Minute for Mission: Self-Development of People
A Guatemalan woman cooks at her improved wood burning stove.
The people of El Rincón, a small, isolated community in the Chimaltenango province of Guatemala, had three related problems. Their traditional indoor cooking fires lacked enough wood for fuel. Smoke from the fires filled their homes, causing health problems. Because their firewood came from trees growing on nearby hillsides, the hills had been deforested, causing dangerous mudslides.
Community residents learned about a variety of tree that grew quickly and produced a wood that burned slowly and cleanly. They also learned about a wood-conserving cooking stove that vented to the outside. In partnership with the Presbyterian Committee on the Self-Development of People, the folks in El Rincón started a plant nursery to grow new trees for reforesting. Then they built improved cooking stoves for their homes.
The results have exceeded all expectations. Health and safety problems have decreased, the threat of mudslides is gone, and firewood is abundant again. With water runoff problems solved by reforestation, the people of El Rincón have been able to start small commercial agricultural projects, thus enhancing their meager incomes by selling their shade-grown coffee, vegetables, herbs, and fruits.
Self-Development of People, a ministry of One Great Hour of Sharing, makes dreams come true for the poor globally and here in the United States. To be funded, members of an economically poor community group must control a project themselves and benefit directly from their work together.
—Rev. Wayne A. Gnatuk, associate for churchwide relations, Self-Development of People, General Assembly Council
God of love and justice, continue to call us to do justice, to love kindness, and to walk humbly with you. Gift us with opportunities to enter into life-changing partnerships with your children throughout the world. Through our prayers and support, may the poor find new and abundant life, in the name of Jesus Christ. Amen.
Gen. 9:8–17
O Love That Wilt Not Let Me Go
PH 384, HB 400
Ps. 25:1–10
Lord, to You My Soul Is Lifted
PH 178
1 Peter 3:18–22
Ah, Holy Jesus
PH 93, HB 191, WB 280
Mark 1:9–15
Jesus Walked This Lonesome Valley
PH 80
My Hope Is Built on Nothing Less
PH 379, HB 368
Daily Lectionary
Ps. 84, 150 Ps. 42, 32
Jer. 9:23–24
1 Cor. 1:18–31; Mark 2:18–22 |
