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WCS Bible teacher Steve Hawley (center) and Chad Hedgepath (left) present check and Mazda truck to Jerrod Brown (right), manager of Mission Lazarus. |
WCS Faculty and Staff on Summer Missions
(July 2008) Perhaps Westbury Christian School Bible teacher Steve Hawley captures the essence of summer missions after his 11th year to Honduras, “It’s become a part of me. It connects me to the work I do at WCS.” This summer several WCS faculty and staff have shared Hawley’s motivation as they have volunteered their time and labor to help others in the United States and around the globe.
In June several WCS students and staff joined a mission group organized by the Westbury Church of Christ to help clean up debris left by a tornado in Bixby, Oklahoma. Odilo Villarreal, WCS Admissions and Development staff member, chaperoned the students, “Being able to go to people’s homes and picking up debris – to help people out who didn’t expect it and to get the simple ‘thank you’ reward was awesome.” Villarreal said one retired man on limited income offered to pay after they had come in with chain saws to clear away all the rubble. Villarreal said the man started to cry after they said they were only there to help.
In July Steve Hawley and WCS ninth grader Nicole Caputo joined a mission team to San Marcos de Colon, Honduras organized by Mission Lazarus (www.missionlazarus.org) where they worked at the Las Palmas Refuge, an orphanage for Honduran children. Hawley said the 45 member team organized vacation Bible school, distributed food and worked on fencing and masonry for the orphanage run by Mission Lazarus. The Westbury Christian School Penny Collection, which Hawley had organized earlier in the year, raised almost $10,000 which was used to help purchase a much needed Mazda truck for the orphanage.
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WCS ninth grader Nicole Caputo (at center in red T-shirt)
plays with children at the orphanage. |
Other faculty members on missions this summer include sixth grade math teacher Ben Johnson, high school Bible teacher Michael Fonville and high school math teacher Carrie Chilcoat. Johnson and Fonville traveled with the First Colony Church of Christ team to help at the Las Palmas Refuge, and Carrie Chilcoat went to Cebu, Philippines with the Sugar Grove Church of Christ. WCS tenth grader Cameron Braun also went on the mission trip to the Philippines. Cameron said, “Every night we held a Bible seminar that lasted about two hours and every day we advertised the seminars by handing out fliers. The first night we had 17 kids. The second night we had over 100 and the third night we had over 200 people! It was amazing. Going to the Philippines was a big eye-opener because at home I see and hear about poverty in other countries but it's a lot different seeing it first-hand. Seeing this type of poverty and being around these people who were anxious to learn more about God brought me closer to God. We had five baptisms in the ocean!” Another WCS student, 11th grader Richard Glenn, participated in a mission trip to Nice, France that combined basketball and spiritual leadership through team discussions and service opportunities.
After returning from Honduras, Coach Hawley, as he is affectionately known, left for Shenyang, China where he will be working as a volunteer with a team of cleft-palate surgeons. Coach Hawley quoted Ephesians 2:10 as the foundation for his mission work, “For we are God’s workmanship, created in Christ Jesus to do good works.”
For more information contact Ann Arnold in the Admissions Office at 713-551-8100.
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