Missionfest aims to help others here and abroad

Missionfest lead organizer Cheryl Mothes said she came later than she'd hoped to the field of missionary work.

"I didn't go on my first mission trip until I was 52. Five years ago," she said. "I always wanted to, but I didn't know how to plug in."

But every year since, she's been back to Haiti, and every year, she now oversees Missionfest.

"The focus is on connecting the community to mission opportunities," she said. "Our hope is for people to find a mission that they can plug into."

Hundreds over the course of the day turned out to the Osage Centre in Cape Girardeau to support the causes.

Harley Radi, 10, right, brainstorms with a friend at her Advent Conspiracy booth during Missionfest on Sunday at the Osage Centre, which promotes the decommercialization of the holiday season. Radi is fundraising to build a well in Haiti and distributed free bottled waters in the hopes that the bottles will be returned filled with dimes to donate.Ben Matthews

Mothes said she was moved to start Missionfest after seeing the disparity between the quality of life in the United States and in places such as Haiti.

"The need is so great, and here, we really do have the resources to help," she said.

The biggest needs, she said typically are medical, educational and nutritional. While some of the organizations involved with Missionfest focused on raising money to address the first two, more than 120 people signed up to help the Southeast Missouri chapter of Kids Against Hunger pack meals to be allocated locally and abroad.

Volunteer Kelly Barns said while recipients are physically nourished by the meals, they often find comfort in the knowledge others care for their well-being. And because the mostly rice- and soy-based meals are vegan, they don't violate religious or dietary restrictions.

Mothes said in just a few hours of packing, the volunteers would have 75,000 meals ready to go.

At one booth, surrounded by handcrafted jewelery and baskets, Michelle Outman shared her story of being called to charity work.

A little over seven years ago, she and her husband traveled to Ethiopia to adopt twins. While there, they realized a need to help others.

"We have been blessed," Outman said. "And to whom much is given, much is required. ... Most of the other world does not live like we do in America."

So she's now ministry president of h.o.w?, an acronym for "helping orphans and widows," She and her husband run the Christian non-for-profit from their Cape Girardeau home.

The women they help are in Kenya.

"This is Mary," she said, pointing to one of the posters behind her booth. The woman in the poster was smiling with her son, but she had been abandoned by her husband after the boy, Sammy, was born handicapped, Outman said.

But Mary had been taught to sew by a family member as a child, and h.o.w? provided her with a sewing machine.

"She said she didn't sleep at all last year," Outman said, because Mary has become one of the most sought-after seamstresses in her community.

At another booth, Harley Radi perhaps was the youngest missionary in attendance at 10 years old. She represented Advent Conspiracy.

"It's about how people spend so much money on Christmas," she said. "$550 billion on Christmas each year and $10 billion on providing clean water. That's less than 2 percent."

Her objective, she said, was to convince people not to spend so much money "on Christmas decorations and stuff."

She also had her personal project: building a drinking-water pump in Haiti. She was selling plastic water bottles for people to fill with dimes and return to her.

"Drink this water, fill it back up with dimes, and if they're just dimes, it's $40," she explained. "If I sell 70 of these, that's enough for a water well."

Giving to others, she said, feels good because not everyone has the same privilege she has here in Cape Girardeau.

"During Missionfest today, 720 children will die because they don't have clean water," she said.

But people like her are working to change that.

tgraef@semissourian.com

(573) 388-3627