Message of salvation: Love is the universal language'

St. Paul Lutheran Church hosts rummage sale to raise funds to support its mission trips to Guatemala

By Bob Campbell

Southeast Missourian

There would appear to be few, if any, similarities between Jackson and Los Limones, Zacapa, Guatemala, but members of a St. Paul Lutheran Church mission team found some they will long remember during nine days there last July.

Planning a rummage sale Feb. 5 though 8 at the 223 W. Adams St. church to help finance the next trip, team members say the Guatemalans and their children were so friendly and receptive to the message of salvation through belief in Jesus Christ that the team found itself reluctant to leave the impoverished village of 2,000.

The sale will be from 7 a.m. to 7 p.m. Feb. 5, 6 and 7 and 7 a.m. to noon on the last day, when everything will be 75 percent off. All items will be marked down by 50 percent on Feb. 7.

"Our church has over 2,000 members, so we really get some nice things," said sale chairman Mary Winterhof. "A new hand-stitched quilt will be auctioned."

Winterhof, one of the mission group's 19 members, said they took two young people from the nearby eastern Guatemalan city of Gualan to translate while working at a day care center, building an open-air pavilion as the first stage of a church and holding afternoon vacation Bible school classes.

"We danced and sang, clapped hands and had puppet shows," said Winterhof. "We had 20 kids at the day care center, and about 40 came to the first VBS class led by Tammy Mueller. The word spread that we were there, and more came each day. There were over 300 on the last day."

Noting that the trip had construction and humanitarian phases, team leader David Crites said the village's poverty was affecting. "They're living in shacks of boards and tin," he said.

"They only have two or three days a week of government-supplied water from a tank on top of a hill, and most families live on $300 a year. They smile and give you hugs.

"The church in Los Limones (The Lemons) is a satellite of Resurrection Lutheran Church in Gualan, whose minister, the Rev. Luis Jasinto, comes there."

Gualan has a population of about 19,000.

Back from his third trip, Crites said St. Paul Lutheran chose the village because it was one of the Central American sites recommended in 2009 by Lutheran Hour Ministries in St. Louis.

"We gave away 200 family packs of seeds to grow beets, radishes, cabbages, tomatoes and other things, and we took medical supplies to a public clinic in Gualan that is not well funded. We also took a child-sized blood pressure cuff, which they didn't have."

It was the first mission for church secretary Brenda Stroer, who said she is "just now to the point where I can talk about it without crying.

"Some kids walked miles in bare feet in 100-degree heat, partly because they knew we would give them slices of pineapple, watermelon or papaya at the end of the 2 1/2-hour classes," Stroer said. "They were very responsive. They love music. We taught them songs in Spanish.

"We came away feeling like we had received so much more than we were able to give. Love is the universal language."

Other team members were Chuck Drewett, Susan Skelton, Dan Palisch, Brad and Patty Schwab, Scott and Debby Sprandel, Matt and Luke Mueller, Ken Fluegge, Jacob Schubert, Gary Steffens and Vernon, Stephanie and Chloe Kasten.