The 11-person team that will board an airplane at near-midnight tomorrow (April 12) to begin the first leg of its 10-day trip to Guatemala is a mixed lot – ranging in age from the 30s to the 70s – all from different occupations, ethnicities, family situations, cities, hobbies, etc.
Although some of are church regulars and others not so much, ours is a mission of faith. Our team was formed under the auspices of Marine View Presbyterian Church in northeast Tacoma, a congregation that has sent teams to Guatemala since 1989 and continues to make this mission a centerpiece of its international outreach.
As a team we are bound in our dedication to serve others in a very remote region of the world, so remote that most of the villages in the area get scant attention from their own government. The area where we go in the western highlands area of the country was ravaged by a 36-year civil war fought between 1960 and 1996, one that killed some 200,000 Guatemalans and caused many in the area to flee north to Mexico to escape the slaughter, only to resettle when it was deemed safe. Along the way we will worship together, pray together, share our faith with the villagers we serve, and they with us.
Although we’ve had several team meetings to prepare, most of us don’t really know each other too well – yet. The many hours of travel that we will spend together will change that – and if past missions are any indication we will find ourselves to become close by the memories and shared experiences that we will have on this mission/travel adventure. Already two team members – Kay and Brian – discovered they both graduated from Washington State University the same year so will be able to share comon experiences from their time as Cougs in Pullman along the way.
One on our team, Erik Melton, is the son of veteran team member Loren Melton. A late-comer to our group, Erik lives in Jackson, Mississippi and we won’t get to meet him until our plane lands early Friday in Houston. Loren is anxious to spend time with his son and invited him along to share time and see what his dad has been up to when he has gone before.
The other team veterans are Diane Malone, Richard (Dick) Shenk, brothers Brian and Tom Dirks and Ed Hong. Other first-timers are Kay Miller, Odilla and Bilhan Gonzalez and Winnie Lee. Winnie, a native of Taiwan and a resident of Bellevue, attends the Bellevue Taiwanese Christian Church, another congregation that has provided financial support to our team. She is going at the invitation of Ed, who is her fiancé. The two will marry this summer.
Winnie and Ed both work in the technology sector. Ed,44, the son of Taiwanese immigrants, was raised in Normandy Park and now resides near Marine View in the Dash Point area of Northeast Tacoma. Before his position in cyber security with Amazon Web Services, Ed was an assistant math professor at the University of Washington’s Tacoma branch. Always cheerful, Ed plays cello with the church worship team nearly every Sunday. We are hoping he brings his ukulele again to keep us entertained through many hours of road travel. This is Ed’s fourth trip to Guatemala with Marine View, saying he keeps coming back because “it’s a great program.”
Dick is our longest-standing veteran as he and his wife Elinor were with the very first Marine View team. A native of Connecticut, the Federal Way resident is retired from the Weyerhaeuser Company where he worked for 22 years in the engineering and research groups before his retirement in 2001. Dick and Elinor have been married for 55 years and now have three children and five grandchildren. They have attended Marine View for 37 years.
Here’s what Dick says about his Guatemala experience:
“Elinor and I went to Guatemala on the first trip in support of Hands for Peacemaking in 1989. We went a second time two years later. The focus then was to do maintenance projects at a medical clinic in Barillas where Dr. Aller was a major volunteer, and to reach out to school children.
About 12 years ago I was part of a 10-man team that went to Guatemala to install 35 stoves that we purchased from Hope International. After we returned we heard that the village wanted 35 more stoves, so we raised money for those stoves and sent it to Hands for Peacemaking. The villagers who helped to install 35 stoves installed the second 35 stoves. I went to Guatemala the next year also to make sure the stove ministry continued.
This is my 5th trip to Guatemala. I am most impressed with the latest designed stove built at the Aller Center in Barrillas by Hands for Peacemaking employees, which provides employment for local Guatemala people in Barillias.
I thought I would make another trip to Guatemala before I got to be too old. I am only 79 years young.”
We are happy to have you Dick!
