Teen travels to Guatemalan mission field

   Offer a teen a trip to New York City, Hollywood, California or any European city, and they’ll jump at the chance. Not many, however, would jump at the chance to travel to a rural, underdeveloped village in Central America to help the poor.

   Cal-Mum Senior Alyssa Kocher jumped at the chance to join an adult missions team from her home church, Avon Wesleyan, who was traveling to two Guatemalan cities to hand out necessities and perform physical labor in 90 degree heat. In fact, she was the youngest of 11 on the mission trip that took the group to San Pedro and Santa Clara for one week at the end of February.

   Kocher says she didn’t know exactly what to expect of her trip to Guatemala. All she did know what that she needed to be prepared for physical labor, helping to build primitive homes for the poor and she would be delivering much needed used footwear to the people of the region through a program called Happy Feet. Because the families in this region are poor, the children are the ones that benefit most from donated clothing and shoes. Many adults do not have adequate protection on their feet. Happy Feet provides footwear to both children and adults. A member of the CM High School National Honor Society, Kocher enlisted their help in collecting over 50 pair of used shoes, which she packed and brought with her on the trip.

   In addition to distributing the shoes to families in the villages, Kocher also helped to build two houses for needy families, each one a two-room cinder block and mortar structure. What she wasn’t prepared for is the extremely rustic conditions that the Guatemalan people exist in. One of the families that would be receive a new home was a 26 year old widow with four children ages 10 and under. The young mother sold fruit on the roadside to help provide for her children. The other family, also a couple in their 20’s, had three children. The mother washed her family’s clothes on stones in a nearby lake. The families were very poor, Kocher said, having so much less than the average American.

   "Because of the devastation from the recent mudslides, there is no end to the needs there," she explained. "There was no way for me to change the conditions they were living in so I just decided to love them," Kocher remarked.

   That is exactly what the teen did for the week that she was living among the people. At the end of her weeklong stay, Kocher left among the Guatemalans, much of the clothing and toiletries that she had brought with her. Instead of going back to American with more than she arrived with, the opposite was true of this generous and caring young woman.

   Would she do it again? "Yes, I would do it again. There is such a need for Christ in that region. I hope I can return to Guatemala someday," she said.

   Kocher is a member of Avon Wesleyan Church and is very active in the youth group. A senior at Cal-Mum, she was giving a lot of time to looking at colleges and deciding what she’d like to study when all of a sudden it came to her.

   "I have a love for the bible and to reach all kinds of people. I knew I wanted to be in ministry," explained the 17 year old. This fall she will attend Bethany Bible College in Sussex, New Brunswick where she’ll study ministry full time. She plans to work as a counselor this summer at Chambers Wesleyan Camp and hopes to pastor a church someday.

   She has also been involved in the CM high school musical, National Honor Society, band and chorus in addition to her participation in church activities. Alyssa is the daughter of Steve and Tammy Kocher of Caledonia.