Next summer, several of Stettler and area teenagers are hoping to travel to Guatemala on Mission with the Alliance Church, and the group has already started working to raise funds for the trip.
Planned for next summer, the week-long missionary trip will have students, many of whom are members of Wm. E. Hay Stettler Secondary Campus' Student Christian Federation (SCF), working with orphans in Guatemala City, which is the capital of Guatemala, a Central American country south of Mexico.
The mission is being run through Dorie's Promise, which serves both orphans and the poor in the city. With more orphans than governmental institutions can handle, Christian orphanages like the one run by Dorie's Promise is one of the only ways to keep the children safe and healthy.
According to adult coordinators Amore duToit and Rhonda Missikewitz, the orphanages have more than 700 youth to care for and only space for 400.
DuToit and Missikewitz and their families have travelled to Guatemala before, helping at the orphanages, providing comfort and love to the children, and helping poorer parts of the city with various projects. They've helped build schools and laid hand-mixed cement floors for the poor in the city – which helps keep down illness and prevent vermin.
It was the teens in those families sharing the life-changing experiences they both witnessed and took part in while in Guatemala that convinced other members of SCF that this, too, was something they wanted to embark upon, duToit said.
"We prayed about it, and knew that this was something we wanted and needed to do," she said.
The 22-strong group of students, along with adult chaperones, will be a total of 26, at least right now. The number could still fluctuate, duToit said.
The cost for each person to go on the trip is $2,600, which means the entire mission will cost roughly $70,000, duToit confirmed. That is why fundraising started early, with a by-donation screening of Woodlawn at the church on Sunday, Nov. 13.
Members of SCF will also be hosting a bake sale every Thursday till the end of the school year.
DuToit said she couldn't express her gratitude to the many businesses in Stettler who are already supporting the mission trip, either through financial donations or with donations for upcoming events like the dessert auction and it's accompanying silent auction in the new year.
And it's important, duToit noted, that they raise the money. Not all of the youth wishing to go on mission come from financial backgrounds that would enable them to go along. And, if they can raise more than the $70,000 they need to get there, that's extra money they can put back into the community in which they help, duToit explained.
Anyone wishing to contribute to the mission is welcome to phone duToit at 403-741-9517 or contact her through email at adutoit@clearview.ab.ca.