Helping at Home
Mission trips, like charity, begin at home. At least that's what Alex DeRosa, pastor of student ministries, believes.
And that's why 35 sixth-through 12th-graders from New Life Christian Ministries, 139 Knoch Road, Saxonburg, were at the Children and Young Adult Center of Holy Sepulcher Roman Catholic Church in Middlesex Township last week working on a sewing machine assembly line.
The young crew from New Life were pitching in to help the Days for Girls International Valencia team prepare feminine hygiene kits to be delivered by missionaries traveling overseas.
Wendy Kovach, one of the organizers of the group of 45 women who meet every Monday to prepare the kits, is the connection to New Life, DeRosa said.
Kovach is a member of New Life and Days for Girls is her mission outreach, DeRosa said.DeRosa said last week was an at-home mission trip. For a week, the youths slept at the church, showered at the nearby Knoch High School and spent the week on projects in and around Butler County.Arriving at the center at 9 a.m., the New Life group spent the morning making items for the feminine hygiene kits and the afternoon packing kits for delivery to missionary groups.Days for Girls member Janet Konig of Cranberry Township, explained her group's mission.“The reason for this is in many Third World countries, girls do not have access to personal hygiene items when they are having their menstrual period, ” Konig said.
A lack of these products means many girls stay home from school during their period.“Sometimes they miss so much school because they can't go to school when they're on their cycle,” she said. “If they miss school every month, some get so far behind they drop out.”Konig said Days for Girls International estimates 1 in 10 girls in sub-Saharan Africa, 113 million adolescent girls in India and 30 percent of school girls in rural Brazil will miss school this year because of a lack of products to help them cope with their menstruation cycle.Each drawstring bag made will contain two freezer-size Ziploc bags containing an instruction card, a calendar to allow the recipient to count out her 28-day cycle, a washcloth, two pairs of underwear, two reusable shields, eight reusable liners and a bar of soap.“Our goal is to have these kits last three to five years. The items are reusable and washable,” Kovach said.One member of the New Life youth team hopes to deliver some of the kits personally when she goes on a missions trip to Cambodia next month.
Yukina Kuo, 16, of Cabot said she will be returning to a Cambodian orphanage and vocational training school that she visited last summer.“I didn't realize this was one of the reasons they didn't go to school,” the Knoch High School student said.Kuo will travel to Cambodia with 10 kits to hand out to students.“I'm excited about how this will help,” she said. She will spend two weeks in the Southeast Asian country.Kuo said, “I went through the process of making them. It just gives an extra personal touch to it.”She said that the orphanages in Cambodia are different from the ones Americans might be used to.“There are a lot of orphans who are there not because of lack of parents but because of a lack of provision,” she said.Their parents give them up to the orphanage because they are too poor to provide for them, Kuo said.“I've always wanted to serve on missions and New Life has given me the chance,” she said. “It was amazing to have a chance to serve.”Kuo said she hopes to continue her education after high school as a lawyer or “something in social science.”“I don't know how that will match up with God's plan, but I do know that God will make it work to serve him in as many ways as possible,” she said.DeRosa said the New Life youths would spend the rest of the week helping out at other local organizations as well as at the church's July 3 free fireworks show.“It's a way to get the kids to look outside themselves and help girls all over the world,” he said.Days for Girls organizers were glad of the help the New Life contingent provided.Konig said in the two years Days for Girls has been in existence, members have set up satellite operations in the winter while on vacation in Florida.“Barb McMasters and Sherri Pfeifer, they go to Orlando, and Barb went down and found ladies in the campground that all wanted to help her,” said Konig.“Sherri had sewing machines set up outdoors and worked. They hauled stuff back and forth in motor homes,” Konig said.“We've had church ladies groups set up off site and work and bring the stuff to us,” she said. “We have 30 to 40 people working every Monday.“Some people will work from home. The kits have to made directly from the organization's instructions. It's not about quantity, it's about quality.”Konig said the group meets at the Holy Sepulcher center, 1304 E. Cruikshank Road, every Monday, except for holidays, from 9 a.m. to 3 p.m.Kovach said, “It's an open-door policy. If you only have an hour, come for an hour. Some come for an hour, some come every Monday from 9 a.m. to 3 p.m.”To make a donation or volunteer for the Valencia team of Days for Girls International, call Janet Konig at 412-596-0718 or email msturtle@consolidated.net.
