Hope in bars and garbage dumps: Guatemala

Country Profile

Hope in bars and garbage dumps

Guatemala | OM International

“God is faithful and has everything under control,” says Pilar Castro, leader of OM Guatemala. “We were definitely assured of that during our Easter outreach.”

The preparation for the outreach started in November 2011. “From that moment on up till the day the outreach began, there were many difficulties,” says Pilar. “But God was faithful.” The team of 170 volunteers from Guatemala, Mexico and other Central American countries were divided into 20 smaller groups, and they headed to the department of Chimaltenango in Guatemala.

Each group worked with a pastor of a church in the area. “Some of the 20 pastors didn’t even know each other beforehand, or were prejudiced. Now, they all worked together. One of the pastors thanked us for bringing the department of Chimaltenango alive again,” says Pilar?

One of the groups went to work with the Misión Maranatha church, reaching out to people at the garbage dump, the homeless and people in bars. It was in one of these bars that they met Viviana.

“We had just arrived to the centre of Chimaltenango and went to visit a bar with many commercial sex workers,” says Rebecca Medrano, a participant in the outreach. “Viviana, 16 years old, was one of them. We shared the gospel with her, and she accepted Christ in her heart.”

A couple days later, the group was forced to leave the bar. “The owner of the bar came looking for the pastor who was with us and told him she’d hire two assassins to kill him. She blamed the pastor that Viviana had called her mother to come pick her up because she didn’t want to work in the bar any longer. She said that Viviana had already left the bar and was going to church now instead,” recalled Rebecca.

After a few days, the owner of the bar called the pastor because she was ill. He prayed for her and she accepted Jesus into her life. Many other girls working in the bar followed, and so did the lady’s father.

“Nothing is impossible for God,” says Pilar. “We thank God for many lives that were changed in this outreach. We could see God being glorified through it all.”

Over the course of the outreach, the participants shared the gospel with over 6,000 people and witnessed 825 of them accept Jesus into their lives. “Please pray with us for every single person who came to Christ in this outreach,” says Pilar. “Pray that they will get brothers and sisters in Christ close to them, who can help them grow.”