Big Dreams and a Bigger God: New Property For Down Guatemala

In 2002, when their son Manual Alfredo was born with Down Syndrome, Alfredo and Irene Salazar saw the desperate need to provide support, schooling, and therapies to children with Down Syndrome and their families in their country of Guatemala. Three years later, in 2005, they opened the Guatemalan Association for Down Syndrome (also known as Down Guatemala), a specialized care center and school exclusively for babies, children, youth and adults with Down Syndrome in Guatemala City. Alfredo and Irene had so much faith in God’s provisions that they sold their home in order to open the center. Little did they know at the time God had many more miracles of provision in store for the Salazars.

Due to Down Guatemala being the only affordable center like it in the country, services were in high demand. Families from cities all over Guatemala were traveling to attend the center.  When LifePoint’s outreach team visited Down Guatemala on a mission trip in 2018, they recall hearing about a boy named Jonathan from Quetzaltenango (also known as Xela) who traveled 4-5 hours by bus each way to receive therapy. The people of Xela are mostly indigenous, coming from low-income homes and speaking the native Mayan language. Shouldering the financial hardship of the commute to provide Jonathan with care spoke to the love and commitment his parents had for him. In situations like Jonathan’s, Alfredo and Irene saw the need for another center that could serve the families farther from Guatemala City. They prayed that God would provide.

In 2012, the Salazars were introduced to founder and president of Orphan Outreach Mike Douris through mutual ministry connections and a partnership was born. In 2018, Down Guatemala was chosen to be sponsored by the Tim Tebow Foundation (TTF). God had answered the prayer of funding for a second Down Guatemala location with Orphan Outreach’s involvement and TTF’s support. But the Salazars still needed the right place in Xela to open their center, somewhere with lots of outside space and open areas.

The Salazars, along with their daughter Irene and son-in-law Sergio, began working with a real estate agent in September of 2020 to visit potential properties for the Xela location. After visiting several properties, discouragement was setting in. According to Alfredo, “Some of the properties were too small and the others too expensive. We decided to pray and ask the Lord to send us the right property.”  The group decided to call a different agent in Xela, and after explaining their unique need, the agent provided an address and asked them to meet him there in one hour.

When the group arrived, they found that the property had been abandoned for several months. The grounds were overrun and the buildings needed updating. Even so, “I saw the look that Alfredo had in his face I knew it, this was the property,” his wife Irene says.
Alfredo wasn’t seeing what was, he was seeing what could be. Warehouses turned into offices, old houses turned into classrooms, and most importantly, outdoor space for the students to run and play.

The Salazars weren’t surprised to find that the location was out of budget. However, they were surprised when the agent admitted to being the property owner and asked what they could afford to pay. Not only did the agent/property owner agree to the price the Salazars could afford, he also offered to expand the property with additional new buildings and bathrooms at no extra cost, as a contribution to the Xela Down Guatemala project.

The Salazars were brought to tears by God’s provision. They came to learn that the agent/property owner had a nephew, Juan Mateo, who was born with Down Syndrome and required open heart surgery when he was eight months old. Sadly, the baby did not survive the surgery, but his family desperately wanted a way to help those with disabilities on behalf of Juan Mateo’s legacy. The Salazars were blessing this family with the opportunity to help with the center as much as the family was blessing the Salazars with the property. Only the hand of God could have orchestrated this kind of double blessing.

Today the official address of the Xela school includes Juan Mateo’s name to honor the life of the beautiful boy who made this possible. By July of 2021, 100 students will be receiving therapy in Xela, 65 of them orphans who will attend the school on government funding. Jonathan was one of the first students enrolled at the Xela location, and the 15 minute commute has made a major difference in the life of his family.

Says Alfredo, “That is how the Lord has been blessing the ministry and the families this last 15 years, Down Guatemala has experienced a lot of miracles, and we believe there is a lot more to come. There are two main areas in need of centers like this, south coast (Mazatenango) and the northeast (Cobán / Alta Verapaz) and we are praying for wisdom, resources and grace from the Lord [to accomplish this].”

Based on how the Lord has provided for Down Guatemala and the Salazars so far, they have no doubt He will deliver.  Confirms Alfredo, “There are still big goals and big dreams, but we serve an even bigger God.”

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