Chad E Cooper Foundation · Guatemala Mission

Build homes. Build hope. Guatemala 2027.

March 13–21, 2027

For nine days, a small team lives and works in the highlands above Lake Atitlán, building sturdy homes and safe stoves alongside widowed mothers and their children. You arrive to serve, and you leave carrying something you did not expect. The welcome is real, the friendships are lasting, and the work stays with you long after you are home.

For we are God’s handiwork, created in Christ Jesus to do good works, which God prepared in advance for us to do. Ephesians 2:10
Apply to join the team Reserve your place · $400 donation

Counting down to Guatemala · March 13, 2027

--Days
--Hours
--Minutes
--Seconds
Dates
March 13–21, 2027Nine days on the ground
Departs from
Miami, FloridaMeet the team at the airport
Estimated donation
$1,600–$2,300Given over several months
To reserve your place
$400 donationSecures your spot

The work

Two things that change a family’s life

Our primary work is building reinforced homes and safe cook stoves for widowed women raising children. Skilled construction supervisors guide every step, so no experience is needed, and you will find your rhythm quickly. What you remember afterward is rarely the concrete. It is the family working beside you, and their faces the moment they first step through their own front door.

A home under construction in the Guatemalan highlands: concrete block walls with a new timber roof frame and mountains behind, as a local mason works in the foreground.
Homes that stand

Reinforced homes

Each home is built from concrete block and reinforced with rebar every fifth layer, giving families real protection against mudslides and hurricane-season storms.

  • Solid shelter for mothers and children who have turned to God.
  • Built to endure the region’s heavy rains and steep terrain.
  • Supervisors teach you the method on site, block by block.
An open wood cook fire heating pots on a makeshift block stove outdoors, the kind of open flame these safe stoves are built to replace.The open fire our safe stoves replace
Stoves that protect

Safe, efficient stoves

Designed and patented by a NASA engineer, these stoves replace open pit fires (shown right), the leading cause of injury to children in the villages.

  • Vent smoke away from little lungs, reducing burns and asthma.
  • Use about a third of the wood, burning longer and hotter.
  • Ease the deforestation that makes deadly mudslides worse.

From the field

Moments from past trips

The work, the welcome, and the friendships from past mission trips. This is what a week in the highlands looks like.

The mission team with a Guatemalan mother and her two daughters inside a newly finished block home, balloons strung overhead.
A finished home, a family welcomed.
Team members lay concrete block beside a local mason on a home under construction.
Learning the trade, block by block, alongside local masons.
A young volunteer reacts playfully beside a freshly laid block wall as a puppy looks on.
All in a day's work.
A volunteer ties rebar into a block wall while an experienced builder guides her.
Every hand matters, down to the last tie of rebar.
Volunteers and a local mason smile and flash peace signs at a half-built block wall.
A morning's work, shared.
A volunteer holds a young Guatemalan boy on his hip beside a block wall.
Held close.
Volunteers lift and place wooden roof beams onto the block walls of a home.
Raising a roof together.
Volunteers and village children play together with a colorful parachute under a covered court.
Afternoons are for play.
Two village boys hang from the outstretched arms of a smiling volunteer.
Team-building, village style.
Village children crowd in for a hug from a smiling volunteer.
The welcome runs both ways.
A Guatemalan woman in traditional dress smiles as she offers a plate of fresh fruit.
Hospitality, freely given.
A volcano venting a plume of steam rises above forested hills and farmland in the Guatemalan highlands.
The highlands, beneath a smoking volcano.
A whitewashed village church with a bell tower against a bright, cloud-filled sky.
The church at the heart of the village.

Where we go

Into the cloud forest of San Lucas Tolimán

We travel together from the airport to a remote village region above Lake Atitlán, roughly seventy-four miles from the capital. It is close on a map and far in every other sense.

Two team members stand at a stone lakeside railing looking out over the vast, calm waters of Lake Atitlan, ringed by mountains.
Looking out over Lake Atitlán
Map of Lake Atitlan showing San Lucas Toliman on the southeast shore, the team base in the highlands of Solola, Guatemala.
San Lucas Tolimán, on the southeast shore of Lake Atitlán
1

Fly from Miami to Guatemala City

The team gathers and flies out together. Traveling from another region? Plan to reach the Florida area and join us there.

2

Drive to the highlands

Our drivers take us about seventy-four miles into the cloud forest of San Lucas Tolimán on Lake Atitlán. Depending on road conditions, the journey runs four to seven hours.

