CFCA Trip - What Do You Want Me To Share During My Trip?

Ok, so you know I'm headed to Guatemala for a mission awareness trip and I want to know what you would like for me to share while I'm there via this blog - the title kinda summarizes that, right?

But first, a little bit about why I'm going to Guatemala...

CFCA is a global non-profit organization headquartered in my hometown - Kansas City, Kansas. CFCA's mission is a passion of mine:

Our mission is to walk with the poor and marginalized of the world.

• We provide personal attention and direct benefits to children, youth, aging and their families so they may live with dignity, achieve their desired potential and participate fully in society.
• We invite people of good will to live in daily solidarity with the world’s poor through one-to-one sponsorship.
• We build community by fostering relationships of mutual respect, understanding and support that are culturally diverse, empowering and without religious or other prejudice.

Grounded in the Gospel call to serve the poor, CFCA is a lay Catholic organization working with persons of all faith traditions to create a worldwide community of compassion and service.

A nonprofit organization (NPO) working with persons of all faith traditions to create a worldwide community of compassion and service - if you know me well, you know this isn't just a passion but a perfect calling for me. 

You can read a bit about why John and I sponsor Angelica, teenager in Guatemala, through CFCA in this blog post.  It has been a dream of ours since we started sponsoring Angelica in 1998 to meet her through one of CFCA's mission awareness trips. The CFCA infographic below is from about a year ago and gives overview answers to common CFCA mission awareness trip questions:

With four kids and two full-time working-out-of-the-home parents we decided to put that dream on permanent hold. I began doing more local volunteering with CFCA including helping with public service announcements and fundraising events.

Last year, I became a member of CFCA's Social Media Advisory Board and was thrilled when CFCA asked me to be their first mission awareness trip social media advocate. I am going to meet Angelica - our sponsored daughter who we have been "talking" with via letters for the last 14 years! This is going to be amazing for me. I honestly don't have the words. And if technology and the local wifi holds up, I'll be sharing it with you in real-time or near real-time.

I'll also be interviewing CFCA staff and families and understanding local CFCA initiatives including micro-lending businesses (which I'm really excited about given my start-up roots).

So now that you have a little background, please let me know what you'd like to hear about and see me do while I'm in Guatemala. Judy-Anne Goldman of CFCA will be with me and we'll have a video camera and laptop in tow so we'll be ready to capture and deliver on your requests. 

DISCLOSURE: CFCA is covering my flight and lodging for my Guatemala mission awareness trip in return for me documenting my trip via blog posts and sharing my mission awareness experience via my social channels.