Lake Stevens church takes teens to Baja to work at womens shelter
Published 10:01 pm Friday, June 12, 2015
LAKE STEVENS — While most high school students are excited for fun and freedom during the first few weeks of summer break, Tanner Zingleman is looking forward to long days of work in the heat of San Vicente, Mexico.
The small town is on the Baja California Peninsula. It’s home to Casa del Pastor, a battered-women’s shelter that houses more than 20 women and 60 children at a time. The women are provided with counseling, childcare and help finding jobs. They can save up to buy a piece of property, and then volunteers help them build a home.
The shelter takes in women and children who have been abused or abandoned. It’s an outreach effort by the Calvary Chapel in Moreno Valley, and service groups from other Calvary Chapels volunteer there.
Calvary Chapel Lake Stevens has taken high schoolers on summer mission trips to Casa del Pastor for more than a decade, youth pastor Brandon Howland said. Zingleman, a 17-year-old junior at Lake Stevens High School, went last year and the year before. He’s one of 17 students going on the trip this year, as well. Eight adults will be joining them as fellow volunteers and supervisors. They leave June 16 and return June 26.
“It’s kind of challenging mentally. You see a lot of poverty down there, and people hardly have anything,” Zingleman said. “It’s brought me a lot closer to God because it showed me how people who have almost nothing still believe.”
The church hosts fundraisers during the year to buy supplies for their work in San Vicente, Howland said. They need tools and building materials.
Their work includes building new homes for the families, repairing the main shelter building, digging trenches for water lines, painting, cleaning, teaching and cooking. One summer, a few students who weren’t physically able to do much labor helped cook dozens of cakes for quinceanera celebrations. There’s always something to do, Howland said.
Students pay their own travel costs. Any money raised during the year that isn’t used for supplies is left with families at the shelter.
“The money we bring down there, we don’t bring back,” Howland said.
Zingleman has helped build the foundation for a new house and dig trenches for water lines. His favorite part of volunteering, though, is playing with children at the center. They don’t have good father figures, so its important to be a positive example, he said.
This year’s trip is full, but students can apply again next year. There are volunteers from around the county, Howland said, not just from Lake Stevens. The trip is 11 days long, but much of that is travel time in the church’s 15-passenger vans. Four full days and at least half of a fifth are spent working at the shelter.
To go on the trip, students must have at least a 3.0 GPA, sign a code of conduct and participate in a practice work day before the trip where they are evaluated on their teamwork, attitude and work ethic.
“As long as they’re hardworking and have good attitudes, that what’s most important,” Howland said. “We have some students whose faith isn’t very strong yet, but we don’t expect everyone to be perfect Christians, just to want to help and serve and share God’s love.”
Zingleman was convinced by a friend to go on his first trip, and as he heads into his third year in a row, he encourages other people to join the mission or find one of their own.
“I would tell them to go for it,” he said. “A lot of times you ask questions like should I do this or can I do this. Just have faith and go for it.”
Kari Bray: 425-339-3439, kbray@heraldnet.com
For more information about the mission trip, go to www.cclakestevens.org/missiontrips, or to learn more about Casa del Pastor, visit www.casadelpastor.com.
