Mission Honduras students to give more than supplies

(Sentinel photo by Magdalene Landegent) Gehlen's Mission Honduras 2009 team members listen during a Friday send-off ceremony as director Richard Seivert challenges them to live selflessly during their 12-day stay in Honduras. Piled around the cross are bags loaded with goods to give to Hondurans. The team left Sunday. [Click to enlarge]

They will come back empty-handed, but in some ways richer.

For the 10th year, a team of Gehlen Catholic School students will travel to Honduras to meet and serve the people there.

(Sentinel photo by Magdalene Landegent) The 2009 Gehlen Catholic Mission Honduras team. Front: Christie Duckwitz, Amanda Roder, Emily Tentinger, Melissa Kellen, Megan Hoffman, Travis Sitzmann. Second row: Fr. Jerry Cosgrove, Carol Kessenich, Nicole Schmitz, Jackie Kessenich, Keith Klein, Emily Hutchins, Linden Schoup, Michael Henrich. Back row: Carolyn Bickford, Linda Reichle, Christopher Loutsch, Jordan Sitzmann, Austin Sitzmann, Nathan Ruhland, Dave Klein, Mark Koedam. Ten other members of the team are not pictured. [Click to enlarge]

The 32-member team was commissioned Friday at a ceremony at Gehlen.

"We are called to stand before God with hands wide open," the Rev. Kevin Richter challenged them and the audience. "We are to be giving of ourselves."

This year's team left Sunday and will work to bring water to 450 people by helping construct a water system with the El Junco villagers in Honduras, explained Richard Seivert, director of Gehlen's Mission Honduras and Mission Honduras Le Mars.

Last year, Seivert added, thousands of Honduran children died from illnesses related to drinking polluted water.

The water system built by last year's team is up and running, and it's cutting down on illness, he said.

The 22 students and 10 adults on this trip will travel with dozens of large bags loaded with food and supplies to share with the Hondurans.

The team is also bringing cards written by Gehlen students in Spanish classes. They will deliver the cards to children they meet in Honduras.

"Beside immersing themselves in the culture of poverty in the village, the team will visit a malnutrition center, they'll be involved in some Holy Week activities -- religious celebrations, they may visit an orphanage, they'll probable visit a sewing school for girls that Mission Honduras Le Mars supports, and a woodcarving school for boys," Seivert added.

The team, which represents eight schools and five states, will return to the U.S. on Good Friday, April 10.

During Friday's send-off ceremony, Seivert also made a special announcement.

In Honduras, the team will put up a 7-foot-tall cross made of Honduran metal at the site of the water project.

The cross is dedicated in part to Seivert's sister Mary Ellen Kellen, of Adrian, Minn., who was killed in a car accident in January. A picture of Kellen etched in metal will be connected to the cross in the top right quadrant, along with another plaque in the top left quadrant of the cross proclaiming "Gehlen Catholic Mission Honduras Water Project."

Another plaque with Our Lady of Guadalupe carved into it and one with a quote about how water brings life to everything will also be included.

This year's theme for Gehlen's Mission Honduras is "Lo que pertenece a tu" which translates to "What belongs to you." The idea behind the phrase is that everything belongs to God.