Roadhouse Student Services, the student ministry of Crossroads Community Church in Naperville, Illinois recently sent 12 students and three adult leaders to Gualan, Guatemala July 24-August 6, 2010 to work wtih CALMS in a variety of projects. All students had been on previous short-term teams, and most had recently participated in a servant event in Mexico. Students had to apply for the trip and prepared for months with their leader, Donnie Stubblefield, who has led many similalr short-term teams throughout the years.
Throughout their two week assignment, the students remained flexible and accomplished an amazing amount of work while building strong relationships with local families, children at the Lutheran school, CALMS' partners and staff, and many others with whom they interacted.
Prior to their short-term trip, the young people raised money to pay for seven of 35 flood relief houses that CALMS is building. In Guatemala, they painted houses, built foundations, constructed wooden walls, taught Bible sessions, English and music at the Lutheran School in Gualan, did an outreach to the children in the city dump in the city of Zacapa, and repaired desks for the school in the mountain village of La Avanzada where CALMS has been working since the devastating landslides of 2008.
"Seeing God's love was a challenge while serving in the Zacapa dump. Never before in my 17 years have I seen children between the ages of 3-11 sorting through mounds of city garbage searching for plastic. It broke my heart to see the scarred palms of each toddler due to digging in glass. My heart goes out to each child and mother and father living in the Zacapa Dump and I know that God's love will always be with them, even when I am not." -Kendyl Berger. Roadhouse Youth International Missions Leader
