Our growing and praying team

Saturday was the Latin Link International Day of Prayer - and this year we focussed on mission mobilization.
We organised ourselves a prayer room with lots of creative activities, and had a great time together.

We were joined by our newest members.... a few arrived by plane about 10 days ago, and even our youngest member enjoyed the prayer room (well -cuddles in the prayer room at least!) - it being the first time she´d left her home since being born just 7 days earlier.

 I will keep the prayer room at my house, and continue to use it to inspire me in praying for the world and how Latin Americans can be a part of God´s mission in different parts of the world.

Politics Guatemala Style...

It´s election year in Guatemala, with the presidential elections due in September, so now the billboards are full of smiling faces asking for your vote. But recent events have been a bit different to the usual campaigning, and have galvanised many people into action. 

Over the last few months, investigations have revealed a large scale corruption scheme within the taxation system of the trade authority (SAT). The Vicepresidents personal secretary is involved and has been on the run from the police. The last 3 saturdays, various organisations, from all sectors of society, have got together for peaceful protests outside the national palace (as well as similar events in other cities), calling for the resignation of the Vice President and the President, who it is assumed are also implicated  - but who have immunity whilst they hold office. 

During the first protest, the major TV channels did not cover the event, inspite of the thousands who attended. The police also used mobile phone signal blocking technology so that those in the square could not use social media during the protest. These apparent attempts at censorship have not stopped Guatemalans: the protests continue every saturday in the major cities; a small group of citizens have chained themselves to the railing of the national palace; and other groups have organised strategic roadblocks, all calling for resignations. Last week, the vice president did resign, in order to cooperate with the police investigation but this particular scandal has drawn attention to the wider issue of corruption in government and in the electoral system. The protests continue. 

Some presidential candidates have used the situation to their advantage - using slogans showing themselves as alternatives to the thiefs and corruption. Others have become targets of the protests. One candidate, who has used the simple slogan of 'it´s his turn' as he came second in the last election, has had to cancel rallies because of the protests. Explanations of any real policies or plans have been absent so far.

For Guatemalans, who by culture, dislike and avoid conflict, it´s surprising and encouraging to see the growing dissatisfaction with the broken system. Although perhaps they have been dissatisfied for a long time, and have just become much more vocal about it recently.