Candace Kaster, Missionary

Type of Project: Financial Management
Request: Donation Management
Location(s): Rural Guatemala
Recipient: Various

Candace Kaster, one of the founding members of Trade Palms, was called into the mission field in 2002 after a life changing experience on her first mission trip in the year 2000.  Leaving a corporate career behind, she began working with the San Lucas Mission in San Lucas Tolimán, Guatemala. She was asked to set up a computer center in the school library and provide computer support to the mission and anyone in the community that might need assistance.

As her relationships developed, Candace moved to the small, rural community of Santa Cruz Quixayá where she volunteered for PROCESO, translated in English as the Central American Solar Energy Project.  PROCESO works with over 250 women in three regions of Guatemala.  Their focus is on developing solar cookers and holistically approaching the empowerment of women in a male dominant society. 

In 2003, community leaders in Quixayá requested that Candace and an American colleague assist them in the development and construction of a community library.  This began a long journey of planning, construction and on-going development.  The Quixayá Library finally opened as a fully furnished and staffed institution on February 4, 2006.  It continues to flourish today, receiving approximately 2,000 users monthly. 

Since returning to the United States in June 2006 to run a mission travel organization called Transformational Journeys (www.tjourneys.org), Candace maintains her work with the Quixayá Library as they seek to become self-sustainable.  In addition, she continues her ministry by responding to the expressed needs of Guatemalans through a variety of development projects from water systems to fuel efficient cook stove construction.  In 2008 she became involved in a fair trade organic coffee movement with Kapeh-Utz (www.kapeh-utz.com) as a means to directly support the coffee growers/producers she lived among while in Guatemala.  Candace also manages current projects and actively seeks new projects for Trade Palms in Guatemala, helping develop relationships that will assist Trade Palms in fulfilling its mission of spreading the Gospel of Jesus Christ throughout the world.