Just as the dawn of this new year emerged, a group of eight men from Celina left on January 21st for an extreme mission trip deep into the jungle near the Amazon River in Ecuador. Their purpose was to serve the Huaorani people of the region, a tribe made famous by the 2005 film End of the Spear. Joining a dozen other men, most from North Texas, the group partnered with Happy Feet Missions, an Alabama-based organization that provides shoes and a message of hope to children and their families in developing nations. Many of the children served by the group had never owned a pair of shoes, and one of the river villages the Celina men visited had never welcomed Americans.
“There are no words to describe the joy our team experienced as we traveled from village to village gifting shoes and sharing the hope of the Gospel of Christ with the wonderful people from that region,” said Celina resident and team member Chuck Hansen, who serves on the Celina I.S.D. School Board. “Often the people we think of in remote parts of the world as possessing nothing are truly the ones who possess more than we could ever imagine. Their gratitude was authentic; their joy was contagious,” Hansen said.
Along with Hansen, Celina residents Adam Crum, Oliver Grabbe, Dusty Hutson, John Huse, Kyle Robinson, Marc Rylander, and Clay Thomas participated in this South American work. Serving in villages with no roads or vehicles, the group used small propeller planes with no instrumentation to reach their base in Toñampare, the village where American missionaries Jim Elliot and Nate Saint were speared to death in 1956. During the week, the team journeyed by motorized canoes up and down the river for hours visiting villages.
On Thursday, the men were supposed to depart the jungle, but their plan was thwarted by rain. During their unplanned time in the village, a group of older women and small children, who were said to have walked some nine hours just to meet Americans, showed up unannounced. The Celina men were able to gift the group with shoes and present the Gospel message to the weary travelers. The joy of that transformational moment removed the stress of upended travel plans. Despite the muddy conditions, planes were able to land on Friday so the men could return to the capital city of Quito for a red-eye flight back to North Texas on Saturday, January 28th.
“Traveling by canoes to the villages and meeting the sweet Huaorani people of that region made such a lasting impact on our team’s lives,” said Celina Bobcats Assistant Coach Dusty Hutson. Sleeping in tents in a jungle village without electricity or plumbing and being covered in bug bites only added to the memorable experience of the group. "Abandoning the comforts of life in North Texas and experiencing how so much of the world lives gave our team an unbelievably eye-opening and impactful week of memories that undeniably changed our lives. Through every moment of the trip, our own faith was stretched and strengthened, even as we shared that gift of faith and fitted feet with shoes,” Hutson said.
After seven days, the group members were back home in Celina with their families. Along with volumes of stories and photos, gifts from the villagers were shared among family members here. Among the items were a handmade wooden machete, spears and blow guns made by tribal leaders, jewelry and dinnerware made by women in the area, and a necklace containing the tusks of dozens of wild pigs presented by a tribal leader. While the items carry with them great stories and a lifetime of memories, the eight Celina men would all agree that, in their hearts, the eternal impact of the trip is embedded forever.
Thank you Marc Rylander, a local Celina resident, for your editorial submission. If you have an article for editorial consideration, please send to Barbara.Ireland@CityLifestyle.com