IMPACTO: Ministry Changes
IMPACTO TAKES THE CHALLENGE
We have exciting news to share…Impacto is making
some changes for 2012! After reading When
Helping Hurts (by Steve Corbett
& Brian Fikkert) and spending several
hours of discussion in an Atlanta meeting, our team has been convicted to make
some changes that we believe will make Impacto’s ministry better. Another
important influence that caused us to re-think things was hearing the speakers
at the August Pastors Congress. God has placed it in our hearts to begin with
these new concepts in January and implement them as we can throughout the
coming year. Remember, it is a process and it will take time to fully move in
the direction we feel God’s leading.In the past, Impacto has given away shoes, provided free medicines and visits with doctors, and constructed houses once a family purchased their own piece of land. We believe that we may have done a disservice by giving away everything. As you know, when a person takes ownership in something, it becomes more valuable to them. If things are always handed over freely, people become dependent. They do not develop self-esteem, pride in accomplishing something, or the realization that they are not helpless. Yes, the people of Guatemala are poor; some extremely poor. However, that poorness in no way negates their need for self-esteem or their need for a sense of pride in accomplish-ments. We need to help them find hope instead of feeling hopeless simply because they are poor.
The new direction we feel God leading us towards is one that
will help build these characteristics in the ones we serve. Instead of giving a fish, we will be teaching how to fish so that people
become more enabled to do what they once thought they could not do. We want to
help move the mindset from “I/we can’t” to “I/We can” and then celebrate with
“Look what I/We did!” (Romans 12:2 -- Renew your minds in Jesus Christ)
One way to achieve this will be to start charging a minimal
amount for shoes, doctor visits, medicines, houses, etc. We are looking at each
village and working with the pastors and leaders to determine what to charge.
For example, in the poorer villages, perhaps 50 cents per pair of shoes will be charged. In another village where the people are better off, perhaps 75 cents or 1 dollar per pair will be charged. If someone wants to purchase 10 pairs of shoes and then chooses to sell them for double the amount they paid, that is fine. It will help them to have an income to purchase food and supplies for their families. This will help accomplish our goal of families becoming self-supporting through microenterprises.
For a house to
be built, the family will have to work alongside teams in the building, and
they will have to pay something for their house. It may be as little as $1.50
to $3 per month until they can pay off their “mortgage.” Some will be able to
pay more but we do not want to make
it a big burden on any family. The money collected for any project will go
back into providing funds for other ministry efforts or possibly even helping
other families get started with something like raising chickens.
A new project, Happy Tummies, will begin in February after school has been in session for a few weeks. We will visit the public schools to talk with teachers to find which children are having trouble with their studies. Some children go to school hungry and cannot concentrate and learn because they are so hungry. They come from families that are extremely poor. This summer, at least 7 little children died in the San Juan area due to hunger. We will start with 15-20 children in the Happy Tummies project. They will come to a location in San Juan after school where they will get a nutritious lunch, hear a Bible story, play a game or two and then spend an hour or two with a tutor. We hope to find locals to pay to be tutors, providing another small income for some in the community. Records will be kept on each child to check their progress in weight gain, nourishment, and improvements on their report cards. Requirements for the children selected will be that they must attend school. Their report cards will have to be brought to us with a note from the teacher giving an update on the child’s progress.
If we find an especially needy family with children below school age, we hope to be able to allow them to participate in the program. These children will be fed a nutritious meal and we’ll tell them a Bible story, play a game or have some sort of activity, sing, and be taught some basics that children in the U.S. and Canada learn in pre-school. [Team Leaders: Start thinking of ways your teams can participate and help with this project when you come to minister.]
Parents of children in the Happy Tummies project will be required to take turns cooking
meals, feeding chickens and gathering eggs, planting and tending a garden, and
cleaning the area where Happy Tummies will
be held. The eggs, chickens and garden harvest will be used for the meals. We
hope to have vitamins to provide for each child on a daily basis. We’d also
like to provide adult vitamins for the parents. Because we always want to
present the Good News, we will hold at least a monthly or twice-monthly meeting
that the parents will be required to attend. These meetings will be a time for
a short update on their children and then we plan to have a time of worship and
either preaching or Bible study.
Training is something else we pray teams will agree to
help with. This past summer, we had several weeks in which different teams
taught pastors and leaders how to prepare and lead their own VBS. It was a
tremendous success! After the second time a team led training, the pastors came
to us and said they wanted to try to do their own VBS this year! Impacto staff
met with the pastors and leaders several times to help them out. What a joy it
is to see the results of the hard work done by the teams and Impacto staff! For
the first time, the lake area churches came up with their own theme, Bible
verses and stories to go with the theme, provided the snacks, and some even
came up with a couple of crafts. They were taught to “use what you have
available” to God’s glory and that’s just what they did! God blessed their
efforts in many, many ways. We anticipate even greater success as they continue
to learn and lead in their churches. If your team could teach and provide
resources on how to set up Sunday School, Bible studies, ladies programs, men’s
programs, children’s programs, set up committees, coordinate volunteers, etc.,
it would be a blessing for every church that received such training and
resources.
Stewardship is a discipline we are trying to teach. The churches have always said they can’t pay/support a pastor. This summer’s Pastors Congress had a session on Stewardship. Pastors were challenged to go back to their congregations and begin teaching and preaching on stewardship. The widow’s mite is a prime example: She gave willingly and sacrificially what she had, regardless of how small the gift. Changes are being seen in the lives of people who have been taught about and are now tithing. One young man made a commitment that he would begin to tithe even though he thought his family could not afford to tithe. God has blessed him with a raise in his salary. Christians miss one of God’s greatest blessings when they do not tithe.
An area of change not project-related is that teams will depart for the lake, Zacapa or Coban on the day of their arrival. Of course, if the arrival time is too late, they will wait until the next day. The last night of the ministry week, teams will stay in Antigua and depart from there for the airport the next day.
We hope this gives you an idea of the direction Impacto is heading; that you will be excited and join us in these efforts to equip and empower the people and while sharing the love and light of Christ. We want to uplift people and encourage them to think of how they can do things they previously thought they could not accomplish. Please pray with us as we strive to begin implementing new ministry ideas and projects.
If you have questions or want more information, please feel free to contact us at spoythress@newlifelaplata.org.
Serving Christ with you,
The Impacto Staff
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