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| | | (SPECIAL/www.forsythherald.com)
This child in Chinnandega in Nicaragua is searching the garbage for anything useful. Through numerous mission trips every year, Amigos for Christ helped build a new village and church for this child’s people.
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November 20, 2007
Kristin Monacella has two homes. She might call Georgia her permanent home, but she has a second home in Nicaragua where she travels several times a year for Amigos for Christ.
Amigos for Christ is an international non-profit organization and an interdenominational service ministry founded in 1999 that is based in Buford. The organization leads several trips every year comprised of volunteers that help construct basic needs for villages in and around Chinnandega.
The plight of the local people has touched Monacella in a way she has difficulty in describing.
"It has become a feeling of home," she said. "I feel like I lead two completely different lives. They are so incredibly thankful and so welcoming. I have found some very close friends there and we send letters back and forth."
Monacella said approximately 120 families were living in a garbage dump for four or five years after Hurricane Mitch destroyed their homes. Amigos for Christ stepped in to help these people start over.
The change has been awesome, Monacella said.
"Seeing children that were living in the dump now in school and being fed is amazing," she said. "It's an awesome transformation. I absolutely love it."
Gary Smith of Forsyth County took part in his first one-week trip with Amigos for Christ in late October. The group included people from Cumming, Roswell, Gainesville, Buford, Dunwoody, Flowery Branch and Atlanta.
Traveling all over the world as a businessman, Smith thought he had seen poor places until he visited Chinnandega.
The scene was shocking, Smith said.
"I really wasn't prepared for this," he said. "It was good for the soul. It made me realize the higher meaning to everything. When I came back, I felt guilty about what I have, the food I have, and I really feel guilty about the food I don't eat."
Smith said it was hard labor on different projects during the trip. One project required mixing concrete by hand to build the foundation for a church where prayers were written on index cards and placed into the foundation.
A visit to a local orphanage for disabled children truly touched Smith. He said all the employees asked for were exercise balls in order to keep the circulation going for the children.
"All these kids wanted was to be touched," he said. "That's all they wanted in the world. I touched one girl's hand and she smiled. That's an image I will carry the rest of my life."
Smith said he would definitely return with Amigos for Christ.
"They are just wonderful people," he said. "I never heard anyone complain one time."
For more information on future mission trips and projects, visit www.amigosforchrist.org.
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