A recent mission project of the Hood View church, Boring, Ore., included raising $17,000, donating tools, and sending volunteers to help repair extensive hurricane damage to a Guatemalan orphanage. Dan Patchin and Sam Pellecer made three trips to Los Piños which is operated by International Children’s Care.
On the men’s first trip, wives Marilyn Patchin, Greta Pellecer, and daughter Sonja Pellecer accompanied them. The women helped with painting and sewed for the children. The men, assisted by older boys, did minor repairs and spent most of their time replacing the gym roof.
Next, the two men returned to do maintenance work on the houses and other buildings such as rewiring electrical lines, repairing and replacing lights, fixing appliances, purchasing and replacing 700 window panes, and overhauling plumbing at the orphanage and at the receiving center in Guatemala City.
At Los Piños, there are 12 homes, each with house-parents, which accommodate 10 to 12 children each. The facility in Guatemala City cares for about 35 children.
Later, Henry Geppert, Chuck Hellman and Chris Kielhorn joined Patchin and Pellecer in a five-week-long stint. They repaired light switches and broken wall outlets, installed porch lights, replaced supporting beams for porch roofs, re-roofed parts of two houses, replaced light fixtures, installed window screens, poured cement flooring, and removed two miles of outdated power lines.
Funds from the church supplemented those spent by the workers to purchase materials, equipment and tools that were left at the orphanage for future use along with $3,000 to spend on specific needs. This included $1,800 to pay for cement for the new church they planned to start erecting in February.
Hoping to go again this year, Patchin says, “We made an earnest beginning in the work that needs to be done. There is much more for future trips by volunteers to complete.” •
Sam Pellecer, left, and Henry Geppert cut frames for window screens.
At the orphanage receiving center, Marilyn and Dan Patchin supply affection the children need.
