July 2005-Adult/Youth Servant Trip
MISSION TEAM RETURNS HOME FROM MEXICO
Twenty-nine members of a mission team sponsored
by St. Matthew Lutheran Church, Barrington, returned home from a
week in Mexico on August 5. The team had been teaching Bible school
at Santisima Trinidad, the Lutheran church in Zaragosa, Mexico,
a community on the eastern edge of Juarez.
Unique to this team was that two other congregations participated
along with St. Matthew. Four members of the team were from St. John
Lutheran Church, Algonquin, and two members were from Our Redeemer
Lutheran Church, Prospect Heights. Both congregations hope to begin
mission trip programs of their own in the future.
Beginning on Monday with 140 children in
attendance, the program grew throughout the week until on Thursday
231 children attended along with 23 adults. The group taught Bible
stories using skits, puppets, and other activities. They reenforced
the message of each day's lesson with songs, crafts, puzzles, and
Bible verses. Because of the team's limited Spanish skills, the
daily Bible skits were essential to communicating the Bible message
to the children. The skits were enhanced by props the team made
such as lion masks for the story of "Daniel in the Lions' Den"
or a large fish for the story of "Jonah and the Whale."
Throughout the week the team lived in a dormitory on the grounds
of Ysleta Lutheran Mission in El Paso, Texas. They would cross the
border each morning to work in Mexico. This was the nineteenth mission
trip sponsored by St. Matthew. Since 1998 the congregation has sent
an adult/youth team to teach Bible school. In the fall an adult
team provides medical care and does construction work.
