News from GRACES

This week, a mission group from St. John’s Lutheran Church installed stoves in four families’ homes. The families, whose children attend Escuela Integrada, previously relied on inefficient wood stoves without a vent system. Exposure to smoke can cause respiratory illness and additional health problems. “The smoke isn’t good for our lungs,” said Hermalinda Salama, through an interpreter. “We won’t have to use as much wood. It’s going to be easier…

St. John’s second high school group arrived safely in Antigua on Sunday, July 9, ready to dive into mission work. They are spending the week helping the students and families of Escuela Integrada through projects at the school, the families homes and a nearby nursing home.   “The poverty in other countries is worse than the poverty in the U.S.,” said Kevin Agner, 16. “I tried to come here with…

“Woman in large parts of the civilized world has been forced back by war, by poverty, by collapse, by the sheer struggle to survive, into a smaller circle of immediate time and space, immediate family life, immediate problems of existence” — Anne Morrow Lindbergh Luis is nine years old. He is in third grade at Escuela Integrada. He and his fifteen-year-old sister Pamela take two chicken buses each way to get from…

This week, 20 high schoolers and four chaperones from St. John’s Lutheran Church in Salisbury, North Carolina, helped the students and families of Escuela Integrada. At the school, they gave the second floor a fresh coat of paint and filled food bags for home visits. They also formed relationships with the students at Escuela Integrada by working on collaborative craft projects, playing soccer at Jocofut and serving together at Casa Maria,…