Click below to see the new Salud y Paz video!  It will give you a great idea of what life is like in Guatemala.

Guatemala Ministry

I am Tom Heaton, a United Methodist pastor in the Indiana Conference of the United Methodist Church. Recently, my bishop appointed me to one of our United Methodist related ministries in Guatemala.

The ministry I am working with is called Proyeto Salud y Paz which in Spanish means Project Health and Peace. I am the project’s Administrator. I expect that working with Salud y Paz will take most of my time, but I have been invited by the Primitive Methodist Church of Guatemala to help provide desperately needed training for its pastors. I hope to be able to do this as I find time.

Project Salud Y Paz operates two medical clinics that serve the extremely poor of Guatemala. In a week’s time, the clinics will serve 300-400 people who exist on about $1 a day. Hard to believe isn’t it? Currently, two more clinics are under construction and the project will be opening a preschool in early 2009 to help children get a jumpstart on school.

I would be less than honest if I did not confess that I am afraid of what I might have to face in the next several months. But, I am continually reminding myself that the most used command in the Bible is “Fear not!” I trust that what the gospel teaches is true… that when the faithful begin to act, miraculous things are possible!

Now to him who by the power at work within us is able to accomplish abundantly far more than all we can ask or imagine... Ephesians 3:20