Searcy youth group raising funds for Guatemala trip

Ryan Cagle, left, hugs a young boy during a mission trip to Guatemala. Cagle went on the trip with a group from First United Methodist Church in Searcy.
Ryan Cagle, left, hugs a young boy during a mission trip to Guatemala. Cagle went on the trip with a group from First United Methodist Church in Searcy.

SEARCY — In June, a group of teens and their parents will make a return trip to Guatemala on a mission to meet the needs of villagers and to show them they are loved.

Casey Walker will lead the team of 27 people from First United Methodist Church in Searcy to Sumpango, Guatemala. Last year, the church sent 36 people, ranging in age from 12 to about 50 years old.

The trip last year was only six days, but Walker said the teenagers who went learned a lot, and those experiences have stuck with them.

“It opened their eyes to see basic things that we don’t see often in the United States,” she said. “Rarely do we have trouble finding a clean glass of water. … Not having a bathroom. Not having basic needs. They didn’t know what it was like to have no resources until they saw it up close.”

The Searcy group went to help others, but Walker said team members learned a lot about themselves as well. They saw the value of their friends and families and learned about how blessed they are.

“When you don’t have the material things like we have here, you love the simple life and each other,” Walker said. “I think they learned how to value their families more. It also made them much more aware of people around them in need. They started looking outside of themselves, and they still do.”

Last year’s trip was a great success in a lot of ways, she said.

“We did multiple things,” Walker said of last year’s journey. “We worked in an HIV/AIDS orphanage. In that country, they are not well educated with HIV/AIDS, and they don’t want to touch people who have it. The nuns who work in this orphanage are wonderful, but other than the nuns, these children don’t have much other contact because people are afraid.”

When at the nursery, the group from Searcy played with the children, hugged them and basically showed them they were special. Walker said it was fulfilling to see children receive love and care.

“It just brought them joy they don’t get to see on a regular basis,” she said.

At the orphanage, the Searcy group also did some repair work and built toddler beds for the children.

The church in Sumpango that the Searcy team worked with also serves as a school for some of the children in the village, and while team members were there, they helped build classrooms so the children and teachers could have better facilities.

“There, a lot of children don’t get to go to school. They whole family has to work to provide for their basic needs,” Walker said. “The kids have to work in the fields or work at home, so they don’t go to school. This church brings in people to teach them two hours a day. They learn the basics of reading and writing.”

In a home in the village, Walker said, the team got a chance to put in a latrine and build an extra room so the family would have adequate space.

“They didn’t have any kind of bathroom facilities,” she said. “And they all slept in the same bed. It was mamma and four little girls and a son. The son was getting too big to sleep with the girls, so he slept on the floor. They had a mattress for him but no place to put it, so we built an extra room for them.”

This year’s trip — which will be June 7-13 — will include similar tasks, Walker said. The teenagers, especially, get excited about helping and making a difference, and Walker said she is constantly encouraged by the youths’ enthusiasm.

“It’s great to see this generation step up,” she said. “Speaking overall, in my generation and older, we see things but don’t always do something. This younger generation sees things and wants to know what they can do. When they see something wrong, they want to do something about it.”

Walker said the group will hold fundraisers both in and out of the church to support the trip. On April 11, team members will hold a silent auction. On April 18, they will have a garage sale and car wash. On May 6, there will be a fish fry at the church in support of the team. On May 9, the group will work at Sonic on Beebe Capps Expressway to raise money.

Staff writer Angela Spencer can be reached at (501) 244-4307 or aspencer@arkansasonline.com.

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