Vanessa in Guate

Hey! I just wanted to check in to say Merry Christmas and Happy New Years to you all! I hope your December has been a good one! It's so crazy that 2017 is almost over and I've almost been serving in Guatemala for a year! Thank you all for the continued support. I've received hand-written, machine-scanned letters from my small group in Anaheim, and it melted my heart! Let it be known that I truly appreciate being in your thoughts and I appreciate so much when you all take time to send me a little smoke signal. ;) For now, I'm preparing for the 2018 school year that starts next month. During the 2018 school year, I'll be teaching 3 Bible classes (woohoo!) and 3 English classes, as well as continuing to develop and better the Home Visit program! I was invited to spend Christmas with my Guatemalan friend's family - they celebrate on the 24th, and apparently late into the night. I'm excited to experience this holiday with them and so thankful for the invitatio

Hello! I have three things to tell ya! and three prayer requests for you :) One-on-Ones The school’s psychologist and I started one-on-ones with the students a few weeks ago. We are meeting with students that the teachers have concerns about. Concerns range from grades, missing school, family support, and/or behavioral changes/issues. We are finishing up the last of the interviews, then moving forward to visiting the families in their homes. Please be praying that God would continue to guide us in wisdom and strength as we work together with the students and their families to offer more support and see that they are thriving both in their relationship with God and in their education. Youth Group in Santa María This week I went to youth group in Santa María de Jesús – I am going to continue to volunteer with the youth. This is a great opportunity to invite the middle school students to church. Some of them have expressed that they are nervous to go, because they don’t know anyone or th

Mission Impact has been serving in Santa María de Jesús through the ministry of Próximos Pasos for 14 years. Próximos Pasos exists to educate, meet basic needs, and share the hope found in Christ with Santa María girls and their families. Próximos Pasos had its first school year in 2003 with a total of 29 students in 1st through 4th grade. This year, there are 206 students in 1st through 9th grade! Glory to God! Another praise is that the parents of the students are more involved now than ever before, and students are leading devotionals and prayers. Guatemala's history would suggest that females are second-class citizens. Guatemala is very much a male dominated country, and the usual mindset is that if girls attend school, they will go until 3rd or 4th grade so that they can read and write. After learning to read and write, they can stay home, clean, raise the family, and begin selling produce and artisanal goods. Girls make up a majority of the Guatemalan children that do not a

Santa María de Jesús is the little town where Proximos Pasos, Mission Impact 's all-girls school, is located. This region is home to an agricultural community; it consists of men who are primarily farmers and field workers, and women who are homemakers as well as vendors of the harvest and their own handmade goods. When I make my way through the town at 6:45am there are small boys, young men, and older men who are probably grandpas who head out with their machetes, rain boots, and empty nets for a day of work. There are some boys and girls who go into the center of town to collect water from the public water reservoir (I guess you can call it?) because their home has no running water. There are women carrying baskets of food/produce/product on their heads to the market to sell for the day. Sometimes they carry their product to the microbús (big vans) to ride into the more populated city in order to sell to a larger population. This is the way that the community fun

Hello! Rob & I. An illustration on blessings from God I hope you've been having a blessed Sunday. Just wanted to let you guys know that God has placed a wonderful community of believers in my life in the quick 4 months that I have been here. (Praise Him!) The community of teachers and staff at Proximos Pasos is awesome, because they are so Christ-centered. They always bring praises or petitions to God before anything else, and I am glad to see that God has created such a great family of believers to care for and serve the students and their families. I moved into an apartment a month ago and my roommate, Marissa, and I asked a wise pastor (and missionary), Rob, if he would be willing to lead a group of us in a Bible Study. He agreed and we have been blessed with 4 Bible Study get togethers on Spiritual Growth/Formation. It's been challenging and encouraging altogether. This little family is such a blessing because we get to do life together, honestly and vulnerabl

Partnering with me to serve with Mission Impact: One of the ways you can partner with me is by prayer. Prayer for strength, wisdom, and peace in sometimes sad/hard situations.  Also, if you have any prayer requests I'd love to be praying with you too, so feel free to message me! I truly appreciate when you guys take time to respond to my emails/blog posts, so that's definitely a way that I could use support. :) As a missionary, I am responsible for raising 100% of my financial support. I am currently 75% funded. If you feel called to financially partner with me in this ministry, you could go to the   Mission Impact Giving Page . You can set up recurring Monthly Support or donate a one-time gift. How to Financially Support This Ministry: 1. Click the  Link 2. Fill out the form 3. Select "Vanessa Salcedo Support" as the Gift Designation Thank you all so much for your financial and prayerful support! Thank you for partne

Today, Proximos Pasos was blessed by God's Eyes International .  God's Eyes is a ministry that travels to remote locations in 3rd world countries to host eye clinics where an eye doctor would not be available otherwise. Today they came to Santa Maria de Jesus, and we are so grateful! I was a volunteer at the eye clinic, and my role was to translate what the doctor was saying to the patients. I had to tell the patients what to do during the eye exams and explain their prescriptions to them. There were quite a few students and parents who received glasses today (Praise God!), and a few students who found out that they have an astigmatism. Although it’s not good news to find out that your eyes aren’t working the way that they should be, it was good for them to know the seriousness of their condition. The students with more serious eye conditions received eye glasses that would help, but were strongly advised to see a specialist. One of the girls was so excited to

Just to show you a little bit of the uniqueness of Guatemala! These are probably not all completely unique to Guatemala, but they're different from the States!

Hey all! Monday was the Guatemalan Labor Day, so today was my first day at Proximos Pasos. For teachers, the school day begins with a meeting at 6:45am. After the meeting, I joined Adwina (a friend and fellow missionary at Prox) as she taught the 5th and 6th grade English classes. I observed how she teaches the classes, then we went to our office so Adwina could teach me the logistics of the Guatemalan grading system. There is a Tuesday devotional at around 10am where all of the girls go to the assembly room, so that the girls themselves can share Scripture, pray, and lead worship together. Towards the end of the devotional, a teacher will share a Biblical teaching for the week and all of the girls join together to read the Bible verse that coincides with the theme. The theme for today's devotional was "patience" and the verse they learned together was Ephesians 4:2.  Today some middle-school boys visited from Mission Impact 's other school,  Vida y Esper

"Submit to one another out of reverence for Christ." Ephesians 5:21 NIV We are called to be selfless and to serve (submit to) one another because Christ is our Lord. I truly believe that relationships can find healing when grace is offered and when love is extended sacrificially; where it is not necessarily deserved or earned. I am thankful that grace is offered and received, because we all are in need of it! I'm writing this today because I am so so thankful for everyone that God has placed in my life. One thing that I really love is beginning and growing in relationship with others. Today, I am specifically praising God for allowing me to love and be loved by so many! I miss friends and family in the U.S., but it is a huge blessing to even have people to miss! I am so grateful for every one of you who has chosen to partner with me as I serve with Mission Impact; whether that be prayer partnership or with financial partnership. Thank you for supporting