A team of Saint Mark Lutheran Church members traveled to Guatemala October 10 – 18, 2026, to work on a building project for a family in San José Calderas. The trip was a wonderful opportunity to share resources and the love of Christ with our brothers and sisters in Guatemala.
Our group of nine stayed at the Child Beyond team house in Guatemala City, where we joined forces with another small team from Wisconsin. Each day we traveled approximately an hour to the town of San José Calderas where the building project was located. The house was being built for the Hernandez family, who had been selected by working with local churches in the San Jose to identify qualified families in need.
Child Beyond has purchased land in the town of San José, with the intention of developing a community center, team house, and housing for their orphanage. While the property is under development, they are currently focusing on helping the local community with a variety of housing projects, and an on-going health clinic improvement project.
When we arrived at the Hernandez house site, the concrete slab had already been prepared by the Child Beyond construction team, assisted by the Hernandez family members. Construction materials were also on site. For five days, we worked through rain and shine to assemble the frame, sand and nail on the siding boards, construct the roof and install corrugated metal sheets, and install windows and doors. We also constructed a small cooking shed and built a concrete wood-burning stove with chimney for ventilation. The final part of the project was to outfit the home with bunk beds, window treatments, linens, table and chairs, and some other house-warming gifts.
The best part of our trip was meeting all the wonderful people we were privileged to interact with in Guatemala. The Child Beyond staff, including Jorge, José, Pablo and Isabella, were incredibly generous, welcoming and skilled. It was a joy to get to know the Hernandez family and their neighbors, and we especially loved our time spent with their children. Even though there was a language barrier, the young people in our team developed a warm friendship with the kids of the neighborhood by playing games and communicating through simple words and actions.
We are so grateful to the many donors who helped make this trip possible. May God richly bless you for sharing your financial gifts with this lovely Christian family in Guatemala.
-
Saint Mark Lutheran Church