"Are you staying at a resort?"...

...several of my friends wondered when they saw the first few photos I shared on Facebook last Sunday - those pics of our first day on the Hope of Life campus.  Indeed, a beautiful place to call "home" for the week, as Piedras Negras, our adopted village, where we spent much of our time last week, required an hour and 45-minute (rugged!!) bus commute from campus into a remote, arid, mountainous region each day.  In fact, the five or so miles leading into our village consists of a narrow dirt road winding, precariously, up a mountainside! (Needless to say, I doubt we'll be going there during Guatemala's rainy season!)

Overlooking the Hope of Life valley from our balcony.

I promised to share the story behind Hope of Life, so here it is (the abbreviated version, that is!):


Carlos Vargas was born in 1952, and raised, to the age of 16, in the little of village of Llanos Verde near Zacapa, Guatemala.  While his family was very poor, he did have access to a decent education during those years.  At 16, he had the opportunity to move to the U.S.

He worked very hard to become a wealthy businessman, and married an American woman in 1973. (They have 5 children.) But, he, admittedly, worked only for himself and his immediate family... and had NO interest in living for God or Jesus Christ, even after his brother shared his own newly-found faith.

Several years later he became very ill with several medical conditions.  He spent a few months confined to bed with severe gout, then decided he wanted to return to his home country to die.  Once back in Guatemala, a blind man, then a young homeless girl, came to him, begging for money.  Moved by these individuals, he felt the need to pray and "bargain" with God : if God would heal him, he would spend the rest of his life meeting the needs of others, particularly the impoverished and destitute in Guatemala.  Soon after, he did, indeed, heal physically!  He accepted Jesus Christ into his heart, then set about holding up his end of the "bargain".  Through his work of meeting the needs of hurting and hungry people, he healed emotionally and spiritually.



"Only two ingredients are needed: faith and action.  Faith to be convinced that we can reach our dream through God and our dedication.  Action is to pay the price."  Carlos Vargas



He had a vision of what he wanted to create.  He started with only one acre just outside of Llanos Verde at the foot of the mountains, and built a home for impoverished elderly folks.  He established the organization, Esparanza de Vida (Hope of Life) and the campus grew from there.  They own something like 3,000 acres now, and employ around 400 people, the majority are Guatemalan, I believe.

A few wild animals were donated to the campus, so they now have a mini-zoo!

On campus, he added a hospital/nutrition center for the very young, a home for developmentally and physically disabled children, an orphanage, added a dementia unit to the elderly home, built a preschool and a school for the older children, and of course, the lovely area depicted in some of my photos where missionary groups can stay, quite comfortably, while here working. 

Last year, approximately 3,000 people stayed there while on short-term missions! 

(The swimming pool is a gorgeous oasis!)

Since February is a slow month for visitors, we saw lots of maintenance work and "home improvement" projects going on.  I took notice of all the local crews that had been hired to complete it.  Shows how important "community" is to Carlos and his leadership team!

In progress now is a new medical center which will include a dialysis wing, since at the moment, the closest place to go for dialysis is several hours drive away.

Carlos believes in a "practical" approach to sharing God's love.  As a guest speaker at Timberline once stated, "See a need, fill a need."




Take a moment to enjoy some of my photos from our visits to the various facilities on campus.  Please remember these images in your prayer time!

Unit for dementia patients and developmentally-delayed adults.

Elderly home.  This is Anna Miriam.  I purchased one of her paintings!

"Kelly's House"

I need to take a moment and describe Hope of Life's unique approach to orphans:

On the bus ride from Guatemala City to campus (a 3-5 hour journey depending upon traffic and road construction!), I had the blessing of sitting next to Patti M., my new friend.  Five years ago, Patti, who is from Lynchburg, Virginia, came to Guatemala on a missions trip similar to ours.  In fact, she loved the experience so much, she came again.

While visiting the orphanage for the second or third time, she had a thought:  Wouldn't these children be so much better off in family units.  She brought this up to Carlos and his leadership team, and they had actually been praying for exactly that!  So, homes were built on campus, and the search for "house parents" began.

On the way back to Virginia, Patti felt God working in her heart:  she knew that she and her husband and three children were supposed to be parents to several of these orphans.  Once home, she shared these thoughts with her husband, Phillip, and he, too, had been thinking about the same thing!  All the pieces of the puzzle, all the logistics including selling their thriving photography business and property, fell into place over that next year, and they moved to Guatemala.

Beautiful playground on campus!

 For the last four years, they have lived at Hope of Life, parenting eight Guatemalan children, as well as their three children.  (A few other American couples have chosen this path as well!)  Patti was on the bus with us because she was just returning from an extended visit with family in Virginia:  extended because she had become quite sick over the holidays.  Phillip had returned to Guatemala with all but 4 of their brood back in January, while Patti recovered from her illness.

To hear Patti tell her family's story inspired me and warmed my heart.  We connected in a special way and I am so blessed to call her my "friend".  I hope that we stay in touch, now that we are connected on Facebook, and I look forward to visiting her on my next journey to Guatemala, whenever that may be.

I am currently reading Carlos Vargas' book, Dreams are Cheap, so I thought I would wrap this up with one more quote that spoke to me:

"To dream is to envision what doesn't yet exist, as if it were a reality....He who is a dreamer is known to build castles in the air, but never builds the foundations in the ground.  The dream-maker has his feet on the ground, and knows castles in the air don't really exist.  He understands that to make a dream a reality, a price needs to be paid on the way towards the goal."

Next blog post:  Just a few last thoughts and great photos from my Guatemala adventure!  Then, a brief update on our home projects. Watch for both very soon...