HERE’S HOW 9 YEARS AT MGCS HELPED PREPARE KERI TO SERVE IN GUATEMALA…

The reason I became a teacher and the kind of teacher I am today can be traced back to my years at MGCS.  My teachers gave me a great professional example to follow: invest personally in a child’s success. They also gave me a strong spiritual example to follow by showing me what it looked like to follow Christ.  I came to MGCS when I was in preschool and stayed all the way through 8^th grade.  The Biblical worldview and Bible classes gave me a solid, strong foundation and prepared me in ways I was not even aware of until later. I was taught who Jesus is in the Bible and to then how to form a relationship with him.  I learned to be confident in who Jesus said I was.

During my senior year at UNCW, I went on a short term mission trip with Port City Community Church to serve with the Pray America/Manos de Jesus ministry in Chichicastenango, Guatemala.  At the end of that week, I remember thinking, “This won’t be the last time I’ll be here.”  I graduated from UNCW with a degree in Special Education then went back the following summer for 6 weeks.  I returned to Guatemala in October of 2016 to serve full time.

My role at Manos de Jesus is to help with visiting mission teams and to home school the missionaries’ three children. Our organization is guided by James 1:27: Religion that God our Father accepts as pure and faultless is this: to look after orphans and widows in their distress…  That is the population we serve.  We build houses, feed children, and distribute clothing and shoes.

September is the rainy season in Guatemala so our work is limited.  It’s the perfect time to return home to the States to renew visas and visit friends and family.  While I am home for next few weeks, I will be subbing on and off at MGCS.  My time as a student at MGCS equipped me to act in obedience to Jesus in high school, in college, and now in Guatemala.  The older I get, the more thankful I am for the years I spent at MGCS.