FEATURE STORY
HEARTBREAK Top: The CMS Central America mission partners with Paul Tester (left), mission development manager for Latin America Top right: Steve Poulson with one of the young men from the mentoring project Bottom: Fernando made huge progress in reading at Proyecto Alas
24
AND HOPE In 2017, CMS sent four mission partners to work among marginalised people in Central America. We caught up with them to learn how God is at work in Guatemala and Honduras.
S
teve Poulson had known that Honduras would be a part of his future ever since he first visited in 2009. Likewise for Mark and Rosalie Balfour, their call to Central America started with a youth mission trip to a home for rescued street children in Honduras. Later they also ended up travelling to Guatemala. When the time came to celebrate their 25th wedding anniversary they realised they “wanted nothing more than to go back to the streets of Guatemala City.” Azaria Spencer’s journey to knowing that God was calling her to Guatemala was more gradual. She just knew she had a passion to work
with people on the edges of society, particularly children and young people. All four ended up training and being sent by CMS around the same time. All four are working with a local organisation called Street Kids Direct, helping to offer children and young people an alternative to gang life, violence and drugs. And in their first three years of service, all four have faced huge challenges – including the current crisis – and seen their roles change and grow in surprising ways.
THE C A LL – S UM M E R 2 0 2 0