“If one of you says to him, ‘Go, I wish you well; keep warm and well fed,’ but does nothing about his physical needs, what good is it?” - James 2:16

Throughout Jesus’ ministry, He modeled the principle of caring for the body in order to reach the soul. As He healed the sick and cleansed the lepers, He was addressing their need to be healed and cleansed inwardly as well. The ministry of Pastor David Alvarez in Guatemala City also models this principle, focusing on the health and safety needs of many living in the city’s slums while offering the truth of the Gospel to meet the immense spiritual needs. One aspect of this ministry, along with offering breakfast to children living in the slums, involves relocating families out of the heart of the slums into safer homes that meet a very tangible need for shelter.

With money donated by Ecclesia and another company, Pastor Alvarez recently purchased property to relocate one such family, the Garcia family. With limited finances, the temporary solution was to simply transfer the structure from the previous location onto the new property. However, construction has begun on the new home for the family.

Pictures of the Garcia family’s previous home:

Construction of the new home on the new property:

During the mission trip to Guatemala City in October, the team will be working to construct a home for another local family. To read more about this trip, please see the “Upcoming Trip” page. We at Ecclesia are excited to see how God will use us to reach hearts as we meet physical needs.

During the process of adopting our youngest daughter, the Lord exposed us to some amazing people with some amazing needs. We have been called at Ecclesia to give and to serve with the resources we have been provided. These are some of the photos of the places and people from our May trip to Guatemala. We are looking forward to returning in the fall. Please pray for us and we begin to plan for this next trip.

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