2009 Mission Trip
On Saturday morning, January 31st nine carpenters loaded the planes and headed to Lima, Peru. This group of men committed a week towards the construction of the day care center in Manchay and also the new orphanage that MSF is building in Pachacamac. Most of this year's team have made this same trip with MSF and look forward to returning each year.
Arriving in Lima, Peru at 11:30 pm we traveled about 50 minutes to the apartment that we would be living in the next week. Sunday morning we went to church followed by lunch and a visit to both job sites. The new orphanage in Pachacamac will have six new homes built by MSF. Each home will house eight children and a set of parents. Currently four of the houses are underway with the last two to follow. A couple of the men spent the week at this site installing ceramic floors throughout the home. The rest of the men spent the week in Manchay at the Cuna Daycare center which started four years ago. MSF has worked on this site for the last four years. This year we took an empty space that will be used for administration offices and performed the following work: ceramic tile floor, metal stud walls with drywall and taping, installation of five interior doors and three exterior doors, framed walls for cubical and built custom desks in each one. Once again time was short and our unfinished work was stretched to the last hour, but we were able to complete everything we set out to do!
The highlight of the week was when 95 kids performed a little program for us. They made cards for each one of the men and presented them along with a big hugs and smiles! On the front of the card was Matthew 25:40, "And the King will answer them, Truly, I say to you, as you did it to one of the least of these my brothers, you did it to me." One of the men in the group said that moment alone made it all worth being there. These kids have so little, but the Cuna Daycare Center provides hot meals, love and the teaching of Jesus Christ.
Special thanks to Mutual Sales who donated power tools and supplies and Just Rite Acoustics, Inc. for underwriting the entire trip.
Please read below the stories from Tyler Foss construction coordinator for both the orphanage and daycare center and Don DeFiore one of the men that represented MSF.
Kids Alive Peru, and Kids Alive sites around the world use service teams from North America to further the work being done in their countries. They do this by using the ministry money brought down by the teams to buy building materials for their use. Also, they rely on each work team to report on the work being completed. I have been working with service teams for two years now in Peru and we host an average of twelve teams per year. Out of all the teams I have worked with over the past two years one team in particular stands out for various reasons. That team is from The Mitchell Swaback Foundation. This team stands out because of the quality of work that they do, the quantity of work they accomplish in a short period of time and also for their commitment to the ministry which is evident in their desire to start at least an hour earlier each day than any other team.
This year's team from the foundation was here for five working days and they accomplished more than most teams can get done in two weeks. Among the things they completed were: laying tile in one of our new houses in Pachacamac, completely tiling and grouting our new office in Manchay, studding, dry walling, taping and sanding the offices and custom making and installing desks in those offices. For some teams it is a real effort to think of work for them to do to keep them busy, for The Mitchell Swaback Foundation team it was a real effort to keep enough materials on hand to keep up with the work being done.
Kids Alive Peru would like to thank Bob Swaback and all the team members who came down this year and continue to come down year after year to help us further our mission of reaching at risk children for Jesus Christ.
Sincerely Yours,
Tyler Foss
Construction Kids Alive International Peru
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