Canadian Handymen Do Office Makeover in Peru-September 28, 2009- Intercede International

Canadian Handymen Do Office Makeover in Peru

PERU (INS)—This past spring, two Canadians from the Niagara region gave some much-needed hands-on help to Segadores, one of Intercede International’s partner missions in Peru.

David Guenther, of Niagara-on-the-Lake, Ontario, met an Intercede staff member at a Promise Keepers conference last fall, and found out about Intercede’s work with Segadores. Since he was already planning a trip to Peru, he was put in touch with Segadores and arranged to work on a renovation project, along with a friend from the Niagara region.

They returned March 14. “I didn’t want to come back, but I had to!” reported Guenther, in an interview with Intercede’s Alan Doerksen. “It was a good trip.”

Guenther and his friend, Henry Wall, left Canada February 14. Peter Hocking, leader of Segadores, met them at the airport in Lima, Peru, and introduced them to his family and some Segadores missionaries who work in the jungle.

The next day, they went to the Segadores offices, and got down to the business of renovating it. First they needed to go to a local home improvement store and buy building materials.

“We had raised $4,000 and sent it out to them through Intercede just before we went out,” explained Guenther. “At this point with the money we had sent, they had laid out the floor, which cost quite a bit. They also paid an architect to design the walls. By the time we got there, they had about $700 left. We were a little bit limited. So basically we had to go in and look at what we needed, find out the prices, what would be the best things to go for, for the price that we had. It was quite a bit of work to get everything together and make the money reach as far as possible.” So, they bought the materials, checked out the design and made some adjustments.

“The following morning we got a start on the project. We built all the walls. It took us two days.”

Fast Fundraising

Just before their trip, the two Canadians did incredibly fast fundraising of $4,000 in three weeks. “We wrote a letter and approached friends, family and a couple people from church, and told them about this journey we were on, and this mission we were planning on doing,” said Guenther. “God provided through His people. It was really good. It helped that we could give them these pamphlets from Intercede International—we’re going through an organization that’s doing a lot of amazing work.” Both men attend Southridge Community Church in St. Catharines, Ontario.

While in Peru, the two stayed with a local Peruvian family working with Segadores. “That was a really good experience,” Guenther asserted. “It was really nice to spend time with a local family. You can only truly look at the culture by actually spending time with the locals in their houses, and engaging in conversation with them. A beautiful family—the wife was an amazing cook! We couldn’t have asked for better food.”

The two spent two days renovating the Segadores headquarters—which is also its mission training centre.

“This is where they train their people and send them out to the jungle,” explained Guenther. Peter Hocking “mentioned that there are other organizations that really need a building to host some of their events, and train some of their leaders, and Segadores doesn’t use their building full-time all year round. So they were really looking into finishing this project. These other organizations coming in, they have 100 people that need a place to stay at the same time as the training. So that’s why this project was so important, so they can make more rooms available—so they can rent out this building to other organizations for their training for their mission work.

“Overall, our experience was amazing,” Guenther described the trip to Peru. “We did travel up to Cuzco and did the Inca trail up to Machu Picchu. It took us 3.5 days to do this hike—which was quite intense. To be in God’s creation, to be out in the wilderness, to see the beauty that God has created” was refreshing.

Both David Guenther and Henry Wall are in their twenties and do construction and renovation work. For more information on Intercede’s work and partner agencies, please check out: www.intercedenow.ca.

Photo 1: David Guenther (left) and Henry Wall prepare to start renovating the Segadores headquarters. (Intercede International Photo)

Photo 2: David Guenther (right) with Peter Hocking, leader of Segadores. (Intercede International Photo)

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September 28, 2009