Site search
sponsored by
Home
News
ENLARGE
Group prayer: Executive Pastor David Ashenbrenner (in red coat at center) of Redeemer's Fellowship leads an early morning group prayer with fellow missionaries before boarding a bus Thursday en route to the Portland International Airport. Members of the church and Roseburg Alliance Church left on a mission trip to Guatemala, where they are working this week.
|
ENLARGE
|
Checkup: Dr. Rob ert Orr, top, and registered nurse Linda Behrens get ready to do a dental exam on a Guatemalan child in Central America earlier this week.
|
|
ENLARGE
|
Goodbye hug: Brenda Foster, left, hugs fellow missionary Julie Piper before leaving Roseburg for a missionary trip to Guatemala over spring break.
|
Ten years after a peace accord was signed ending a 36-year civil war in Guatemala, refugees of the Central American country are still filtering in on their way home from the mountains of neighboring Mexico.
Many of them are returning to find their land razed or taken from them, with little hope of recovering what has been lost in the strife. Often, just meeting their immediate physical needs is a struggle.
Enter the Redeemer’s Fellowship congregation in downtown Roseburg, who have taken literally Jesus’ admonishment to minister to the poor and afflicted.
“For Mayans land ownership is just critical to their indigenous identity,” said executive pastor David Ashenbrenner. “Especially for men the business of farming is tied to your ancestry ... to find out they’ve just plowed your village and pulled it into some large farm conglomerate is” devastating.
Close to three dozen missionaries from Redeemer’s and Roseburg Alliance Church left last week to build wells and compost latrines and stage medical clinics for the returning refugees and other indigenous people of Guatemala.
While spending spring break in such a way may seem atypical, 17-year-old Roseburg High School student Kelly Dorius finds the experience uplifting.
“Last year, actually, I worked with the medical part of it and I was like the little pharmacist person,” said Dorius, explaining that patients would line up to see the doctor and receive a prescription that she would then fill for them. “I think ... when you get back you feel like you’ve really accomplished something ... you feel like you’ve built a stronger relationship with Christ, being in an atmosphere where we’re all working for the same purpose — to serve God.”
This year, the missionary group will help create a two-room extension on a school in San Antonio Aguas Caliente, just south of Guatemala City, and offer more medical and dental clinics there. They will also put in two wells in communities in the Ixcan district of northern Guatemala and create 40 composting latrines for another Ixcan community. Medical and dental clinics will be offered in four different locations in the district.
The medical team consists of Roseburg dentist Robert Orr, who attends First United Methodist Church in Roseburg, Mercy Emergency Room physician Dr. Chuck McCart, another doctor from the Portland area and several nurses.
Redeemer’s has performed humanitarian and spiritual work in the area since 1996, partnering with a Guatemalan church to identify local communities in need.
Though the area was once extremely unstable politically, Ashenbrenner said he doesn’t anticipate any trouble because tensions have eased a great deal since the 1996 peace agreement was reached.
“The State Department is saying that there are minor problems here and there, but we anticipate that it will be safe,” Ashenbrenner said. “We try and stay under the radar in the sense that we come at the invitation of Guatemalans ...”
Many of them are returning to find their land razed or taken from them, with little hope of recovering what has been lost in the strife. Often, just meeting their immediate physical needs is a struggle.
Enter the Redeemer’s Fellowship congregation in downtown Roseburg, who have taken literally Jesus’ admonishment to minister to the poor and afflicted.
“For Mayans land ownership is just critical to their indigenous identity,” said executive pastor David Ashenbrenner. “Especially for men the business of farming is tied to your ancestry ... to find out they’ve just plowed your village and pulled it into some large farm conglomerate is” devastating.
Close to three dozen missionaries from Redeemer’s and Roseburg Alliance Church left last week to build wells and compost latrines and stage medical clinics for the returning refugees and other indigenous people of Guatemala.
While spending spring break in such a way may seem atypical, 17-year-old Roseburg High School student Kelly Dorius finds the experience uplifting.
“Last year, actually, I worked with the medical part of it and I was like the little pharmacist person,” said Dorius, explaining that patients would line up to see the doctor and receive a prescription that she would then fill for them. “I think ... when you get back you feel like you’ve really accomplished something ... you feel like you’ve built a stronger relationship with Christ, being in an atmosphere where we’re all working for the same purpose — to serve God.”
This year, the missionary group will help create a two-room extension on a school in San Antonio Aguas Caliente, just south of Guatemala City, and offer more medical and dental clinics there. They will also put in two wells in communities in the Ixcan district of northern Guatemala and create 40 composting latrines for another Ixcan community. Medical and dental clinics will be offered in four different locations in the district.
The medical team consists of Roseburg dentist Robert Orr, who attends First United Methodist Church in Roseburg, Mercy Emergency Room physician Dr. Chuck McCart, another doctor from the Portland area and several nurses.
Redeemer’s has performed humanitarian and spiritual work in the area since 1996, partnering with a Guatemalan church to identify local communities in need.
Though the area was once extremely unstable politically, Ashenbrenner said he doesn’t anticipate any trouble because tensions have eased a great deal since the 1996 peace agreement was reached.
“The State Department is saying that there are minor problems here and there, but we anticipate that it will be safe,” Ashenbrenner said. “We try and stay under the radar in the sense that we come at the invitation of Guatemalans ...”
Money for the mission trip — $73,000 — was raised through contributions from the congregations involved and fundraising projects like cutting firewood, garage sales, and an auction.
Preparation for the trip included vaccinations and instructions to watch what they consume in the country, according to 17-year-old Roseburg High student Lindsey Behrens. Pills will be administered to the participants to keep them from catching malaria.