Kay Miller, also of Federal Way, works with her husband, Steve, in their family business. They’ve been married for 30 years and have a grown daughter who lives in San Diego. They are empty-nesters except for their very spoiled Border Terrier, Shaka (which means “hang loose” in Hawaiian.) Kay says she enjoys walking hiking, snowshoeing and spending time with people who like to laugh. Kay learned about the mission two or three years ago through a program at the Federal Way Kiwanis and has thought about making the trip since so decided to take the plunge this year. She and Steve are affiliated with the Christian Faith Center of Federal Way.
Besides the father-son team of Loren and Erik, the team has a mother-son team too! Odilia was born and raised in Guatemala and much of her family still lives there. Her son Bilhan was born in Guatemala but moved to the United States when he was young. Odilia Gonzalez joined the Marine View team after coordinating a fundraising dinner for the team with members of the Iglesia Cristiana LA VOZ church, a congregation made up mostly of native Guatemalans that met at Marine View until earlier this year. A resident of Milton, Odilia works at the Cottage in Edgewood, is married with three children and six grandchildren.
“I have done missionary trips in the past. I have enjoyed helping and am excited to do so in my mother country,” she says.
Bilhan, a resident of Auburn, has been married for 18 years, is employed by Food Services of America and has two children, a 12-year-old son and an 8-year-old daughter. “Being that I was born in Guatemala, it’s an opportunity for me to give back to my native country and serve,” he says.
Former Marine View member Loren Melton, 67, first joined the mission in 2014. Loren is retired military, serving in the Air Force reserves before careers in banking and teaching in Tacoma schools. Loren has an avid interest in travel and in the outdoors – while attending Marine View he organized a hiking club. The father and grandfather moved from Tacoma a few years ago to Packwood, where he lives with his wife Joan. Loren always has an entertaining story in the ready, and on the mission trips makes a point out of interacting with all of the children he meets in the village. Loren,who worships with his congregation in Packwood, will again lead our evening devotions.
Diane Malone, 72, is a resident of Tacoma who first learned about Marine View mission trip to Guatemala a few years ago while attending the church’s monthly Jazz Live concert series, where the Guatemala team appears once a year to raise both awareness and funds. As she does not attend Marine View, Diane always assumed she could not join the mission trip until learning that did not exclude her from coming along. Diane is a retired nurse who served in both the Army and Air Force, an active community volunteer and frequent world traveler – most recently traveling south to the Antarctic. This is her fourth time on the Guatemala mission, where she will again assume responsibilities as the team’s nurse. Diane is already in Guatemala – she will meet the team at the airport.
Tom Dirks, 46, a resident of West Seattle, works as an enterprise network manager at Costco headquarters in Issaquah. He and his wife Suzy have two sons, and the older, Andy, joined the mission with his father two years ago as a 15-year-old. Andy couldn’t make the trip again this year as he is a college-bound senior preparing to go to Western Washington University. Tom had heard stories and seen photos from previous Guatemala missions from his brother Brian and was so enthused by his first experience that he was anxious to go again. Tom again coordinated our tool purchases this year, and corralled much support from his family, friends and co-workers at Costco. Since both of Tom’s sons are big youth soccer players, Tom also corralled several soccer balls for us to take along for village children, procured dental supplies and much other support.
Leading the team again this year is Tom’s brother Brian. This is Brian’s fifth mission trip to Guatemala. By day he does communications work for a Washington state agency in Olympia, so spends more than two hours each weekday as a commuting road warrior too. Brian and his wife Dee live in Federal Way and are members of Marine View, attending since 2009. They have three 20-something children between them, and have one grandchild. Brian is also president of the board of the Hands for Peacemaking Foundation, the Everett-based organization that sends several teams to Guatemala each year from the United States. Brian will serve as the lead blog-poster this mission, although may invite others to chime in as time and opportunity allow.
More about each of our team members will be worked into the narrative of future posts along the way.
The team again wishes to thank all of those who have supported us in our journey so far with your prayers, donations and other support. Three folks have served as quasi-team members by attending many of our meetings and helping with key tasks. They include Dick Hayek and Dale Armstrong who have helped us keep track of our fundraising efforts, and Mary Altena who has given enormously of her time to assemble the children’s gift packs and hot pads we will bring.
Note: Since future dispatches will be made from a mobile phone in remote field conditions or on the fly, they will likely contain fewer words and more photos!