September 17–26

If you have been looking for a chance to serve the Lord in the area of foreign missions—this is a great opportunity! For the past seven years, Northwest has been sending teams to worth with mi Refugio, a school for children who live in the Guatemala City dump.

For many of these children, the school provides the only meal they eat for the day as many of the students are either orphaned or living in extreme poverty.

*If you're considering this trip, please fill out an application (available at the information counters).

Guatemala, a country in Central America, is slightly smaller than Tennessee with a current population of 13.5 million. It is the home to the western hemisphere’s greatest ancient civilization, the MAYA, who date back to the early pre-classic period (2000 to 800 BC). The Maya civilization gained its independence from Spain in 1821 which brought new prosperity to the Spanish citizens (Landinos), but worsened the lot of the indigenous Maya who, although legally free, were enslaved by debt peonage to the great land owners. A succession of military and civilian dictator governments, as well as a 36 year guerilla civil was over land ownership, left most of the nation in poverty.

In 1996, the government signed a peace agreement with the rebels formally ending the conflict, which had led to the death of more than 200,000 people and created some one million refugees. Some of these refugees found their way to the Guatemala City garbage dump, where today over 1,000 children and their families scavenge for food and recyclables. Fifty percent of the population are indigenous descendants of the Maya civilization who live in poverty in the countryside working in agriculture. They represent 20 different Maya tribes and speak 40 languages, in addition to Spanish. The country today has a literacy rate of 50%, with the population of 44% under 15 years of age and 3% over 65.

Northwest Bible Church has been involved with the missions work in Guatemala for over 7 years through the support of Kari Engen, our missionary who has served for over 20 years with Mi Refugio. Northwest’s first “hands on” experience began by sending a much needed school bus to the mission 7 years ago. The past 5 years, teams have gone to Guatemala to work on building projects, have helped out at the school, and have taught the children to sew along with other useful life-skills.

Mi Refugio, (My Refuge) is a non-denominational Christian ministry which provides free education (Pre-K–High school), food, clothing and medical assistance to children and their families who live next to the Guatemala City garbage dump and the Maya families that live in the villages surrounding the San Pedro school property. Children continuing their education beyond high school are also supported. The school has been accredited by the Guatemalan government , and all the teachers are graduates from Guatemalan schools with teaching credentials. Kari Engen is the Executive Director of the ministry, living full time in San Pedro, Sacatepequez, Guatemala.

Kari Engen first went on the mission field in 1978 while attending school by going on short-term summer missions trips to Mexico. In 1984, after completing school, she went back to Mexico full-time, and then in 1985 to Guatemala where she worked in several different ministries. In 1987 Kari started Mi Refugio for 50 students in a rented building next to the Guatemala City garbage dump in Zone 7. In 1990, a second building in Zone 3 was rented as the school expanded. The original Zone 7 building was purchased in 1991 and converted into a trade school. In 1995 a 12 acre property, with several buildings, was purchased in San Pedro, Sacatepequez to replace the rented Zone 3 building which the owner wanted back. The San Pedro property is 15 miles from the Guatemala City garbage dump, so the children are bused to the school. The school expanded at this time to include children from surrounding Maya villages of the Cakchiquel tribe. The Zone 7 building is now used for Pre-K and Kindergarten classes, teacher living quarters and as the bus depot. Since 1995, numerous renovations and new structures have been added to the San Pedro property by short-term missions teams. The school has a capacity for 400 students.