Upon arrival in Guatemala, I rushed through airport check-points and was picked up by a staff member of the Ministry of Culture. He drove me directly to the National Palace of Culture. We were told we couldn't enter the outside area where the Guatemalan President was and instead directed into the palace, suitcase in tow. The speeches were live streamed on large projectors in the center of the room.
After a few minutes, the event organizer found me and ushered me to a seat in the very first row marked as "reserved". A Catholic Cardinal sat on my left (I found out later that he was a Cardinal) and gave me a fist bump, saying something to me in Spanish. After some time, the event outside ended and the Guatemalan President entered the palace and took a seat right in front of me, joined by his ministers of state and religious leaders: the Cardinal (who had been sitting next to me), a pastor, a Muslim Iman, and a Jewish Rabbi.
As the political leaders spoke, where I was sunk in. There were pro-life politicians right in front of me. About a year ago, a couple people told me that they sensed that I would also be working with political leaders in the future. I'd figured that this would be something for years down the road.
But as I stood to cheer for the speeches, the Vice Minister of Life and Family from Brazil introduced herself and asked to work together. At the Congress, I met the Vice Minister of Education in Paraguay and we're making plans to train students in schools. We met several other political leaders who are also interested in working with us. I can hardly believe how God is brining everything together.
During the course of the congress, we met so many people from countries across Latin America who are excited for us to come in person or to host virtual trainings for them to start pro-life school and university groups, empowering young people to lead. Over breakfast this morning Melanie (our Latin-America Director) and I met with the leaders of a pro-life educational organization in Guatemala who want to work with us to start student groups (there aren't any pro-life student groups in the country). We've got another meeting coming up in a few minutes with Guatemalan pro-life leaders!
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