Zilkie Mission Trip 2024
We are delighted to announce an exciting new chapter in our
lives. On December 31st 2023 we will be
flying to Manzanillo, Mexico, and making a short trip a few hours away to a place
called Colima.
We will be spending the month of January serving at the
Hogar D’amor orphanage and school, http://www.hogardeamor.org/
or https://www.facebook.com/hogaramor. We will be
helping with projects, ministries, teaching and loving and serving children at
the various schools.
If you have heard of Colima before that’s because Val &
Wayne went to Colima to serve at this same orphanage in 2001 for 6 months. In
2012 Erin took a team of youth to Colima as well. The team in Colima is very excited to welcome
our family as they haven’t had Canadian visitors in several years, and there is
lots of work to be done.
On January 30th we will be flying from Guadalajara
Mexico to Guatemala City, Guatemala. We than drive about 4 hours to a small town
called Guazacapán, (Poza de Agua in Guazacapan) which is surrounded by mostly rural communities
and villages.
After hearing from
over a dozen people who had been to Guatemala and a place called Fe Viva, we
felt the Lord prompting us to explore further.
The founders are from Kelowna and Jay went to school with their daughter-in-law. There were too many connections
not to ignore God’s direction and after meeting Kim & Lynn Weller ( they
were here in Kelowna in September visiting family) we were absolutely sure this
is what God has planned for our family.
Fe Viva - https://www.feviva.org/ , has numerous ministries
including, clean water filters, smokeless stoves, schools, soccer programs and
much more. They have a large compound and
employ nearly 20 full time staff. This
is one of the poorest areas in the world, and the 3rd most common
cause of death is smoke inhalation (many children) which is why they provide a
smokeless stove program to thousands.
It takes a lot of planning and sacrifice to get to this
point. The Lord has blessed us with an
amazing and supportive company Jay works for to allow us to go and be
supportive.
Our WHY:
We feel called by God to go and serve and live out our faith
in Jesus in places of extreme need. We
want to sacrifice our time and our comforts to meet the basic needs of people
living in poverty. We want to experience
this all as a family. From Izaiah, Amara
and Micah, we want our kids to see how fortunate we are living in Canada, and how
little people have and live with, and how content they are.
How to get involved:
1. You can donate to our church to get a tax receipt - this will help with some of the costs of our trip and will go directly to the https://www.powerscreekchurch.com/giving (just add in the notes section where you want it to go)
2. Colima, Mexico - You can donate directly through Hope for the Nations Charity and receive a tax receipt. This will help fund the valuable work they are doing here: https://www.hopeforthenations.com/agents/hogar-de-amor-y-proteccion-al-nino-ac/
3. Guatamela - Fe Viva - You can donate directly to Fe Viva on their website, just click donate and under the Canada section you can donate through Pay Pal and receive a tax receipt. https://www.feviva.org/
PRAY:
-
Prayer that we would be helpful & useful to
each ministry
-
For our family- that we would grow together and
deepen our faith
-
We would have opportunities to make deep
connections with people we are working alongside
- For safety/ protection/ health as we travel &
day to day ministry.
