Guatever!

I saw the title of this post on a tee shirt in Guatemala. Clever! But probably more indicative of the influence of American tourists than of anything about Guatemala.

COICOM Board in Hope of Life's Tree Top Cafe

COICOM is a ministry to media professionals and Christian leaders that is now in its 25th year. I have served on it's board since the beginning. For several years fellow board member Mynor Vargas has been inviting the board to hold a meeting at the Hope of Life ministry center in Guatemala. In February we finally did it, and it was an amazing experience. More on Hope of Life below.

These were critical meetings for COICOM. The organization has struggled financially for much of its existence, but  the last few years have been more difficult than usual. The board was wrestling with existential questions... Is 25 years enough? Is our mission complete now that Christian radio and TV are present in almost all of Latin America? If not, then how do we adjust to the new digital media realities of Latin America and the world. We debated these questions and others and put together a plan for 2017.  

Carlos and Cheryl Vargas with some of the COICOM Board

Over the years the folks on the COICOM board have become some of our best friends. We were privileged to get to travel to Israel with them in 2011 when the Israeli government  hosted us there. The large and small events of COICOM, and the board meetings, have become the highlights of my spiritual calendar. So the hard questions rattled all of us. One thing that helped was the incredible hospitality and vision of Hope of Life president, Carlos Vargas, his family, and his team. They run a ministry that broke many paradigms, not just of Shelly's and mine, but for the entire COICOM board. Their ministry ranges from rescuing starving children (Reuters recently ran a story about starving children in Guatemala.), to orphanages, caring for poor families, providing clean water, church planting, seminary level training, a nursing home and a memory care unit. They even have their own hospital. The ministries are staffed by locals and helped by hundreds of work teams each year.  

Mayan Mother and Child we Met on the Rio Dulce

Carlos hosted the COICOM board and spent a lot of time with us. He showed us around their ministry, inspired and challenged us. And after three days of work, he took us down the Rio Dulce on the Caribbean coast to see some of Guatemala's tropical wilderness. We have been changed by what we saw, and I can't help but think we will return to Hope of Life, one way or another.  

Check out Hope of  Life online.  


More photos of Glen and Shelly in Guatemala
More of Glen's nature photos of Guatemala