TOWER— “People go on a mission trip thinking they will change lives,” said Shelby Vaske who has been to Guatemala over a dozen times to provide assistance to struggling communities, “but the life that will be changed the most is their own.”
Seven individuals with ties to the Lake Vermilion area gave a presentation on July 29 about experiences they’ve had volunteering with non-profits in Central America, during a program sponsored by the Lake Vermilion Cultural Center in Tower.
While many might think traveling to this area of the world is foolhardy, many non-profits, often with religious ties, have been working for years in this majority-Christian country, doing their part to improve living conditions for families, and trying to help create more sustainable communities.
Guatemala, which lies just south of Mexico, is the most populous country in Central America with about 16 million residents. Poverty, crime, and climate change (recent droughts have caused extreme food shortages for almost 840,000 people according to the UN’s Food and Agriculture Organization) have caused unprecedented numbers of Guatemalans and other Central Americans to migrate north in recent years.
Vaske, a summer resident on Lake Vermilion who is well-known for the homemade pies she sells at the Tower Farmers Market, has been leading mission trips to Guatemala for many years as part of the San Lucas Mission project. The mission, which was established by the New Ulm Diocese of Minnesota, was started in the 1960s in the central highlands of the country. Father Greg Schaffer was initially sent on a two-year mission there, but ended up staying the next 50 years, Vaske said. The mission is now operated as its own non-profit and employs around 100 Guatemalans. San Lucas has established a Women’s Center, hospital and health clinics, and an elementary school. The mission also provides business support services for small coffee growers and roasters, crafters and artisans, and builds homes.
San Lucas sponsors mission trips which are cross-cultural volunteer experiences. Participants explore the local culture and communities, as well as work alongside Guatemalans on service projects such as building simple homes.
Shelby’s daughter, Lauren Vaske, now lives in Guatemala full-time. She started working as the volunteer coordinator for San Lucas Mission but is now the country director for Sharing the Dream in Guatemala, a group that works with 90 different groups of crafters and artisans, providing technical and marketing assistance, providing sales outlets, and creating sustainable jobs. The goal is to create jobs that will support the local families.
“We make sure they are paid fairly,” she said.
Profits from the program (and from sales of the hand-crafted items in stores in South Dakota) help fund a health clinic, student scholarships, and an elder center which provides meals and health services.
Guatemala does not provide any sort of social security, Lauren said.
“The elders are the poorest of the poor,” said Lauren. “There is no social safety net. You work until you are no longer able to, and then hope a family member will take care of you.”
Sharing the Dream also raises funds by offering sponsorships for either elders or students. They also offer trips that focus on learning about Guatemala’s culture, cooking, and artisans.
Bergetta Indihar, from Tower, went on her first mission trip with Shelby this past year. Indihar became interested in Guatemala when her niece, Erin McGillivray, served there while in the Peace Corps. Indihar said she knew she’d never be able to do a stint in the Peace Corps, but she jumped at the opportunity to travel to San Lucas.
“The focus of the mission trip wasn’t necessarily what we were going to do,” she said, “but what we were going to learn.” While the trip did include some heavy labor, like mixing cement by hand while helping to build efficient indoor cookstoves for families, it also included plenty of time learning about and visiting the community, as well as some more recreational side trips.
Pastor Liz Cheney, of Cook, is currently in Guatemala, on a mission trip for Recycled Lives. Cheney, who is the minister for Immanuel Lutheran Church in Tower, went on her first mission trip in 2011, and has led a mission team to work in a community in San Gabriel every year since 2015. The community, of several hundred people, is located on a large garbage dump. Community members make a meager living scavenging and selling items found on the dump site. Many live outdoors right on the dump.
Recycled Lives was founded by a couple from Minnesota, Brad and Shawn Johnson, who moved to Guatemala to continue their mission work full-time. They build simple concrete houses for homeless families, and also build efficient indoor cookstoves and bunkbeds. The group also distributes food to 130 families once a month and does outreach activities with both adults and children.
Recycled Lives has a goal of building relationships, with a hand up, not a handout.
“We see you. We love you like Jesus does,” said Pastor Cheney in a recorded video. “Each year I return to visit the families I’ve worked with. I get to watch their children grow up. We are all connected. Though they live a very hard life, they are like me and you. They all have the same hopes for their children and families.”
It costs about $4,500 to build a home for a family, said Angie Gurius, another volunteer for Recycled Lives. The cookstove program provides an efficient, indoor cooking stove along with pots and pans for $200 per family. The group also builds bunkbeds which are installed in the home so children have a space of their own, off the floor. They also supply corrugated tin to repair existing homes and roofs.
“I’ve never worked so hard in my life and enjoyed it more,” said Kathy Siskar, another local Recycled Lives volunteer. “I did things I never thought I could do, mixing concrete by hand and hauling it in wheelbarrows.”
Cheryl Lamppa is another local volunteer, having completed an earlier mission trip as part of a Thrivent Builds for Habitat trip to Guatemala, as well as a recent Recycled Lives trip.
Jet Galonski, another area resident, has done work with Living Water International, now called Unbound, which sponsors children in Guatemala and many other countries. Unbound also goes into communities and teaches women how to become community leaders, giving out small loans to empower them, he said.
Vaske also serves on the board of another group, Stoves for Guatemala, started by a retired cabinetmaker from Minnesota. The group raises money and then hires a local crew to build cookstoves in the San Gabriel area. Their goal is to be able to fund the crew year round. Right now the crew is able to work five months a year.
While going on a mission trip is certainly a worthwhile experience, Indihar said that now that she has done a trip, she is more likely to simply donate money to one of these groups.
“I went for the experience,” she said, “and if I could convince any of you to go on a mission trip anywhere I’d feel like I’ve accomplished something.” But personally, she said, she has seen how much relatively small amounts donated to groups in Guatemala can do, and said monetary donations are a very worthwhile goal.
The cost to go on one of these mission trips varies from around $1,500, plus airfare, to about $3,000, participants said.
To find out more about the organizations represented at the event, please visit these websites:
recycledlives.org
Sanlucasmission.org
Sharingthedream.org
Habitatguate.org
Stoves for Guatemala (see their facebook page).