3

Work and worship, day by day

Each day we drive out to the village to build and to share life with the families, returning to our base each afternoon. Our lodging is coordinated through the House of Healing Foundation, our logistics partner on the ground. Weather may shift our timing.

A quiet word on why here: the Maya keep a deep sense of timing, of the right moment for each thing. We come as guests to serve and to learn, never to rush what the land and its people already understand.

After the work

Rest that is well earned

The days in the village ask everything of you, and they give back more. Before we fly home, we spend a couple of days in Antigua, because a week like this deserves far more than a rushed airport goodbye and a plunge straight back into ordinary life.

This is time set aside to breathe. To journal. To pray, and to name what you are grateful for. To let the faces and the small, holy moments of the week settle into something you will carry for years. What you receive in Guatemala is not meant to stay in Guatemala. These quiet days are how you bring it home, and how you pay it forward in your own community.

A traveler sits in quiet meditation on a sunlit courtyard deck beside a still reflecting pool in Antigua, a volcano rising beyond the tiled rooftops.
Stillness in Antigua, before heading home.

Your donation

What it takes, and how it works

The trip donation is about $1,600 to $2,300 per person, including your rest days. The final figure depends on how many join. Donations can be spread across the months ahead, giving you time to budget or raise support, and keeping the whole team on solid footing.

$1,600–$2,300 estimated donation, per person
  • Trip donation & in-country expenses Included
  • Rest & reflection days Included
  • Deposit donation to reserve your place $400
  • Personal spending money $150–$300

Personal money covers snacks, worship giving, your rest days, and souvenirs. Guatemalan coffee is a favorite to bring home. Fundraising help is available, and we have templates that have worked well; the most effective approach is still a heartfelt personal ask to people who know you.

Step one

$400

Your $400 donation reserves your place. It is applied toward your total trip cost and is non-refundable, since it lets the team begin securing travel and logistics on your behalf. You are welcome to give more if you feel led.

Make your deposit donation

All donations flow through the Chad E Cooper Foundation.

Before you go

What to prepare

Vaccinations

Tetanus and Hepatitis A (a series of three) are required. You need to begin the series and complete two of the three shots before we depart. Because of our elevation, other vaccinations you may read about are not needed: typhoid is optional, and malaria precautions apply only to low-altitude regions we will not visit.

Free or reduced-cost shots in Palm Beach County

Passport

Your passport must be valid for at least six months beyond our departure, meaning valid through at least mid-September 2027. If yours expires before then, renew now to avoid expedited fees or being turned away at the border.

Renew early

A heart for God

We are a Christian, faith-based team. Alongside the building, we share Bible study, prayer, and our own stories during training and on the trip. There is nothing to worry about; most of all, this is about the time you spend with the Guatemalan families who welcome us.

All are welcome

Team meetings

We ask everyone to attend our online team meetings, in person or virtually, wherever you are. They help us get to know one another, grow together, answer questions, and stay on track. Please block the time and show up. Our first meeting begins in the fall.

Begins fall 2026

Unplug and be fully present

Once we are on the ground in Guatemala, we set our phones and devices aside. This week is an invitation to immerse yourself completely in the people, the culture, and the gifts of each day, free of distraction and fully present to what God is doing around you and within you.

Take the first step

Come with us to Guatemala

There are two ways to begin, depending on whether this is your first trip with us or you have served with us before.

New to the team

Apply today

Start with a short application. New team members are interviewed and approved before any donation, so this first step is simply about getting to know you and your heart for the trip. After you submit, watch for your interview request.

First time serving with us
Or scan to open the application on your phone.

Applications close September 30, 2026.

Served before

Welcome back

A $400 donation reserves your place on the Guatemala mission team. This gift is applied toward your total trip cost and is non-refundable, as it allows the team to begin securing travel and logistics on your behalf. The full cost of the trip is determined by the number of missionaries serving, and currently ranges from $1,600 to $2,300 per person.

Served before? Reserve your spot
Or scan to make a payment on your phone.

A valid passport (through at least September 2027) is required to travel.

Questions before you decide? Email Chad or Brian.

Team payments

Make a payment on your trip

Team members can pay toward their trip balance here anytime. Scan the code or tap the button. All payments flow through the Chad E Cooper Foundation.

Make a payment on your trip

Already on the team? Use this to pay toward your trip balance. Enter any amount and give as often as you like as you pay it down before we depart.

Make a payment donate.stripe.com/eVqfZh2Nua9tfsH5zN7wA0a

God is preparing to do great things.

If you are even considering Guatemala, take the first step today. Send your application, or reserve your place with a deposit donation.

Apply now Make your deposit donation