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The Glory of Missions: Guatemala

Join us as we delve into the glory of God in missions, specifically highlighting the spectacular work unfolding in Guatemala. PassionLife’s recent mission trip to this Central American nation showcased God’s powerful work through dedicated individuals.

Guatemala at a Glance: Geography, Demographics, and Pro-Life Leadership

Guatemala, situated directly south of Mexico and north of El Salvador, shares a landmass roughly the size of Tennessee. However, it is significantly more densely populated, with approximately 18 million people compared to Tennessee’s 7 million. While much of the population resides in Guatemala City, the capital, the country is described as a beautiful, lush, and mountainous green landscape, featuring active volcanoes, some of which show rising steam.

Guatemala holds a special place, as its president, a couple of years ago, dedicated a monument pledging Guatemala to be the “pro-life capital of Iberia or Latin America”. This dedication was a ceremonial event that preceded PassionLife’s first opportunity to conduct their mission work in the country.

A Foundation Laid: Pastor Fernando Solaris and the Postponed 2020 Mission

A key figure in the Guatemalan mission is Pastor Fernando Solaris, an 81-year-old who pioneered Christian TV and radio, and later social media, in Guatemala. He is a well-known and respected pastor who wasn’t converted until his 40s but now in his 80s, is full of grace and power.

In March 2020, Pastor Solaris invited PassionLife to Guatemala to train 500 pastors. This opportunity was highly anticipated, with bags packed, but the trip was canceled just two days before departure due to global travel shutdowns related to the COVID-19 pandemic. This marked a significant delay before the opportunity re-emerged earlier this year.

The PassionLife Training Event: Mobilizing 800 Leaders in Guatemala

The recent mission trip brought together a PassionLife team, including John, Jeanie, Anderson, and Naidu (colleagues from Colombia), who facilitated the training alongside Pastor Fernando Solaris.

  • Overwhelming Response: While 500 people were initially expected, almost 1,000 people registered for the event, leading to advertisements for no more registrations due to facility capacity. Approximately 800 people actually attended, making it the largest group of pastors or ministry leaders PassionLife has ever taught at one time.
  • Adjusting on the Fly: Training such a large group required a different approach than smaller, more interactive sessions of 50-60 people, necessitating on-the-fly adjustments.
  • Well-Prepared Hosts: The hosts were exceptionally well-prepared, providing attendees with:
    • A Spanish booklet called Las 4 Preguntas.
    • Notebooks for taking notes.
    • Video recording for TV stations, radio, Facebook, and other social media, generating further response across the country.

PassionLife’s DNA is focused on reproducibility; they aim to teach people how to teach biblical content, rather than merely delivering it. The goal is for everything taught to be reproduced in another group of pastors and leaders within two weeks, who then teach their church members, and those members are challenged to share The 4 Questions with 10 others within seven days.

The teaching approach, even with 800 attendees, included small group discussions. Participants broke into groups of three to five, examining scriptures and case studies to build confidence in their ability to teach the content. John, as the American speaker, brought in more people, but his goal was to transition the bulk of the teaching to Latin American leaders like Anderson and Jeanie, who are Spanish speakers, to empower local leadership.

Core Curriculum: The 4 Questions, Fetal Models, and Interactive Learning

The training centers around The 4 Questions, addressing the moral crisis of abortion. A key tool used is the medically accurate “PassionLife Tiny Baby” fetal model, representing a baby from the ninth week after conception.

  • Question 1: What does God say about human life, including life in the womb? This section emphasizes the value of human life made in God’s image and addresses when life begins according to both the Bible and science, concluding that it starts at conception. Thousands of fetal models were distributed, not only for attendees to keep but also for them to pass out to those they would teach. These models serve as conversation starters about the humanity of the unborn child.
  • Physical Materials and Digital Tools: Attendees received not only physical materials like the booklets and fetal models but also thumb drives with information and videos for future training.

Emotional Depth and Spiritual Healing: Repentance and the Power of Personal Testimony

The training involves a profound emotional and spiritual journey:

  • Weeping and Repentance: A critical moment in the training requires exposing the “evil truth about what abortion is,” connecting it to the biblical language of “shedding of innocent blood” and child sacrifice. This segment often leads to significant weeping and lamenting as people grieve over personal experiences, past inaction, or the current reality of child sacrifice. This grieving process is crucial as it gives rise to a resolve to take action.
  • The Grace of the Gospel: Following the exposure of sin, Question 3 brings the grace of the gospel to the guilt and grief associated with abortion. Jeanie Peria, an American who lives in Florida and is a Spanish speaker, shares her powerful testimony of her involvement with the abortion industry, her personal abortion experience, and her subsequent healing and restoration through Christ. Her story provides hope and freedom, demonstrating how God can cleanse consciences and turn deep, dark secrets into testimonies, enabling people to serve without hypocrisy.

Exponential Impact: Guatemalan Leaders Pledge to Reach 1.3 Million

As the training concludes with Question 4: To rescue the innocent, leaders and pastors are invited to publicly declare their commitment to teach The 4 Questions to others within their sphere of influence, starting within two weeks.

A new real-time tracking tool, an app created by operations manager Christian Harris, allowed attendees to use their phones to report their commitments. The initial 800 leaders present pledged to train 6,769 additional pastors and leaders.

Based on estimates:

  • If these 6,769 leaders, along with the original 800, teach their church members (averaging 50 per church), an additional 378,000 people will learn The 4 Questions.
  • If 25% of church members, when challenged by their pastors, agree to share The 4 Questions as a Bible study or video format with 10 other people within seven days, the number explodes to an estimated 1.3 million people. This outreach focuses on “one mother and couple at a time”.

While these numbers are estimates and follow-through is uncertain, the significant aspect is the leaders’ commitment to not let the message end that day, but to rapidly reproduce it. Even a 50% failure rate would still mean 700,000 people trained in the scriptures and shown how to promote the gospel’s cleansing power.

At the end of the session, pastors came forward, received fetal models and thumb drives, and engaged in a solemn moment of prayer, pledging their faithfulness to what they had committed to, asking for God’s grace and power.

The Path Forward: Sustaining Momentum and Prayer for Future Missions

The impact of these commitments is profound and immediate. PassionLife encourages people to sign up for text updates on their website, passionlife.org, to receive real-time news as the mission progresses to other countries. This global effort addresses the reality that the US accounts for only 3% of abortions worldwide, leaving 97% of the crisis as a world missions challenge. PassionLife seeks to rescue the most vulnerable where abortion is most concentrated, believing that Christians are the best opportunity for bringing change by obeying the biblical call of Proverbs 24:11 to rescue the most vulnerable, starting with churches, pastors, and the Bible.

This article is adapted from the episode transcript.