Youngchurch
A boat for Juan I
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Send stories of your youth group (pre- school-confirmation age) to: Andrea Pohlmann Kulik , 8765 W. Higgins Rd., Chicago IL 60631; andrea.pohlmann@
thelutheran.org.
need to take some money for Juan’s boat,” 4-year-old Angel (last name not provided) announced to her mom on the way out the door to Sunday school. Responding to her mother’s per- plexed look she added, “It’s true, Mom, he lives in El Salvador and needs to feed his family.” Angel put her money in a “Ste- phen box” at St. Stephen Lutheran Church, New Kingstown, Pa. Each year the congregation puts boxes in Sunday school classrooms to raise funds for a specific mission. The “Stephen” in “Stephen’s Box” stands for more than the church’s name. Members discovered that Boxing Day, the English tradi- tion of giving to the poor, coincided with St. Stephen’s Day, which hon- ors the church’s first martyr (Dec. 26). So they combine the two pur- poses and use their offerings as a gift for someone in need. Last year that someone was Juan, a fisherman whose story touched the congregation after a mission trip generated a book titled Inspiring, Hopeful Voices of El Salvador. Juan lived in a lean-to structure behind a home owned by a woman who mistreated his family and refused to pay him for his work. Juan rented his boat, motor and nets each day to eke out a subsistence living. Donald J. Seiple, a retired ELCA pastor who is respon- sible for the church’s Salvadoran minis- tries, introduced the classes to Juan’s story on the opening day of Sunday school to get everyone excited about the effort. Throughout the school year, money
40 The Lutheran •
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Sunday school classes at St. Stephen Lutheran Church, New Kingstown, Pa., cel- ebrate St. Stephen’s Day and Boxing Day by collecting money for people in need. With their help, Juan from El Salvador now owns a fishing boat (inset).
is collected in the boxes. Then on St. Stephen Day, the boxes are opened and the money is counted with the help of the children and an adult. The total is shared and celebrated with fellowship and refreshments during the Sunday school hour. Participants also come together to visit learning stations about St. Stephen. They learn about sacrifice and are reminded how their gifts will help someone in need.
The youth, along with three adult classes, collected $8,300 to secure Juan
a micro-loan on a boat, motor and nets. On a recent trip back to El Salvador, members visited Juan and his family to see the new boat. They found him living on a small parcel of land away from the landowner. He is now inde- pendent and his life has dignity. This is all he wanted. This year’s Stephen boxes will go toward installing additional solar
cells in the Salvadoran community where the congregation’s sister church is located (each cell costs $1,500). Until July 2011, this rural area had no electricity. The community church was awarded the first cell; homes were selected by lottery. With the solar cell, St. Stephen’s scholarship student no longer suffers from the headaches she used to get from studying with light generated by diesel fuel. M
Caroline Sheaffer,
Sheaffer is a member of the El Salvador committee at St. Stephen Lutheran Church, New Kingstown, Pa., and of the Lower Susquehanna Synod’s global mission committee.
For more information, visit
www.ststephenlc.org or email Caroline Sheaffer at
cjs12@comcast.net.
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