Food for the Soul

As part of Compassion’s holistic programme, good nutrition is vital to the healthy development of its children. Compassion projects provide regular, balanced meals for the children and often supplementary provision for their families. And yet, just as important is the spiritual nourishment being offered.

At the Herederos del Reino project in Quetzalí, Guatemala, there are two children who have known the benefit of both types of sustenance. Siblings Emerson and Kimberly are from a single parent family. Their mother, Mirtala, was the victim of domestic violence at the hands of her partner and ran away with the children.

"We were poor and I had no way of giving them more than just breakfast. I was a single mum and worked as much as I could," says Mirtala with tears in her eyes. But it was at this time that she heard about a Compassion project in the local area. The two children were enrolled and began attending immediately. They would come home and tell their mother all about the tasty meals they received at the project!

But then Mirtala noticed other things changing at the dinner table: "My son Emerson would put his hands together and pray each time we had a meal," she recalls, "I was amazed!” He would also recite to her the Bible verses he had memorised.

In fact, everyone in the family saw the difference in Mirtala's children. Her eldest son, Juan, even started attending church, such was the impact of seeing the changes in the lives of his sibling who attended the project. Mirtala soon realised that she was all alone at the house on Sundays and she was starting to perceive a deeper, spiritual hunger that she didn’t know she had.

She first went to the church to see a play performed by the children at the Compassion project. "The minute I walked in the people in the church were very kind to me. Each time I attended they talked about God's word. It was so filling," says Mirtala. She accepted Jesus as her Lord and Saviour and the whole family now attend church together every week.

Another young Guatemalan lady, who Compassion has nourished since she was a little girl, is Marilyn Garcia Cifuentes. She has wanted to be a chef ever since she can remember.

Growing up, Marilyn would cook meals for her little sister as her mother had to spend long hours at work. Now aged 15, Marilyn is still as passionate about cooking: "One of the things I love about cooking is that you get to work with different flavours, smells and even different colours."

However, Marilyn’s mother could not afford to send her daughter to cooking school to pursue her dream. So Compassion, ever committed to seeing children fulfill their God-given potential, has paid for her to attend an excellent course which teaches how to prepare traditional Guatemalan foods, basic international foods, desserts and drinks. What’s more, because of her outstanding talent, Marilyn was invited to be the head chef of a lunch for 500 guests, including the mayor, to celebrate Women's Day!

Through the support of Compassion, Marilyn now has a certificate in cookery and hopes to build on this foundation in the future. "I want to keep on learning. Now I have a way to make money and pay for other courses," she says. "My dream is that one day I can have my own restaurant."