TEEN-AGE MISSIONER By Nicole R. Gillespie Willits, CA Do you know a missionary between the ages of 13 and 20? Well, I am one. I had my first mission at age 13, in March 2000 on Roatán, one of the Islas de la Bahia, off the northern coast of Honduras. I had to raise a lot of money to go and thankfully, almost all of my friends and family sponsored me. I actually raised enough money for my mom, Doreen Gillespie, to go with me. We were on the island for two weeks. The mission was conducted by the Northern California Pathfinder Teens. Pathfinders is an international organization sponsored by the Seventh Day Adventist Church. It consists of young people ages nine through 12. After 12, you become a "teen" and then a CIT – Counselor In Training. At age 19, you can become a counselor. When I went on the mission trip, I was a teen. Now I am a junior counselor in training. Why a Junior? Because I am an Episcopalian and to be a full CIT, you must be a Seventh Day Adventist. As a junior counselor, I was told, I can still be in Pathfinders. MISSION'S MISSION We had four parts to our mission in Honduras: providing dental work for the people, teaching youth about general health, building a church, and conducting community evangelistic meetings led by Pastor Doug Bachelor. Doug Bachelor is a well-known pastor in the Seventh Day Adventist church. He hosts a television show on Saturdays to talk about the church. He and his family – Mrs. Karen Bachelor and their two sons – took part in the mission. My job with the mission was to work with the youth and in the dental clinics. I loved working with the youth, getting to see how their lives were. A lot of the young people loved school. At first, this seemed rather strange to me, because I would rather stay home from school and just play. After awhile, I saw why they felt the way they did. Getting a good education meant something special to each of them, and made it possible for them to make a difference on the island. I now see that here in the United States of America, we take it for granted that we can get good schooling, and meet our educational goals. On Roatán, as well as in other Third World countries, they have books in use today which were printed in the 1930s. They need new books, new classrooms and more teachers. Teachers on Roatán speak either English or Spanish; only a few are bilingual. School there is fun; a way for the kids to get away from the trials of life. All of the kids I met helped in the family business, whether in construction, fishing or selling to the tourists. One of the other things I saw there was that the residents of the islands had so much less in material possessions than we do. But they did not complain about it. I think that if you put an American in that position, he or she would whine about what they did not have. WORKING AND LEARNING During my two weeks’ stay, I worked at four locations with dentist Dr. Ray Coupertino. At first, I did not want to be a dental assistant, because I don’t like needles or blood, but Dr. Coupertino had great faith in me. He told me I should not be worried. Working in the dental clinics taught me some surprising facts. I learned a lot of things that I had not known before. Apple juice is not good for you. The sugar in the juice peels away tooth enamel, leaving teeth vulnerable to decay. I was shocked to see how much soda the young people drink on Roatán. Parents in the US think their kids drink too much soda, but in Roatán, the kids drink about four times as much. They drink soda from the time they get up in the morning until they to go sleep at night. And the kids do not brush their teeth as regularly as we do in the US. How did this soda addiction start? Well, when the Dutch, English and Germans came to the island, they found that the island water was unsafe to drink. When the soda companies found this out, they quickly saw a profitable market. They make deliveries to houses on the island, delivering every three days. When I was there, I saw three delivery trucks filled with soda. It did not occur to them to help create a safe water supply. They just sold more soda. After returning home, I asked one of the mission leaders why we had never approached the soda companies – Coca-Cola and Pepsi Cola -- about the damage their products are doing. He said he could not comment on this issue. In recent years, pure water was sent to the island by boat, but the people did not want to drink water – which, incidentally, costs more than soda. So, they are hooked on soda to this day. As you can imagine, most of our dental cases were extractions. In the US, the ratio between people seen and treated conservatively and people having to have teeth pulled is one extraction to a hundred patients. In Roatán, it was 49 extractions out of 50 people seen. One six-year-old we saw had to have all four of his front teeth taken out. They were rotted away. PEOPLE TO PEOPLE RELATIONS Our mission benefited from good will created by other American groups, including Maranatha, which helped the people after hurricane Andrew. Partly because of our affiliation with Maranatha, people shared treats with us. One family brought us fresh fruit. The children climbed coconut trees and brought the nuts down and opened them for us. We learned about the three different kinds of coconuts, and how they are cut open with machetes. The men and boys in our mission group soon wanted their own machetes. One guy had three by the time he left. We also learned to enjoy papayas as large as watermelons, cashews freshly picked along with the cashew fruit, and three varieties of bananas – and how to fry one of them as a special treat. KEEPING HOUSE Our mission brought its own kitchen staff, but we bought most of our food at the local market. We used only bottled water in food preparation, being careful not to drink "island water" from the faucet or even to wash our faces or brush out teeth with it. The island people are resourceful and aware of their environment. They fish the waters round the island, but not wastefully. They maintain a renewable fish population. The island did not have many native animals, so early settlers brought cows to Roatán. In order to keep them in pastures, the farmers cut branches from a local flowering tree, stuck them in the ground and strung wire between the branches. After a couple of years, the branches had grown into intertwining trees. The farmers thought it was the cows that caused the branches to grow into trees, so they called the tree "Magi-Cow." The main road through the island is lined by the Magi-Cow trees, but without the wire. SOME OF ROATÁN’S NEEDS Most of the people live in small homes; many of the ones near the shore are built on stilts. Although there are cars, vans and trucks, most of the people rely on taxis or buses for transportation. The cruise ships that come in from the US, Asia and Canada hire the taxis and buses to transport tourists on the three days of the week: Tuesday, Thursday and Friday. This leaves the workers and students without transportation to and from work and school. So the workers stay near the jobs, dividing families, or they miss work due to the lack of transport. Students have no choice but to stay home unless they have relatives near the school. We observed another pressing issue in Roatán: lack of emergency response. A fire in the West End could not be dealt with because a plane was landing or departing at the airport. When the fire engine finally arrived, the fire fighters realized they had no water with them, so the working bucket brigade continued. Nothing in or around the house was salvageable. The inflexible policy is that the fire truck must stay at the airport for arrivals and departures, regardless of local needs. Profitable tourists and costly planes are more valuable than local homes and people? ONGOING FRIENDSHIPS In March 2001, The Northern California Pathfinder Teens were invited back to Roatán, to our great delight. I went alone this time and provided more dental care, and trained the island kids to become Pathfinders. We have tried to inform the adults about how to care for their community and for their health. The island life has really affected me. I made a lot of friends and still correspond with them. I asked my parents to consider letting me stay there and get a job as a teacher of English or math to small children when I turn 16. Just send me, my bed and my dog and I will be happy! ###