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Community Development2 min read

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Like Father, Like Son: One Trip, One Passion, One Commitment

Amanda Mattingly
Apr 05, 2012

 
The Andrews family live in the beautiful and lively city of Evansville, Wisconsin. As parents, Joshua and Kia wish to share their faith, passion, and concern for others with their children.

Knowing there is no better lesson than life-experience, they decided that their 10-year-old son, Kase, should see firsthand the conditions that many people face around the world every day.

In February, Joshua and Kase boarded a plane to travel to Guatemala with World Help—they would return forever changed.

Scenes of people living in villages with little-to-no access to clean water, malnourishment plaguing their communities, and some families without even a place to call home made an impression on Joshua and Kase. 

Operation Baby Rescue

During the trip, they spent numerous hours at the Baby Rescue Center where they held, fed, and prayed for babies and young children whose lives are slowly being restored. While there, 12 babies arrived who were rescued from the deep mountains of Guatemala, children who were at the very brink of death because of severe malnutrition.

Both Joshua and Kase had the unique opportunity to carry the babies who had just been rescued . . . which proved to be a moving experience:

I will never forget seeing my son, Kase, carry in a baby to the rescue center. A child helping rescue another child was such a beautiful picture . . . It showed God can use anyone to do His work.
 

Not only were they able to participate in caring for the babies that were rescued, but they also had the special opportunity to wash numerous children’s feet and present them with TOMS shoes. Witnessing the excitement on the children’s faces and the joy in their parent’s eyes was an incredibly rewarding experience for them both.

Clean Water

They also visited a local school that sits on a river, flooded with contaminated water. The people living in the area have no option but to use the dirty water—filled with waste—to cook their food, bathe, wash clothes, and even drink. This river is their only source of water.

This sight would stay with Joshua and Kase.

After seeing the difference clean water can make in other communities, they became interested in providing it to more villages. The question they asked was, “How could we notdo anything after experiencing these types of conditions that countless were forced to live in?”

Their passion, led to commitment, which led to action.

Already the Andrews family has brought help to those in need by providing funds to build one deep-bore well in Guatemala. But they didn’t stop there. They have started raising funds for a second well to continue helping those in dire need. 

Instead of only having a polluted water source, which spreads sickness and disease, the village of El Cacao will now have clean, safe water that will completely transform lives. All it took was two people who were passionate and concerned about others. Joshua left Guatemala with a clear objective:

Our hope is that by providing clean water we can also show the love of Christ and share the hope we have with the people of the villages we serve . . .

 

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