Pastor to discuss missionary trip
The Rev. David Stains, pastor of Oak View United Methodist Church in Waynesburg, will discuss his recent missionary trip to Colombia at 6:30 p.m. today at the church.
Stains led a group of 10 clergy and volunteers to Sincelejo, Colombia, to work on building a church for a developing congregation there. Stains pointed out such a project in that region is particularly challenging because the local population is very lacking in men or even young boys.
The drug cartels have either drafted or killed most of those men who could help with the construction of a church. One generation of men is missing because of the competing drug trafficking cartels. Those left in the region are primarily just single mothers and their children and older men.
The new church will serve as a place for children and their mothers to come together, meet and have school activities. Stains and the volunteers who accompanied him took school supplies to help the Sincelejo children and congregation; while the women volunteers held a four-day Bible School for area children, the men spent their time constructing the foundation for the church.