Guatemala - Outreach Ministries

Manos de Amor (Hands of Love):
A new outreach in the slums of Guatemala City
By Frank Block

What am I doing on the roof of this church, you might ask? First of all, it’s flat so the likelihood of my tumbling over the edge is minimal, even though there is no retaining wall or fence. This is also one way to get a sense of what is going on in the Rat’s Nest slum which surrounds Shalom Baptist Church, in Guatemala City.

The Rat’s Nest teems with a million people, tightly packed together on hillsides too steep for habitation. Narrow dirt paths lead between thin corrugated metal walls that outline a squatter’s territory. All the sounds of life can be heard behind these fences held in place with sticks. Clean water and sewers are a dream. The smells are putrid and powerful.

Back up on the roof, as I peer from my perch (actually sitting on a chair now), I hear the sounds of a city teeming with life: vehicles and horns, families talking, moving about within their corrugated enclosures making supper, tending small gardens, arguing, generally getting by.

All homes, businesses, even churches are surrounded by some kind of fencing, from concrete with razor wire or broken glass embedded in the top to wood sticks fastened together with string. All are seeking protection from the criminal element so rampant in these areas, the poor preying on the poor.

One might venture into the Rat’s Nest during the day, but never at night, I’m told. To do so is to risk life itself. Shootings are common, and so are shotguns, used for defense of self and property. Hired guards are common at stores throughout Guatemala City, and guards ride shotgun (literally!) on Coke and Pepsi trucks. I even passed a bread store where a guard stood outside with his shotgun!.

The Rat’s Nest has overtaken an area too steep and too small for the million who live here. There are Social problems, including incest and molestation, with statistics verifying that over one-third of children under 10 years of age have been sexually molested, often by a family member. Fully one-half of girls living in the slums have had at least one pregnancy before their 18th birthday! 60 women present themselves each day to the city hospital with self-induced abortions (coat hanger, umbrella, you name it).

Other social problems abound, including the spread of sexually transmitted diseases, violence and sewage-borne illnesses. Program after program have been tried, all to no avail. Though each offers medical care, counseling, instruction for living healthy amidst squalor, etc., the most important aspect is forgotten: the release from sin that only salvation can bring! People are not directed to the Lord and away from the entrenched sin that entraps them; their symptoms are treated, but the cure is ignored.

With public health professionals as instructors, we are planning an all-out assault on the symptoms, and on the cause! Using Shalom Baptist Church as a base, we have formed Manos de Amor (Hands of Love) and we are training 50 women from the slum to serve as Community Health Workers (CHW’s). Each is being trained to identify basic physical, social, and sanitation problems and help families either remedy the problem or direct them to resources in the local area where help can be found.

Each CHW is a strong believer with a heart to evangelize, and what greater way to reach their neighborhood than with practical medical and social help, and the Lord, too!

Rev. Perdomo, pastor of Shalom Baptist Church and a man full of energy, is spear-heading the program. “Our goal is to lessen pregnancies in this slum by 50% in 5 years,” he states confidently. “With the Lord’s help and Presence, we can make a difference.” He should know: choosing to start and pastor a church here some years ago, he has spent hot day after day in these slums, sharing the Gospel and practical help as well. He has also seen the failure of efforts from a secular approach that attempt what we are envisioning, but without the Lord. They fall flat. “People can get over their infections, they can remedy their sanitation problems and diseases, but for the disease of the heart there is but one cure, the Savior!” He speaks of seeing too many families trapped in their own mistakes, unable to rectify them despite all the social help available, until they receive the grace of the Savior and His forgiveness.

Adoption will be an important and driving component of Manos de Amor, with that option being presented to the many pregnant young women that we will encounter. We anticipate many babies being available for adoption soon.

It will cost about $400 per CHW to train the first class of students. The training will take 10 months, and the staff will include physicians, public health professionals, and Christian workers. Help is needed to fund this first class and to get the program going. Any help you are prompted to give will be much appreciated. These workers are venturing into the spiritual darkness of the slums; they will need our prayers.

 

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