Mission Monday: Plan Grande

In the fall of 1998, Hurricane Mitch devastated parts of Central America, including many coffee farming villages in the mountains of Northern Nicaragua. A year and a half later, in the summer of 2000, 23 members of the Giddings-Lovejoy Presbytery traveled to one of those villages, Plan Grande 2, helping to build one of many new cinder block homes for those in need.

Since then, Giddings-Lovejoy has sent at least one delegation to Plan Grande every year, developing a "hermanamiento", or brotherhood, with the community. Some trips have been work trips, constructing projects from pilas, or water cisterns, to a new baseball field used for community development with neighboring villages. A Vacation Bible School program for the children is usually run, as is a women's fellowship. Seven members of St. Mark Presbyterian have gone on these trips, most more than one time.

For the past seven years, Giddings-Lovejoy presbytery has funded a secondary school scholarship program for deserving high school age students. When the program began, the closest secondary school was miles away, and the cost of transportation, uniforms and books made it impossible for most students to attend school. Thanks in part to the increased attendance made possible by our scholarships, a new secondary school has been built closer to Plan Grande, and school attendance has greatly increased. Some of the first recipients are now attending college.

The 2014 trip to Plan Grande will take place on July 26 - August 3. For more information on how to be a part of this amazing experience, contact Harriet Hall at hallhughes@aol.com, or visit  http://www.glpby.org/teams/latinamerica.htm.

G. Nuckolls, Mission Committee