Pancakes for La Paz (OneAccord.org)
June 24, 2011
PLEASE VISIT OneAccord.org for more information, to register, and to donate.
A group of us from the Harbor Community have made a long-term commitment to the restoration of a community in the Villa Nueva region of Guatemala named Linda Vista. In this community, tens of thousands of people live in one room houses with no running water or electricity. We are partnered with a church there, Ciudad de Refugio, led by Jorge and Annie Cerritos. They live in the community and are amazing people of integrity.
We make at least three trips per year to Guatemala, and are specifically focused on the public school in the church neighborhood. Within this neighborhood, there are 941 students with only 42 teachers. The school building resembles a prison, complete with broken windows and barbed wire around the top of the walls enclosing the school.
Yet the children are amazingly alive and full of potential.
Plans are in the works to take another trip to Guatemala in mid-July.
Five Houstonian teachers will be on this trip, providing training for all the teachers in the school called La Paz. There are also plans to branch out into another arena - business development. Joining the group with be a Houston businessman, who will train some young adults starting new businesses in the community. These businesses will specifically employ ex-offenders and ex-gang members.
Pancakes for La Paz is raising money specifically for the restoration of that school building as well as the education system as a whole in Linda Vista. Sharing in the experience of hope, love and restoration with the Guatemalan people of Linda Vista has truly been a life-giving and valuable experience for all involved.
We invite you on that journey with us, and many others.
Blessings,
The Harbor Community & OneAccord.org