Gloria Dei's mission in Guatemala is expanding. Gloria Dei has established a partnership with El Mirador School, an elementary school which ILAG (the Lutheran Church in Guatemala) operates in Guatemala City. Our partnership is grounded in the ELCA's model of accompaniment, which emphasizes relationships and learning together.

Our Gloria Dei kids are leading us! Building this ground up relationship and establishing new friendships with the students at El Mirador will be our first steps. We have found an amazing group of Gloria Dei members to assist us with this mission, our Sunday school students! On Sunday, September 21st all grades met in an all-together session in Fellowship Hall to hear about El Mirador, and begin to learn about our new friends, the children of El Mirador School in Guatemala.

Good friends stay in touch. We are calling this exciting new ministry "Somos Amigos con El Mirador" (We Are friends with El Mirador). During this next school year there will be projects for Gloria Dei Sunday School students and more all-together events to help us keep in touch with our new friends. Plans for Sunday School include:

• sending letters and other messages to El Mirador to tell about us
• listening to the students of El Mirador as they tell us their stories
• identifying ways to nurture this new relationship as a foundation for ongoing support and understanding that we are all children of God
• remembering our friends in prayer
• growing in our shared community of faith

Mim Campbell, Director of Faith Formation for Children & Families, along with a group of teachers and other volunteers are working to make this a rich opportunity for Gloria Dei.

You can contact Mim Campbell  or Kathy Kruger  if you are interested in helping.