Spring Lake Church members lend a hand in Malawi

Ten attendees of Spring Lake Church will be in Malawi, Africa from July 30 to Aug. 8, to help establish a school for the Orphans of God orphanage that currently cares for more than 700 children.

Spring Lake Church, 2240 Klondike Road, is in a five-year commitment to serve and supply food for the 65 percent of Malawians who live below the poverty line.

The church's worship pastor, Chad Baudhuin, and Associate Pastor Dan DeVries came up with the idea to visit Malawi after learning about the AIDS and orphanage issue from a conference in Chicago and they felt that as Christians they should do something about it.

"The AIDS crisis is something that we have zeroed in on and we want to be able to tell people about Christ. This isn't about Spring Lake Church, I would like it to be about the Christian community and somehow if as a city we could adopt a country," DeVries said.

"The orphanage is only partially constructed so we will be spending some time there. As everything progresses we will build a day care center where kids can get an education and get fed twice a day," DeVries said.

Jennifer Hunt, of De Pere, an 8-year member of Spring Lake Church, said she was interested in going on the trip after reading a book that a friend gave her on how God loves the poor and how he wants people to share the message.

"As I have been thinking about going (to Malawi) my purpose has somewhat changed. The more I've heard and read, the more I have learned that I need to view this trip as what I can learn not what I can teach," Hunt said.

David Ames, who will not be attending this trip, is a five-year associate of the church who visited Malawi to take pictures and document the area in order to learn more about it. His wife Catherine will be going this time.

"Both of our children raised a couple hundred dollars through their schools for the Malawi project," Ames said.

In fact, all of the necessary funding came from fundraising and donations through the church and there were multiple fundraising events for both the project and the trip. Ames said the plane tickets were about $3,000 each. He said he believes the project should be a big eye opener for a lot of people.

"Our society is so materialistic but we can't take it with us when we die," Ames said. "The gratitude that you get from helping people, nothing can surpass it. We really can have a huge impact on other people."