Nineteen students from the InterVarsity chapters at Sonoma State University and San Francisco State University, both in California, traveled to Antigua, Guatemala earlier this summer. They worked with Students International Ministries, with the goal of sharing God’s love, salvation, and compassion with the poor through community development projects. InterVarsity students served people in the areas of education, agriculture, health, and sports.
In education, the team assisted with preschool classes. InterVarsity students shared the gospel with children during class in the mornings and played soccer with them in the afternoons. In agriculture, the students vaccinated pigs and chickens. They also built a chicken coop for one of the families in Antigua. Students prayed for and with the residents of the village while sharing meals with them.
One afternoon, the team visited a local hospital. Seeing the sick, physically and mentally handicapped, and abandoned children with medical problems helped the students to think about how the American and Guatemalan cultures view people who are sick. As they studied the Bible, examining Jesus’ interactions with the poor, the group felt challenged to respond to patients’ needs with love, compassion, and the gospel message of Jesus.
Armando Cuadro, one of the students, responded to his experience of talking with patients in the hospital, “I’ve grown up in a church my whole life, and I’ve heard many things about who Jesus is and the things that he cares about. It’s true that he cares about me, but there is much more to it than that. I learned that Jesus cared so much about the poor and the sick, and that he occupied most of his time with healing the sick and preaching the good news. Now having worked with the poor, I understand more about the love that Jesus has for the poor. Now, I too feel like I need to do something.”
Many InterVarsity students around the country participate in missions projects around the world to share their hope and faith in Jesus Christ with others.
