We can help

Over the past several months, this website has become a significant platform. It’s bigger — more visible, more widely read — than I ever imagined or hoped. For the most part, I’ve used this stage to advance my ideas, to earn money for my family, and to offer to the world a host of helpful alpaca grooming tips.

Today I want to aim a little higher.

My younger brother, Joe, is going on a mission trip to Guatemala. This is a country in the throes of poverty and destitution unlike anything you’ll see here in the United States. Over 75 percent of the population lives under the poverty line. Half of the children are malnourished, and the infant mortality rate is 25 per 1,000 live births — five times the US rate. The average rural Guatemalan family earns the equivalent of about 4 dollars a day, or just under 1,500 dollars a year.

It is a bleak picture, but not a helpless one.

We can help.

This blog averages between 3.5 and 7 million views a month. Of those views, several hundred thousand come from loyal and dedicated readers. I hate to sound like a Feed The Children commercial, but, seriously, if we all gave just a buck or two, we could do some serious good for some people who seriously need it.

I’m not going to turn my blog into a non-stop charity fundraiser, but every once in a while I want to mobilize the fans (and haters) of this site for a cause greater than arguing about the issues. So this is one of those times.

My brother never asked that I use my site to help fund their mission to Guatemala. But when I offered, he wrote this letter to you. Please read it, pray about it, and consider the request:

Dear Readers of The Matt Walsh Blog,

Our Lord says: “Whatever you do for the least of my brothers, you do for me.” This March my classmates from Christendom College and I will be going on a mission to an impoverished region of Central America in the hopes of fulfilling these words. I would like to humbly ask for your help in funding this mission.

Christendom will send us to Guatemala where we will be working in some of the poorest regions of Latin America. The purpose of our trip is twofold: first, to provide essential supplies and medicine that our fellow brothers and sisters in Christ would otherwise have no access to; and second, to form personal relationships with the Guatemalans to spread the good news of Christ by our service.

Last year I was part of a similar trip to Guatemala — you can see some of the photos below. We worked at an infant hospital in the small town of El Progreso and traveled into the mountains to visit the sick and set up a clinic to give out medical supplies to the children. This year, we will build a well to provide fresh water to those in desperate need of a clean drinking source. Lack of clean drinking water is one the greatest issues facing the third world today, with your help, we hope to solve this problem for at least one village.

In order to go again this year, I must personally raise 1,100 dollars. I have already raised the necessary money to cover the cost of my plane ticket. So every dime that you donate will go directly to those who need it most in Guatemala. Our mission, which will extend from March 8 to March 16, will be led by Christendom’s pastor, Father Donald Planty. We will be working with a hospital for orphaned babies and traveling into the mountains of Guatemala to provide medicine, essential supplies, clean water filtration systems and more to Guatemalans in desperate need.

Our mission will also work with a group of evangelical Christians from Canada as we spread the message of Christ — Protestants and Catholics together. If you would be willing to make a donation, please click on the paypal link (here)

Every cent raised will go directly to funding the mission and allowing us to fulfill Christ’s command to serve those most in need. If you have any questions at all regarding the trip, please feel free to contact me at nittanyjoseph@aol.com.

A great Christian, St. Francis of Assisi, once said: “Preach the Gospel always; when necessary use words.” This March — with your help — we hope to fulfill those words.

Thank you in advance for any donation you may be able to give. Following the mission, I pledge to report to all those who assisted me regarding my experience in Guatemala and the results of our trip.

In Christ,

Joe Walsh, junior at Christendom College in Front Royal, Virginia

Just to review:

If you click the link and give a few dollars, all of the money will go directly to providing supplies, medicine, and clean water to impoverished people in Guatemala. There isn’t anyone taking a cut off the top. No monkey business here. You send the money, they take it and use it to help poor children and families. It’s as simple as that. This isn’t a massive charity organization. This is a small Christian school sending a group of students into a poor region of the world to provide supplies, give out medicine, build a well, and spread the message of Christ. I think I can safely call this one of the most direct ways to help the poor in one of the most desperate areas on the globe, aside from going yourself.

Thanks for reading and giving this some thought.