In March more than a dozen folks from Valley Brook Community Church traveled to Sumpango, Guatemala, to serve in mission work alongside Simsbury native, Jaylyn Perry. Perry, a 2014 graduate of Simsbury High School, felt the calling to serve as a Christian missionary after serving in a mission program called “Youth with a Mission” immediately after graduating.
That calling led Perry to seek out further education and training to serve others in Christ’s name. She found that education at Liberty University where she graduated in 2019 with a double major in global studies and social work. During her summers in college Perry sought out internships with international mission programs. One summer she was led to apply for a position with a ministry in Sumpango, Guatemala called Rompiendo Ciclos—in English, Breaking Cycles. Perry was accepted and, grateful for the Spanish she learned in high school, headed to Sumpango.
At Breaking Cycles, Perry discovered a ministry that resonated with her. The mission of Breaking Cycles is to help the people of the community by cultivating meaningful relationships that strengthen and restore the faith and hope of local Guatemalans. As the name implies, Breaking Cycles works with people in this impoverished community to break the destructive cycles in which many residents are trapped, including physical and sexual abuse, alcoholism, addictions, poor nutrition, poverty and illiteracy.
Breaking Cycles is a ministry founded by Betty Merida. Merida was born and raised in Guatemala, and she was able to break the cycles of poverty in her life and graduate from college. After she found faith in God, she felt called to start Breaking Cycles to help her fellow Guatemalans break the cycles of poverty in their lives.
Perry fell in love with the Guatemalan people and loved serving God with Breaking Cycles, so when she graduated from college, she moved to Guatemala to serve as a social worker with Breaking Cycles. She moved to Sumpango in 2021, where she has watched the impact and the reach of the ministry grow.
While the ministry works daily to break the cycles mentioned earlier through three projects, they also invite short term mission teams to come to Sumpango and participate in hands on mission work with Breaking Cycles. And that’s what the team from Perry’s home church did.
On the day the team arrived they participated in the Healthy Families Bunk Bed Project. One of the ways the ministry seeks to break the cycles of abuse, addictions, poverty and illiteracy is through education. Families attend a series of workshops on these topics, the parents in one class and the children in another class, learning the same topics, age-appropriately. After completing the four classes, each child in the family is given his or her very own bed.
In this part of Guatemala, many families sleep on dirt floors in shacks with walls of corrugated steel and tarps or all members of the family share one bed, so it is very special for a child to receive his or her own bed. After finishing the classes, the children received their bunkbeds, and the team from Valley Brook helped the families load them in trucks to be delivered to their homes.
For the rest of the week, the team from Valley Brook was divided into two groups. Some went with local masons to help build houses for families that had applied and been approved by Breaking Cycles to receive a home. To receive a 12- by 16-foot cinder block home, families must own the land, contribute a portion of the cost of the construction and work alongside the masons. Families that have applied for a home are visited by a social worker to assess their need for the home. Once approved, Breaking Cycles uses funds from donors and the family to pay for the home. Through the generosity of the people of Valley Brook, three homes have been given to families.
The team from Valley Brook was able to work alongside the Guatemalan builders to move the homes to completion in just four days. Starting Monday morning, the team wired rebar together, mixed concrete, shoveled dirt, laid cinder blocks and did whatever else was needed to keep the projects moving. The work culminated on Thursday afternoon with a dedication ceremony of each completed home, all with windows, a door and a metal roof.
The other group from Valley Brook went with Perry to her local church in Sumpango. At the church they accompanied the pastor and his wife on visits within the community and prayed with them. Perry translated and helped everyone build relationships with one another. This team also ran a three-day program for 75 children where they helped with teaching, singing, dancing, crafts and games.
Perry and the staff of Breaking Cycles also had the entire Valley Brook come to Breaking Cycles’ Ministry Center where they run a scholarship program that provides after-school support to 42 children and teens. The program provides academic tutoring, Christian education, counseling, recreation and nutritious meals. While at the center the team was able to help the students with their English, make crafts and play games with them.
On the team’s last day, Perry took the team on a little sight-seeing tour in nearby Antigua and then they returned to Breaking Cycles for their last meal and worship service led by some of the students in the scholarship program.
For more information about Breaking Cycles or to connect with Jaylyn Perry, visit breakingcyclesguatemala.com
