This article was originally published in the World Orphans Insight Magazine Spring 2021.
By: Chad Smith | Guatemala Country Director
143 million orphans globally. Over 5,000 children living in institutional care in Guatemala. Eighty-five percent of children in orphanages have at least one living parent.
Where is the church?
Confronted with those facts, that was the question I posed to my wife, Marlana, in 2010, after two years of living and serving in a children’s home outside Guatemala City. With hundreds of children coming to the home from desperate situations, where is the church? What about adoption? What about prevention? Is not the church supposed to be God’s plan through Christ to bring his hope and healing to the vulnerable, the hurting, and the orphan? If so, where is it?
This series of questions and conversations would be the impetus for our search to empower the local church to care for orphaned and vulnerable children. The question of “where is the church?” was also what would ultimately lead Marlana and me to partner with World Orphans in Guatemala. We would later learn that God was indeed alive and well, working through his church in Guatemala, but not in the glamorous way that one might expect. The work did not come from the megachurches of the well-to-do. Instead, it came from the churches in barrios … in the “hood,” as we might say in English.
Philip Yancey said, “Grace, like water, flows downhill and pools up in the lowest places.” In the book, Geography of Grace, Joel Van Dyke asks, “Could it be that the deepest reservoirs of God’s grace are located in the lowest places? … Do the people and places most marginalized and ostracized by the mainstream society and the church actually hold a prophetic vision for us all?” In my experience, I would answer this question with a resounding, “YES!” Our World Orphans team has had the opportunity to come alongside amazing women and men who have anchored their lives in Jesus alone. Hence, they devoted their lives to serving him by loving the most vulnerable, ostracized, and often forgotten by the rest of the world. Our team comes alongside the pastors and leaders to encourage, equip, and empower them to carry out their calling in caring for the vulnerable. We do this through Bible studies, times of prayer, training, etc.
I wish you and I could jump on a quick plane ride down to Guatemala to introduce you to Pastor Efraín and his wife, Glenda, Pastor Nico and Adela, Pastor David and Sylvia, Pastor Cesar, and many others! Together with the leaders in their churches, these men and women inspire and challenge us in our faith. In the midst of so few resources and so many challenges, their hope in Jesus remains steadfast; their call to serve God in some of the most dangerous neighborhoods in Guatemala does not waiver. Their vision to bring the hope of Jesus to their communities is inspiring. When I think of these pastors, the Apostle Paul’s words to the church in Corinth come to mind, “Follow me as I follow Christ.” He also says, “to live is Christ, and to die is gain.” These women and men have counted the cost, they have taken up their crosses, and they are following Jesus wherever he leads.
What is also so amazing about these pastors is their testimonies. Of the eleven churches with whom we partner, five of the pastors grew up fatherless. Several other pastors were alcoholics who God rescued and repurposed. These men and women have tasted of God’s rich love and mercy. They know what it is like to be in the valley of the shadow of death, only to find God with them. Their faith and hope in the gospel sustains them and propels them to serve in the lowest places in their community.
The Spanish word for “hope” is “esperanza.” In the verb form, hope is translated as “esperar.” What is so beautiful is that “esperar” is the same word they use for “wait.” In Spanish, the words hope and wait are synonymous. Isaiah 40:29,31 says:
[God] gives power to the faint,
and to him who has no might
he increases strength.but they who WAIT for the LORD
shall renew their strength;
they shall mount up with wings like eagles;
they shall run and not be weary;
they shall walk and not faint.
Those who wait or hope for the LORD shall renew their strength. Jesus is our hope! Friends, the church is alive! You and I, along with our Guatemalan brothers and sisters, are the church! Jesus Christ has given us the power we need through his Spirit to do his work. You and I have the hope that our neighbors are looking for; the hope that those in the lowest places of our world are searching for desperately. This is why partnering with the church is not optional here at World Orphans. It is because, apart from Christ, there is no hope. The church is God’s chosen method to bring his hope to the world. And so, I ask you: Could it be that the deepest reservoirs of God’s grace are located in the lowest places? Do the people and places most marginalized and ostracized by the mainstream society and the church actually hold a prophetic vision for us all?