Cross-cultural partnerships
First United Methodist Church, 200 E. North St., is sending out two missions this summer, but only one of them could be grounded by a volcano.
Henry McNutt is leading 18 people on a mission to Unalaska Island in Alaska's Aleutian Island chain.
But, he said, the already long trip from Butler to Alaska has been complicated by the eruptions of the Pavlof Volcano, 590 miles southwest of Anchorage, which has been sending ash 28,000 feet into the atmosphere and disrupting local flights since May 16.
McNutt's group is leaving July 11 and will spend nearly two days to reach Unalaska Island, if the volcano cooperates, he said.
“They have ash on the island, and there is the possibility that we could get up there and the volcano erupts, and we might be unable to get there (the island,)” said McNutt, whose group plans to fly from Pittsburgh to Phoenix to Anchorage before making a three-hour, 800-mile commuter flight to the island.
And the climate is making even the Phoenix leg of the journey difficult, McNutt said.
“U.S. Air had to cancel flights because of the temperature on the runway,” said McNutt, refering to the triple-digit highs in the Southwest.
McNutt's group is going to help out Butler natives Dan and Kris Ann Wilcox. Dan Wilcox is pastor of a United Methodist Church on the island.
“There's a United Methodist Church up there. There is a little disarray to it,” said McNutt.
“So we have two cooks, four carpenters and the rest are painters. There is drywall work that has to be done,” said McNutt, as well as installing double doors on the church front and putting a roof over a fuel tank area.
“We're going to paint both the inside and the outside of the church and the rectory,” said McNutt.
“We're building some chicken coops for them,” he added. “They are 800 miles from Anchorage, and everything comes in by boat or airplane. It is very expensive to live. The coops are so they can have chickens and get their own eggs and everything.”
McNutt said there should be lots of light to work by. Right now, daylight lasts 20 hours in Alaska. They expect to return on July 23.
It will take them longer to get to Alaska than it will take Craig Hunt's 12-member mission team to reach Honduras, Hunt said.
Leaving July 13, Hunt said it is only a six-hour flight from Miami to the Honduran capital of Tegucigalpa.
From there, Hunt said, “We're going to a small town called Talanga, an hour's drive north of Tegucigalpa. We're going to be working with Manuelito Project. What it does is work with street kids, get them of the street.
“It's like an orphanage, except the children aren't orphans, they're evicted or abused. It gives them an education and a home,” said Hunt.
The mission's work is two-fold, helping with construction and maintenance projects and working with the children. The group plans to return July 20.
“It's the first team that the church has sent down there,” said Hunt. “It is our hope to set up a cross-cultural partnership.
“My family and I were going to take a short-term trip like this. It grew from a family project to a much greater church-involved project,” said Hunt.
“Some missionaries that we support suggested this project,” said Hunt, noting the group will include his three teenage daughters.
Right now, he said the group members have been spending months to prepare both mentally and spiritually for working in another culture.
“Two missions is kind of unique for our church, but timing is everything. Our mission and the Alaska mission just happened to be on the same week” Hunt said. “Our church puts great emphasis on its missions. Locally, we have the Seeds of Hope and the prison ministry. We hope to be open to further international, cross-cultural missions.”
