Creating a Brighter Future

 Ethnic Potluck and Missions Night Jan. 28

 This delightful evening shared by ~40 people started with a delicious potluck supper that included an array of dishes from several different countries. Here are just a few examples we enjoyed – oriental shrimp dumplings offered by some of our School of Architecture students, Lorna’s potato and chickpea curry from Guyana, Grace’s Dutch almond cake, Alejandro and Kathryn’s Guatemalan tostadas with hot sauce and a dark fruit cake whose cook and origin are unknown but we’d sure like to get the recipe!.

Hilda and the Children

This was followed by three of our members who invited us to explore the opportunities to serve in our local and global community. Elsie began by taking us back to how our mission at Rachel’s Home in Lesotho, Africa, first began more than 10 years ago. She asked for our prayers as we continue to support the AIDS orphanage and community school in a beautiful country that sees so much violence and poverty each day. We know that every “penny” we send goes directly to pay for teachers’ and care-givers’ salaries, school supplies, groceries and clothing. Rachel’s Home needs our help to do some badly needed maintenance but it is just too dangerous to visit now. Our two mission trips were in 2009 and 2012.

Villa Esperanza

Next up was Greg giving us a very moving account of how our very own Ontario Christian Gleaners, a volunteer organization located just outside of Cambridge, is partnering with two other organizations, The Samaritan Foundation and Cups of Cold Water. These organizations combine the gospel message with humanitarian aid. The Gleaners prepare the ingredients for soup, which is then donated to the partner organizations who build schools where children can come for the soup and receive hope through an education. Greg told us the story of how previously, before these organizations arrived, the children had to help their parents rummage, without wearing any gloves, through dumps that contained everything, in order to make a living on a peso a day. The parents could not afford to send their children to school. Now decent houses and schools are being built and children can come to school for free and be assured of the soup providing at least one nourishing meal each day. This has lightened the financial burden for the parents and offered a brighter future.

Guatemala

Alejandro was our last speaker and he told us about the mission trip planned for October to return to a small town, Cubulco, in the mountains of Guatemala. Previously Alejandro and his team built a church alongside people of the town while sharing God’s love and growing friendships. This time the plan is to help add classrooms for Sunday School but the church serves as a community center so the rooms will serve many needs. The people are hard workers but need help with some necessary skills. This time members of our church will join Alejandro and some members of other churches for the trip. If you might consider joining this mission trip, please contact Alejandro.

Alejandro also told us about his work with migrant Mexican workers. He shares God’s love with these people while playing sports.