Mission trip brings hope, help to Guatemala
By Kathleen Folkerth
FAIRLAWN — A mission trip taken by members of Faith Lutheran Church was a life-changing experience for those who took the trip and the people they helped.
A dozen members of the Fairlawn church made the trip to Guatemala in June for a week of projects. Some members held a vacation Bible school for the children at Hannah’s Hope, an orphanage in Guatemala City, while others took on the task of rebuilding the home of one of the orphanage’s workers.
“It was truly an experience of a lifetime,” said Melissa Johnson, of Wadsworth, who helped coordinate the trip with her husband, Dave.
Wendy and Leo Boes, the youth directors at Faith Lutheran, who adopted a son from the orphanage two years ago, inspired the trip.
Since then, the church has held fund-raisers to help the orphanage, which is home to about 80 children. Recently, The Boes adopted another child from the orphanage, according to Johnson, so they were unable to return as planned with the group from Faith Lutheran.
Andy Simpson, of Copley, is a recent graduate of Copley High School. He said he wanted to participate in the trip after hearing about the orphanage from the Boes.
“I just really was kind of blown away by all the kids and their situation,” Simpson said.
Simpson was part of the crew that worked on the house belonging to Jamie, who works as a “special mother” at the orphanage. Jamie lived with her brother and sister in a wood-framed home made of sheet metal.
Simpson said the crew spent one day climbing up a steep hill on a narrow pathway to the house. They brought with them supplies — 400 cement blocks, 3 yards of gravel, 3 yards of sand and 10 75-pound bags of concrete.
“Most of the time it was raining,” Simpson said. “It was tough work.”
The Faith Lutheran workers spent several days digging a trench around the house and rebuilding the foundation.
Simpson said a guide who worked with the group told them they were able to do a year’s worth of work in three days.
Johnson said the group was surprised at the conditions in The Limonada, the neighborhood in which the housing project took place.
“The conditions are unbelievable there,” she said. “The stench — I didn’t think I would be able to stay.”
Jamie, the woman being helped, “apologized to us on the condition of her house because she couldn’t make it any better,” Johnson said.
The visitors earned the respect of the residents, she added.
“In the area we worked, ‘gringos’ have gone before but never worked side by side with them,” she said. “So this was a first. We really gained their respect. Our guys just worked like horses beside them.”
She and Simpson both were moved by one woman’s actions. After the workers became wet and muddy from bringing the supplies up the hill, she brought them clean shirts and took their dirty ones, washed them and gave them back the next day.
“For somebody that has little to nothing, it was incredible,” Johnson said.
Volunteers also visited Mama Carmen’s, another orphanage about 45 minutes away from Hannah’s Hope.
“We took them cake and bears from Build-A-Bear,” Johnson said. “The congregation donated a ton of clothes and other things, so we took it to that orphanage, as well as donated strollers and walkers.”
Johnson added that the group also helped by raising $1,500 for a medical clinic at Hannah’s Hope. The doctor who heads the clinic used the money to buy equipment like sterilizers.
Simpson, who is headed to The University of Akron in the fall, said the experience of the trip has changed him.
“I’m grateful for what I have now,” he said. “The little things don’t bother me as much.”
He’s also rethinking our way of life after seeing so many with so little in Guatemala.
“When I got back I got a laptop as my graduation gift, and I almost didn’t even want to keep it,” he said.
The group that took part in the trip will give a presentation July 28 at 10 a.m. at the church, 2726 W. Market St.
Shown above are members of a delegation from Faith Lutheran
Church and residents of The Limonada, the neighborhood
in Guatemala City where the group rebuilt a woman’s
home.
A group from Faith Lutheran Church in Fairlawn taught a vacation Bible school with the older children at Hannah’s Hope orphanage. Shown with the children are the Rev. Jean Hansen (reading), pastor of Faith Lutheran; Maggie O’Leary; Mary Gsellman; and Brian Carano (at the table).
Photos courtesy of the Johnson family
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