CESSMAQ supports and provides various programs aimed at children and youth. These programs are dedicated to:

• Ensuring participation of young men and wimen in a new generation of leaders with Christian principles and values.
• Providing and supporting schools for occupational training for youth in situations of poverty.
• Developing Christian recreational and sports activities which include attitudes of tolerance, respect and recognition of human relations and human rights, and rejection of bad habits and violence.
  

In 2001, Presbyterian children and congregations across the US collected loose change in piggy banks to send to Guatemala. The millions of pennies they amassed went to buy pigs for families, a successful micro loan program where Guatemalan families raised and sold piglets before repaying the cost of the original animals. In rural Guatemala where the majority of families work on coffee plantations and have to survive on $3 to $4 per day, the additional income made a significant difference. Those pennies collected in Sunday school classrooms gave birth to hope and new lives for some of the poorest families and children in Central America.

Now our pennies are needed again. Mission Presbytery's Guatemala Partnership is asking churches -- and children – in Central Texas to send their change to support a new micro-loan program in Guatemala. These loans will go to buy fabric to be
sewn into clothes, woodworking tools, and other supplies to help these struggling, hardworking people break the cycle of poverty.

The small change from your pocket or collection plate can make an enormous difference. People are frequently very motivated to move into new areas of work but, on an agricultural worker's salary, cannot find the money that would be needed to buy the tools, material or equipment necessary to get started. Life Change offers them a way to move forward.

How does Life Change work?

Donations to Life Change are pooled and used to finance small loans to Guatemalan workers to start particular projects. When the project is at a stage where products can be sold, the loan is repaid and the money then becomes available to new groups of workers.

As loans are repaid, the money is loaned to new people and the original gift keeps on giving!

The families served by these loans are desperately needy, yet eager for the chance to work at changing their condition. The coins we collect may be small change for us, but it can change their lives.

Donations in any amount are greatly appreciated. Please support the Life Change ministry. Help us transform the world, and build His Kingdom, one family at a time.

You may contribute to Life Change by sending a check payable to "Mission Presbytery" with "Guatemala Life Change" in the memo field to:

Mission Presbytery
7201 Broadway
Suite 303
San Antonio, TX 78209

Thank you for your support!