Mission Trip Newspaper Article

Hospital Food, Muscle Cars and Friendships!

(Article taken from the March 29, 2011 Hutchinson Leader Newspaper.  Article written by Doug Hanneman.) 

When Maplewood Academy students planned their 2011 spring mission trip, the original destination was the Central American nation of Honduras. But high airfares kept them closer to home, and the group instead drove to Clay County in Kentucky’s Appalachian Mountains.

Clay County is one of the poorest counties in the nation.  Unemployment is about 50 percent, and two-thirds of the county’s 24,000residents receive public assistance.

Knowing that, students from Maplewood-Seventh-day Adventist high school in Hutchinson-Figured their 10-day stay in Kentucky could be a life-changing experience.  Upon their return last week, they said the change of plans was indeed a blessing.

The 17 students and five adults-including teachers Linda Vigil and Principal Marshall Bowers-who made the 1,880-mile roundtrip journey worked on several projects during their stay.  They helped a family of seven with their new home, sorted files and moved equipment at a hospital, and assisted in activities at three schools. 

Gratitude shown by those they served left them with a feeling that they’d like to do more.  “It was a great experience,” said senior Angie Schebo.

Planning for the trip began several months ago and each student raised $900 to cover coats.  The mission was arranged by WeCare Missions, a program of Andrews University, an Adventist school in Michigan.  Upon arrival, the group’s daily routine was coordinated by Manchester Memorial Hospital in Manchester, the county seat.

Helping a hospital

The boy’s stayed in the basement of an Adventist church, and the girls stayed in a home owned by the hospital.

“Every Morning we got our orders from the hospital,” said senior Landyn Thom.  “We’d eat our breakfast there.  For hospital food, I thought it was going to be awful, but it was great.”

At the hospital, the students took on a monumental project-alphabetically sorting 5,600 patient files contained in large boxes, each weighing between 50 and 70 pounds.

“Before we did that, it took two days for the hospital to find a file,” Hanson said.

“That was one thing that really made me proud of the kids,” Vigil said. “They said, ‘We’re going to finish this job’ and they did.”

The hospital also had a warehouse of equipment and supplies- ranging from scrubs to vending machines to old syringes-that needed to be prepared for waste disposal. Some items had never been used. And some were donated but were outdated.

“Our job was to take everything we saw and either clean it or throw it,” Thom said. “We took all the stuff and put it on trucks.”

Helping a Family

Another project was refurbishing a home that the hospital had purchased for a family. The “new” home was an improvement over the family’s old home, but it still needed major work.

“Maplewood’s project was to fix up the outside,” said Junior Jacob Guptill. Working with two hospital maintenance workers, Guptill built a porch on the back of the home and dug a trench to strengthen the foundation supports under a shed.

Meanwhile, Hanson and others cleared tall grass and debris from around the home and drained a pond. Others repaired the home’s windows Schebo added.

“We took a vote for what we should get them,” Thom said. “The girls were favoring something educational. The guys wanted to get them something fun.”

Their final decision: a football, basketball and Wii video game console, which they bought from Walmart.

“The little boy was clutching the basketball all the time we were there,” Thom said.

Time with school children

The students’ schedule also included visits to two public schools and daily visits to an Adventist elementary school. “Every morning we preached to the kids and had a little time for prayer and skits with them,” Hanson said.

At the public elementary school, the group conducted a health fair, similar to one conducted at Maplewood Academy several weeks ago. And at a public junior high school, the students played basketball and baseball. One day, the group provided praise music during a church worship service.

The students said everyone they met in Clay County was friendly, though there were a few surprises.

The Walmart they shopped at was small and much different than Hutchinson’s. “They called it the ‘forgotten’ Walmart,” Guptill said, explaining that the store seemed to miss a few basics. “They had never heard of a Swiffer,” he said.

Another surprise was the vehicles people drove. “They like driving muscle cars down there,” Thom said. “I saw a lot of mustangs and trucks.”

One day, the group took a break from their work duties and traveled to a site where they were able to climb rock walls and rappel. The opportunity to do something fun outdoors in mild weather was a welcome departure from Hutchinson’s long winter.

 “Everyone had a good time,” Hanson said. “I definitely want to go back.”