“I’m just ready for anything that comes my way. I’m going to be open-minded and ready to do what needs to be done ... to help people that need it,” Behrens said before leaving. Her parents, Steve and Linda Behrens, and her 20-year-old brother Tyler also accompanied her on the trek.
Though some in the group speak some Spanish, they will also use translators during their stay.
The group returns home Monday.
Having already served youth missions in the Los Angeles area and Mexico, Julie Piper, 17, also a Roseburg High student, said she was anticipating a memorable experience that will leave her changed spiritually.
“It makes my relationship with God feel, I don’t know, like it strengthens it a lot having to be in a situation that I’m vulnerable in,” said Piper, who was accompanied on the trip by her mother, Kary Piper, and her older sister, Ashley Piper. “You put your trust in God a lot more ... and also because I just like meeting new kinds of people and finding out that people are connected because of Christ.”
Preparation for the trip included vaccinations and instructions to watch what they consume in the country, according to 17-year-old Roseburg High student Lindsey Behrens. Pills will be administered to the participants to keep them from catching malaria.
“I’m just ready for anything that comes my way. I’m going to be open-minded and ready to do what needs to be done ... to help people that need it,” Behrens said before leaving. Her parents, Steve and Linda Behrens, and her 20-year-old brother Tyler also accompanied her on the trek.
Though some in the group speak some Spanish, they will also use translators during their stay.
The group returns home Monday.
Having already served youth missions in the Los Angeles area and Mexico, Julie Piper, 17, also a Roseburg High student, said she was anticipating a memorable experience that will leave her changed spiritually.
“It makes my relationship with God feel, I don’t know, like it strengthens it a lot having to be in a situation that I’m vulnerable in,” said Piper, who was accompanied on the trip by her mother, Kary Piper, and her older sister, Ashley Piper. “You put your trust in God a lot more ... and also because I just like meeting new kinds of people and finding out that people are connected because of Christ.”
Missionaries record thoughts on Guatemala
Celeste Marshal wrote in her journal about her 2004 trip to the area:<i>“After spending one night in Antigua our small group loaded up our two beat-up vehicles and set off for our adventure in the Ixcan region of Guatemala. It would take us 9 hours to reach Ixcan, about a 170-mile trip, or the distance from Roseburg to Portland. ...”
“As the hours rolled by and we got farther away from the city we began to notice a distinct change in scenery. The hustle and bustle quieted, the diesel exhaust dissipated and the forest started to close in around us. We had entered ... the jungle!
... We were graciously welcomed when we arrived at the church, where we would be staying for the next 4 days. After figuring out the mosquito netting over our beds we all nestled in after a long day of traveling. The first night we were introduced to the raucous lullaby of crickets humming, monkeys screeching, dogs barking and don’t forget the walnut tree dropping walnuts onto the metal roof that would be part of the jungle experience at night.
The next morning following our breakfast of porridge and tortillas we set off to stage our first medical clinic in the local school building.
... It was amazing to see God work through our small resources to give medical care to so many. ...”</i>
Bill Kuyper wrote about his 2005 trip:
<i>“... When we arrived at the San Antonio church the people from the church and our group all seemed excited to see each other. The welcome felt like a homecoming with greetings and hugs for everyone.
The first work day we spent tearing down wood beams ... from an existing building and getting to know the workers from San Antonio. ... If you stepped back and watched the work going on you might have thought the crew from the two towns had worked together before and there was not a loss in communication because of the difference in language.
... As the week progressed a lot of work was accomplished. A list of some of the physical accomplishments are: the beams were taken down, the nails removed ... sections of beams that were broken with nails or rotten were cut off for firewood and stacked in the kitchen, beams ... were welded and painted gray then put in place, old sheet metal roofing was cleaned and patched, 108 sheets of metal roofing were painted red ... and floors cleaned several times. ...
The hardest moment of the whole trip was the few minutes after the Sunday worship service, saying goodbye to all the people we met. The hugs again were in abundance and I kept having this big lump in my throat while saying goodbye.”</i>
• You can reach Web editor/copy editor Christian Bringhurst at 957-4216 or by e-mail at cbringhurst@newsreview.info.
... We were graciously welcomed when we arrived at the church, where we would be staying for the next 4 days. After figuring out the mosquito netting over our beds we all nestled in after a long day of traveling. The first night we were introduced to the raucous lullaby of crickets humming, monkeys screeching, dogs barking and don’t forget the walnut tree dropping walnuts onto the metal roof that would be part of the jungle experience at night.
The next morning following our breakfast of porridge and tortillas we set off to stage our first medical clinic in the local school building.
... It was amazing to see God work through our small resources to give medical care to so many. ...”</i>
Bill Kuyper wrote about his 2005 trip:
<i>“... When we arrived at the San Antonio church the people from the church and our group all seemed excited to see each other. The welcome felt like a homecoming with greetings and hugs for everyone.
The first work day we spent tearing down wood beams ... from an existing building and getting to know the workers from San Antonio. ... If you stepped back and watched the work going on you might have thought the crew from the two towns had worked together before and there was not a loss in communication because of the difference in language.
... As the week progressed a lot of work was accomplished. A list of some of the physical accomplishments are: the beams were taken down, the nails removed ... sections of beams that were broken with nails or rotten were cut off for firewood and stacked in the kitchen, beams ... were welded and painted gray then put in place, old sheet metal roofing was cleaned and patched, 108 sheets of metal roofing were painted red ... and floors cleaned several times. ...
The hardest moment of the whole trip was the few minutes after the Sunday worship service, saying goodbye to all the people we met. The hugs again were in abundance and I kept having this big lump in my throat while saying goodbye.”</i>
• You can reach Web editor/copy editor Christian Bringhurst at 957-4216 or by e-mail at cbringhurst@newsreview.info.
