MISSION   TRIPS

Mission trips are relatively new to our church.  They are an opportunity to travel to areas in the U.S. & abroad where poverty, natural disaster and/or humanity’s inhumanity have victimized large numbers of people.  We go to help, learn from and/or work hand-in-hand with those who are struggling, & in most cases, poor.  Mission trips had their humble beginnings in our church in the 1990’s when we helped fund church member, Gerry Blanchette, to travel to Homestead, Florida following Hurricane Andrew to join a work crew to rebuild homes.  Shortly thereafter, we helped fund church member, Dan Hart, as he traveled around the country for many months volunteering at various mission sites.  In 1997 as Rick Haverly became our Associate Minister, we charged him with creating an annual mission trip for our youth.  Each February school vacation, Rick leads our young people to one of 3 sites in a rotation: Baltimore/Washington, D.C. to work with Habitat for Humanity; New York City to work in soup kitchens; or Mexico to work on projects coordinated by our sister U.C.C. church in Mazatlan.  Adult/teen mission trips began in 2000, when Lyndsey Ellis went on a Mission Education Trip to Mexico with a group from Weston Priory & then insisted that Gordon & Diane Ellis go on one that same year.  Since then, Gordon has led 2 groups of 18 there from our church & will lead a third group in June 2005.  In 2001, Gordon also heard about another mission trip, spearheaded by the First Congregational Church of Branford, to live & work with the poor in a very poor section of Guayaquil, Ecuador.  In 2002, Diane Ellis & Joyce Fritz attended that trip.  Joyce & Rebecca Fritz, along with Todd Pinter, went in 2003, & Gordon & Diane Ellis attended it in 2004.  Another group from our church will be attending the Ecuador Mission Trip on August 4-15, 2005.  Simultaneously, Gordon heard about Re-Member, an outreach to the Lakota people at Pine Ridge Indian Reservation, & he & Carol Ann Celella led a group of 17 there in 2003.  Two more groups went to Pine Ridge in 2004, one led by Scott & Carol Ann Celella, & the other by Linda Fernandes-Bailey & her husband, Jim.  Two more groups plan to go in 2005, one in May led by Chuck & Judy Miceli, & the other in July led by Ed Tetreault, along with Ken & Kim Casarella.  Mission trips can be life-changing.