Student serves a missionary during spring break

[Key Guy]

From the Abilene (KS) Reflector-Chronicle

http://www.abilene-rc.com/index.cfm?event=news.view&id=934EC25A-19B9-E2F5-46EA1FF490B7AFF9

Quote:

Many spring breakers pursue a ski trip, an opportunity to relax with family and friends, or head to Padre Island.

Arelli Dicken, 17, a junior at Great Plains Academy and an Enterprise resident, smiles as she found her spring break to be as fulfilling. Dicken headed to Peru March 12-23.

Dicken said service to God is important to her so she decided to be a part of a 45-member team serving on a mission trip to Peru. She was part of a Kansas-Nebraska Seventh Day Adventist delegation trip. Her task, since she spoke fluid Spanish, was to serve as a translator for children who were enrolled in Vacation Bible School and for a doctor. The student also helped with the remodeling of a church.

Most of her activities were in villages around Pucallpa, a city with a population of under 100,000 residents.

The people are very nice, she said, and they are very poor.

“They don’t have vehicles,” she said. “There are no glass doors, except for the very rich.”

By being there in March, she said the vegetation was very green and lush. The beauty of seeing the colors was breath-taking and was one of the first impressions Dicken had about traveling to Peru.

“You can tell they have their own struggles, but they seem to live in peace,” Dicken said. “They live day one day at a time.”

She noted there were villagers who had clothes that had been donated by missionaries and United States churches.

“The people are so nice, they are not focused on luxury,” she said. “They want to be focused on God and I found that inspiring.”

(more online)