By Brandon Anderson
The children in Conevisa — a small village in Zacapa, Guatemala — live with little hope for the future.
A lack of jobs influences them to drop out of school, leaving most with no more than a sixth-grade education. Many of the children spend their days salvaging recyclables to sell because the village rests at the bottom of the mountain below a large dump.
Their homes are small enclosures made of scrap metal, wood and cement. Trash is scattered around the village and all animals (dogs, cats, chickens and pigs) roam freely.
There are many children in Conevisa because some of the women sell themselves as prostitutes.
The plague of poverty on the village also leaves many of its residents in poor health.
But the Conevisa people have not gone unnoticed.
Alabama Baptists Allen and Laurelle Stoudenmire, who previously served on the missions field in Guatemala, are determined to help the villagers find hope. They do this by organizing volunteer missions teams to visit the area at least annually.
“God burdened our hearts for this small village of Conevisa,” Allen Stoudenmire said. “There were so many needs here and He [has] not released us from that calling.”
The Stoudenmires’ most recent trip was in February. They took a group of volunteers, most from First Baptist Church, Satsuma, to provide dental care. The team — many of whom were dentists and nurses — set up at Shalom-Jireh Baptist Church, Conevisa, led by Pastor Rolando Cruz.
Each day families flooded the sanctuary to have themselves or their children checked for anything from a normal cleaning to a full tooth extraction.
The volunteers who aren’t medically trained assisted the families in gathering information and working through translators to talk with the adults. They also helped entertain the children.
Jackie Hill, whose husband, Roy, serves as pastor of First, Satsuma, said, “Even though it’s dental, it’s diverse.”
The team also shared the gospel door-to-door and invited villagers to upcoming church events such as a showing of the “JESUS Film.”
Stacey Rogers, a dental hygienist on her first trip to Guatemala, said, “We are meeting their physical needs like the dentistry, but we also need to meet their spiritual needs.”
And because of the consistency of the First, Satsuma, group and so many other Alabama Baptist groups going to the area and providing health services, the church is growing.
Allen Stoudenmire said, “People have realized the church is interested not only [in] their spiritual needs but also their physical needs.”
Alabama Baptists also are helping through a scholarship fund for village kids to attend a nearby school and with repairing a well in the area so there is clean water that is free to the villagers.
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