Staff: Mario Méndez

"Participants will be working in and around the community of Magdalena in a variety of different agricultural projects.  Some activities include vaccinations of farm animals, building chicken coups and pig pens.  All of the building projects are made in cooperation with a group that Pastor Mario has formed in order to provide continued training in the agricultural field as well as biblical instruction.  We feel that these projects provide long term sustainability for the families.  There is a lot of walking involved with this site."

The agriculture site is carried out in the town of Magdalena Milpas Altas.  In this mostly agricultural area, the majority of the population is made up of the indigenous Mayan Cakchiquel people.  The agriculture site began in 1994, and we have ministered for the last 15 years with agricultural programs identifying with the culture, promoting values and development within the community.

Vision:

Help farmers with forms of work that they can identify with, and that they can carry out.

We have a ministry with women who are operating small businesses with chickens and pigs for meat, which the women care for.  We have also initiated a program with animals with good quality genetics.

In the last five years, we formed a model group made up of men from the community, to raise pigs for meat and goats for milk.

We also help with a veterinary program giving support to the whole community of Magdalena Milpas Altas and surrounding communities: Santo Tomas, Santa Lucia, San Miguel, and Buena Vista.  The veterinary program is focused on helping to improve the quality of the animals produced, while at the same time sharing Christ, building community development programs, and using those programs as a tool for building a friendship with the people in the culture.  Helping them care for their animals includes giving anti-parasitical drugs, vitamins, and antibiotics to the animals, as well as a brief training to the farmers on how to work well to obtain a better profit from the animals.

How are students involved at the work site?

When we receive high school and university students, we involve them or make them participate in helping or supporting the site leader in the work or program already established, blessing the leader and the people helped.

The students have the opportunity to create friendships with the people of the culture, spend time sharing their testimonies, (and working with their hands) be part of the veterinary work and build chicken coups and pig pens.

What do the students learn?

The students, through the agriculture ministry site, can share the love of Christ with the people of Magdalena.  During their time here, they can have a varied experience like nothing they have had before.

The students have the opportunity to help in the construction of chicken coups and pig pens, help in the veterinary work, build relationships with the families, experience living in another culture, know the other culture and learn another language, learn to live a life dependent on God, and share their faith.