Twenty-five years ago, the families living in rural communities outside of San Lucas lived on plantations, working and living under the control of the plantation owner.  With the help of the San Lucas Mission, these people now have their own land to live on and grow crops.  This is a direct reflection of the ways in which the mission has worked in the rural communities.  Continuing efforts to support those small communities, the mission is actively involved in 17 communities outside of town, 14 of which are included in the municipality of San Lucas.

Getting Started:
“As a son of farmer, Father Greg understands us,” explains Felipe Yoxon, community liaison and land development coordinator.  “He saw that we are people of corn and coffee, so he not only supported us but worked to help us buy land.”

As the populations of the people on the plantations outside of San Lucas grew, the mission looked for a way to help organize the people and establish self-sufficient communities.  Purchasing tracts of land over time from plantation owners, the mission was able to slowly move the people off of the plantations and away from the permeating control of the plantation owners to communities where families could begin to support and sustain themselves. 

In the beginning they lacked the initial needs like health care and education, but through infrastructural support, the mission was able to help the communities to address those needs.  Each community now has access to schools, qualified teachers, medicines and health visits.

Mission Connection to the Communities:
The mission maintains its connection to the communities through the local catechists and health promoter program.  Every Sunday the catechists of each community meet in San Lucas to learn not only about spiritual direction but also about the mission involvement in the community and current updates.  This meeting is also a time for the catechists to share the news and needs of their communities with the parish to maintain open communication and alert the mission to the issues the communities are facing at any given time.

Additionally, through coordination with the mission clinic and the health promoter program, each community has health promoters that are responsible for the well-being and health of the community.  The health promoters are able to provide basic medical care in the rural communities or connect the residents with the mission clinic in San Lucas.  The role of the health promoters is also to provide the mission with the needs of the communities so that the mission can respond appropriately. 

Though these networks, the mission is able to maintain a solid relationship with the communities and through infrastructural and developmental support, assist them in addressing their needs.  “‘The parish is the father of the communities’ – that is what the people say,” Yoxon notes.

Mission’s Role in the Communities:
The San Lucas Mission works with the cooperation of the communities to implement structural development and promote progress and dignified living in the rural communities surrounding San Lucas.

 “The idea,” explains Yoxon, “is to see and develop a progress in the communities and to understand that the people in the communities are not just campesinos working in the field but that they have dignity.”  Collectively the communities and the mission work together to see that the solutions to the community needs are realized and dignified living is achieved.  

More than four years after Hurricane Stan devastated communities in the highlands of Guatemala, in Santiago, Atitlan just 10 miles down the road from San Lucas, communities rebuilding are still fighting for land, materials and construction.  While, just outside of San Lucas, the people from El Porvenir affected by the hurricane were relocated to San Andres, which is now lined with rows of cinderblock homes complete with bedrooms, bathrooms and kitchens. 

“We work in the coordination of a vision for the future.  We have to work together to make it happen.  The parish gives a little and the people give a little.  Together we work to realize the vision of the community,” says Yoxon.