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HELPING HANDS

Tower, Cook women team up to build a home for Guatemalan family

Jodi Summit
Posted 2/8/17

TOWER- A team of women from Tower and Cook were on a mission last fall, literally, as they traveled to Escuintla, Guatemala, and built a house for a local family.

Liz Cheney, Becca Bundy, Hannah …

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HELPING HANDS

Tower, Cook women team up to build a home for Guatemalan family

Posted

TOWER- A team of women from Tower and Cook were on a mission last fall, literally, as they traveled to Escuintla, Guatemala, and built a house for a local family.

Liz Cheney, Becca Bundy, Hannah Cheney (Liz’s 10-year old daughter), Angie Gurius, Cheryl Lamppa, and Kathy Siskar may not be known, locally, as contractors, but once in Guatemala they spent two weeks mixing concrete, raising cinder block walls, and adding the finishing touches before a family moved into their new home.

The trip, with Recycled Lives, was the culmination of many months of planning and fundraising, with lots of help from the local community and Immanuel Lutheran Church, where Liz Cheney is the pastor.

Fundraisers in Tower raised most of the $6,000 needed to build and furnish the house, install tile floors, beds, cooking stoves, and chicken coops. The work benefits families who live in and around a community garbage dump. Over 100 families, some in their fifth generation, call this garbage dump their home. Men, barefoot children, and women dig through the trash searching for plastic and metal to recycle, making less than a dollar per day.

In addition, children at last summer’s Immanuel and St. James Vacation Bible School raised $600, which was used to put on a community Halloween party for the children in the impoverished part of Escuintla, near the town’s large garbage dump. The “God-centered” party featured face-painting, pumpkin-painting, crafts and of course, candy. Each of the 300 children who attended also got a new outfit and a meal.

Last Thursday, participants in the mission trip, along with Recycled Lives founders Shawn and Brad Johnson (who recently moved from their home in Cambridge, Minn., to Guatemala), gave two community presentations on their trip, along with their reasons for making the commitment to mission work.

Pastor Liz Cheney did her first mission trip to Guatemala in 2011, and has returned as often as she could manage.

“I hope to be able to lead a new trip each year,” she said. “All ages can participate.”

Angie Gurius said she hadn’t traveled outside of this country since she was in college.

“I liked the idea of building a house,” she said “We got to see Guatemala through their people, not by staying at a resort. This was a huge blessing. Once you meet folks it is never the same.”

Gurius said she developed a strong sense of the amazing skills, strength, and work ethic of the community in Escuintla.

“They are real people,” she said. “They are not defined by their poverty.”

Kathy Siskar joked she was the token Presbyterian of the group.

“I always wanted to go on a mission trip,” she said, “since I was a little girl”

At 67, Siskar was the oldest in the group.

“I never thought I could work that hard,” she said. “I was pushing my limits.”

The women worked daily in hot and humid conditions, using mostly hand-powered tools to mix concrete and build the home.

Becca Bundy said deciding to go on the trip was tough, because it meant relying on family and friends to take care of her four young children while she was away.

“I felt selfish to ask for help,” she said.

But the trip made a huge impression, and she is already planning another trip, and hoping to include her two older children next time.

“I grew as a person, both spiritually and professionally,” she said.

Cheryl Lamppa, who has gone on several other mission trips in the past, said the group “all shed quite a few tears” as they observed the da- to-day life of the community.

“You want to see what you can do to help,” she said.

Lamppa noted that Shawn and Brad Johnson were wonderful hosts during the trip.

The group stayed with the Johnsons, who now live in Escuintla for most of the year. Recycled Lives also sponsors monthly food distributions to 130 families, provides safe cooking stoves for families, and helps with other mission programs. So far, Recycled Lives groups have constructed 33 homes, at a cost of $3,500-$4,500 each, depending on the size. Monthly food distributions include rice, beans, and tortilla flour, at a cost of about $6 per family.

Recycled Lives is a tax-exempt 501c3 non-profit Christian organization dedicated to bettering the lives of people living in poverty through facilitating access to resources that are physical, spiritual and/or financial in nature. The group advocates for ceasing poverty for all of God’s people throughout the world. More information is available on their website at recycledlives.org.

Sidebar

Recycling for Recycled Lives

TOWER- Every is invited to come help Recycled Lives at a “Recycling for Recycled Lives” event on Thursday, Feb. 16 starting at 1 p.m. at Immanuel Lutheran Church in the fellowship hall.

Volunteers will be unraveling old sweaters for the yarn, cutting t-shirts into strips for rag crochet, as well as visitng and socializing. Coffee an’ will be served.

Donations of yarn, t-shirts, jeans, anything silky are welcome.

If available, please bring fabric scissors, rotary cutters and mats, seam rippers, along with your own projects for show and tell.

Recycling for Recycled Lives takes used clothing, leftover yarn and fabric, unfinished projects, and then turns them into something beautiful. This reminds us that “If anyone is in Christ, the new creation has come” (2 Corinthians 5:17). These items will then be sold at farmers markets and trade fairs with proceeds given to Recycled Lives to help with monthly food distributions and home building.

Call Angie at 515-681-8683 with any questions.