We are so happy and thankful that you found our page!
We wanted to tell you a little bit about our story and what we have been doing in Guatemala!
I (Savannah) moved down to Guatemala in 2018 after several short term mission trips and feeling the Lord calling me to move down long term. With my human reasoning, I figured I would graduate from the University of Pittsburgh at Johnstown with my degree in Sociology and start working as a social worker for a few years to save up before moving to Guatemala.
God had other plans! He told me that I was moving to Guatemala as soon as I graduated and I was basically like “Uhhh, what?” I had no idea how I could move to a foreign country without a place to live or a job or anything, but God provided a way at the last minute. (He’s funny like that, just to keep us on our toes).
I lived in Antigua, Guatemala for a while, volunteering at a children’s home, an elder center, a private Christian school, and with medical mission teams. One weekend I had the opportunity to go to Puerto San José and I stumbled upon what looked like a normal outdoor recreation place. It looked cooler though because it had all kinds of graffiti and murals around it. And there was one really special thing about it: You could feel the presence of God even as you looked in.
I was invited to go inside and see what it was all about. It was a sports ministry for at-risk youth. They had a little bit of everything, even toys for the younger kids. It really touched my heart and I knew I needed to come back. I had always felt called to work with at-risk youth and hadn’t quite found what I was looking for in Antigua.
I couldn’t stop thinking about the ministry [Motivo Urbano]. I spent months fasting and praying about my next steps in Guatemala. There were a lot of big changes in my life at that time, but all I knew was that God had called me to be there and stay there. Eventually Byron and I started talking and we hit it off. I slowly started to see how God was fitting the pieces together. As Byron says, “God unites purposes.” We could both see that God had brought us together and had given us the same vision for serving in the Kingdom. It was a leap of faith, but I decided to move out to Puerto San José a few months after we started dating and I started volunteering with the ministry. Once I got there, I got to officially join the leadership team in serving and ministering to the kids and the community in all kinds of ways. I honestly had never seen anything quite like Motivo Urbano and I was so overjoyed to be a part of it.
Byron and his brother Juan started Motivo Urbano back in 2012. Though it had humble beginnings with just a handful of kids and skateboards and some wooden benches that Juan made, over the years, it has developed into something much bigger.
Slowly they grew as a group, built the ramps, and got more skateboards, chairs, basketballs, soccer balls, and toys. Then came donations of pizza and paninis for about 20 kids. People would donate shoes, clothes and other items to share with the kids in need. They would share the Gospel not only at the ministry, but through school visits and even skate demos on the streets throughout Puerto San José. They helped with beach cleanup and other environmental activities as well. All of this with the goal of sharing the Gospel with children and youth and keeping them from going down the wrong path. 
Since I got to Motivo Urbano at the beginning of 2019, we started doing more street ministry with people experiencing homelessness and addiction and women who feel forced to prostitute themselves, many out of desperation because they have no options for work.
We also started a girls discipleship group to teach about the Bible and also specific social issues that the girls and women face.
There has always been an education gap between the wealthy and poor in Guatemala since school is not mandatory and not everyone has the resources to buy uniforms and school supplies or pay for a private school with better education. Since 2020, the pandemic has only widened that gap as many kids have not studied at all except for take home packets with material that no one has even explained to them. We try to help as much as we can with the kids that are behind in reading and math skills. It is sometimes a daunting task, but we do have books and other study materials to try to get them up to speed with subjects they are behind in.
Motivo Urbano offers a great variety of services to the community, but the main purpose of all of it is to bring people to Christ. We hope that you will consider partnering with Motivo Urbano and with us as a missionary family so that we can continue to serve the families of Puerto San José and Guatemala to the best of our abilities.
May God bless you and all that you do to support us in furthering the Kingdom of God!
