Team Frutti is in Chichicastenango, Guatemala! We are serving at a church called Iglesia Evangelica New Generation. This church is led by Pastor Juan and his family: his wife Evelyn and their son Paul. Their hearts are for the next generation. They see how sustainable change comes about slowly through deeply investing in a community, so they have chosen Camanibal, a small community about twenty-five minutes outside of Chichicastenango.
Pastor Juan is incredibly intent on pouring into the next generation—hence the name he chose for this church. His church is made up mostly of children from the community, a few mothers, and a couple grandmothers. His mindset is that if someone is already going to another church, he doesn’t want them to change to his church. He doesn’t want the numbers. He just wants to introduce people to Jesus and encourage life transformation.
Juan had us jump in right away the first day we got here. We led a piano lesson to help raise up a worship team, we led worship, and then we preached a sermon from their kid’s Spanish Bible (complete with a skit and a fun song about the Fruit of the Spirit). Juan has started many ministry outlets in his community, and it is our honor to support him in soccer ministry, picking up trash with the kids, and going on house visits.
In Chichicastenango, the city is a mix of colors and cultures. On Sundays and Thursdays, it is home to the biggest outdoor market in all of Latin America. The streets are packed with animals, clothes, jewelry, and anything that someone would want to buy. There is so much beauty and color in Mayan culture, and you can see this in the people’s clothing, food, languages—Spanish and local dialects, in Camanibal it’s K’iche—and even the colors of the buildings! Syncretism is also very prevalent. This is most easily seen in the two main Catholic churches that were built on top of Mayan temples, and that still have places both inside and on the steps to burn sacrifices (usually of candles, flowers, or chickens).
These attitudes make their way into the countryside of Camanibal as well. This schoolyear, the school in Camanibal really wanted a shaman to come do a ceremony and bless the children of the school; however, these ceremonies are really expensive. Because of the established relationship with Juan, they asked if he would do it. He said he couldn’t because it was against his beliefs, but that he could pray for all the kids for free. Since then, he has been invited to come pray at school functions. Last week, our team was also invited to share some workbooks that have stories with morals (they are Bible stories, but the schools like that they teach the kids to be kind, share, tell the truth, etc.). We did a skit on the Good Samaritan, shared our hearts, prayed for them, and then did the fun Fruit of the Spirit song with them again and got everybody jumping up and down 🙂
Evelyn and her family also has a huge heart for the police, and they do ministry reaching out to police officers as well. Evelyn was a police officer when she was in El Salvador, and her and her husband are now official licensed Chaplains and titled “Ambassadors of the Peace.” Last Wednesday, we prepared worship and a quick message for the officers. We ate a meal together, and they took us to a beautiful overlook. There we took part in a video to promote Chichi tourism and confidence in the police department and how they keep tourists safe.
Team Frutti has loved the chance to support Juan and Evelyn in any way we can while we are here, and God is doing such amazing things through their ministry! If you would like to get in touch with Juan or make a donation to his ministry, comment below and I’ll connect you directly! Thank you for your prayers and kindness. My team has been struggling with sickness off and on the past week as well, so if you could cover us in prayer against illness as well, we would greatly appreciate it.
What a beautiful snippet of what y’all are doing this month!
Excited to see the work God continues to do and what he teaches you!
Love ya!