Thanks to the Mirror and especially to reporter Heidi Sanders for the excellent March 16 piece covering Marine View Presbyterian Church’s upcoming mission trip to install 125 stoves in the homes of Mayan villagers in a remote region of Guatemala.
While the article accurately stated who is going, as team leader, I was remiss in not emphasizing the amount of support that goes into these kinds of mission trips by those who work tirelessly behind the scenes and contribute in other ways to ensure the mission is a success. It truly takes a village to help a village, or in our case, two villages.
Mary Altena of northeast Tacoma and Dale Armstrong of Federal Way are two members of our team who are not able to make the trip themselves, but who have each volunteered many hours to key tasks. Mary has taken charge of the procurement and assembly of the 150 gift bags we will bring to give to each of the school children in the villages, collected pot holders and helped in other ways too. Dale has managed our finances in close association with church finance staff so that we can account for every penny raised and spent.
More than 100 people now have made financial contributions to our mission. Members of Iglesia Cristiana LA VOZ, a local Guatemalan church, turned $200 for food into a fundraising dinner that served almost 100 people, serving authentic Guatemalan fare and cleaning up afterward. In fact, two from the church are now joining us!
Our team of 11 is truly blessed by the support we have received from the Marine View congregation, our friends and families and from the community at large. We could not be making this mission trip without the help of so many.
We are still in need of eyeglasses (readers only, new or used) that we will distribute to the villagers while there. We can also use a few large luggage bags (non-returnable) to carry our supplies. These can be dropped off at Marine View.
We are also happy to share e-mail updates from the field with anyone interested and will be posting photos as we can to our Facebook page, Hands for Peacemaking Federal Way. Just “like” our page to get in touch!
Brian Dirks, Federal Way
