October 1 is Día del Niño — Kid's Day — in Guatemala. It's a real holiday there. Piñatas, candy, games, the whole thing.
This year we're throwing that celebration at a school of 350 children, and we want every one of them to walk home with a backpack.
90 children are already sponsored. We're raising the rest here.
**$10 buys a backpack for one child.**
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I've been traveling to Guatemala for over a year now. The first few trips changed how I think about a lot of things. I took so much for granted.
Most of the families we've come to know don't have running water or an indoor bathroom. Dinner is often tortillas and whatever else there is that day. And the kids are still at school every morning. Nobody there talks about any of it like it's a tragedy. It's just life.
God has placed these children and their families on our hearts, and we couldn't let October 1 pass without doing something.
We didn't just guess at what would help. We asked the school directly. They told us the government covers some basic school supplies, so what they actually need is backpacks and shoes. So that's what we're buying.
**What we're doing on October 1:**
- A backpack for every child at the school
- A booth at the Kid's Day celebration, with piñatas
- A prayer box the kids and families can use
**If you'd rather pray than give:** please use the Pray button on this page. I'm printing every prayer left here and putting them in the box we're bringing to the celebration. That is not a consolation prize — it's part of what we're carrying down there.
We'd love to be fully funded by Sept 16 so there's time to purchase everything and get it into their hands before the 1st.
We hope this is the first of many schools. But right now it's this one, these 350 kids, and this one day.
