Freeport, Illinois Guatemala is a country in Central America, with a population of approximately 13 million people. It is about the size of Tennessee and is located directly south of Northwestern Illinois.

Guatemala City is the capital of Guatemala. 7 million people live in the greater metropolitan area.

Guatemala is a land of many volcanoes. This one, Fuego, is active and we often see it spewing out smoke! Fuego (FWAY-go) means fire in Spanish.

Many women come from villages to the city to sell fruit and vegetables.

Guatemala produces bananas, mangoes, coffee, sugar cane and other fruits and vegetables.

Hundreds of people work digging in the city garbage dump looking for things to sell in order to provide for their families.

Men and women, aged 14 and older, work long hours in the hot sun or pouring rain and sell what they find for about $10 for a twelve hour work day.

The people in this village live in shanties built out of tin, logs and other things they find. What do you think this house would be like during the six month rainy season?

People in Buena Vista cant turn on a faucet to get water to wash their dishes or clothes or to take a bath. Some are blessed to have a well and pull up heavy buckets of water.

Many of the women in Buena Vista wash their familys clothes in the river because they dont have any water at their shanties. They have to carry their drinking and cooking water from the river. There is no electricity, so no lights or refrigerators, computers or television.

Most people dont have a stove like you might have. They use wood and a stove that might look like this. The smoke in the houses is very unhealthy for the people to breathe.

If the children in Buena Vista do have anything to wear on their feet, these are most likely the kinds of shoes they would have.

But many children in Buena Vista and other villages in Guatemala dont have shoes. Not wearing shoes often leads to disease and injury.

Many of the families in Guatemala are very large. They have lots of children. Most of the children dont have a father that lives with them at home.

Many girls have babies when they are very young. It is extremely hard to raise children when you have very little food and money.

The children in the villages and city love to hear about Jesus through Bible stories.

The kids dont mind that they dont have chairs to sit on. They sit on the ground or whatever they can find while they listen to the stories.

One of the favorite things for the children to do is to make pictures and other crafts after they hear a Bible story.

A bin makes a good table to color their crafts!

What do you think the story was about this day?

Having colorful crayons and paper is a real treat for these children.

Its great to learn about Jesus when youre surrounded by banana and mango trees!

These children are very excited to learn about Jesus and sing praises to Him.

This is the public school in Buena Vista. The classrooms are very full and the children have very few school supplies. Many children cant go to school because they dont have the pencils and notebooks they need.

This classroom is outside! During the six month rainy season it will probably get wet inside the room. In the dry season, the school did not have any water for months!

The children are happy to be in school and to have the opportunity to learn. They dont have books in this school, so paper and notebooks are very important and special.

In many ways, the children of Guatemala are just like you. They love to run and color and play soccer and have fun. And as you can see, smiles are the same in any language!!

Thank you for remembering the children of Guatemala in your prayers! Each one is a precious child of God, just like you!!