TBO.com - TBO is Tampa Bay Online

Suncoast Pasco News

West Pasco Church On Mission Of Clarity

Photo from Butch Howell

Members of the Trinity-area Hope United Methodist Church have been engaged in mission work in Costa Rica. They have been helping people in the Central American nation with vision problems.

ADVERTISEMENT

By Eric Horchy | The Suncoast News

Published: August 6, 2008

TRINITY -- On a hillside in Heredia, a town just northwest of the bustling Costa Rican capital of San Jose, Pasteje sits.

Meaning "high green pastures," Pasteje is the farmland vision of Bob and Janet Wilmarth, former New Port Richey residents now going into their 26th year on the Central American isthmus.

A standard, run-of-the-mill operation, it is not. The farm may perch serenely on the flank of an inactive volcano, but there is nothing dormant about the grounds themselves.

The Wilmarths relocated in 1982 to be Christian missionaries. By 1987 the farm became the base of two revelations: Goats for God and Mission Challenge.

Bob, a veterinarian by trade, began his new life by caring for local animals, which helped him build positive relationships throughout the community, he said in an e-mail.

Goats for God was then established to provide families with their own milk-bearing animals for daily sustenance. The goats are doled out for free with only a single commitment required: the first female offspring must be passed onto another needy family, free of charge.

Functioning in tandem with Goats for God on Pasteje is the Mission Challenge program. The Wilmarths open up the farm year-round to mission teams looking for lodging while visiting Costa Rica and performing their servitude.

Earlier this month, Trinity's Hope United Methodist Church sent a group of 10 to take in the Pasteje experience.

The team, including Hope United mission directors Butch and Jean Howell, traveled to the West Virginia-sized country with the goal of fitting indigent locals with needed corrective eyewear.

It wasn't the first time a Hope United mission has traveled to the Wilmarth's tropical, faith-based retreat, Jean Howell said while describing the symbiotic relationship between host and guest. When not in the community checking the local's vision, the group would be helping with various construction and maintenance duties around the farm.

Armed with hundreds of pairs of glasses donated to Hope United Methodist by the Cotee River Lion's Club - and a Focometer, a spyglass-looking device that quickly and without electricity allows eye glass prescriptions to be determined- the group held clinics throughout multiple districts of San Jose and Heredia.

Some of these areas were more harrowing than the rest, Jean said, recounting the groups' venture into Little Hell - San Jose's crime-riddled drug district. Despite the inherent dangers, the mission went on as scheduled. She told of a moment midway through the clinic when a man and woman fled into the community center after being beaten up. The man bled from a knife wound.

"It's all hard to explain unless you've been on a mission trip," Jean said while describing the excursion as a whole, even when these disturbing situations may arise. "You feel that you're doing something extraordinarily good by giving up your comforts of home and going down there and being a little uneasy."

"When you come back home, it makes you appreciate what you have. You feel kind of ashamed that you have so much and yet they're so happy with the little bit they have."

And of course, the frightening moment endured in Little Hell is practically lost amid the abundance of smiles and goodwill, Jean conveyed.

Perhaps the mission's highlight, she said, was fitting one particular lady, Martina Amador, with a new pair of specs.

What made her stand out from the rest? Amador was said to be 116 years old, which if true, would currently make her the world's oldest living person. Precisely accurate or not, Hope Unity's mission has now allowed her to see the world with a clarity once lost.

One of the more gratifying aspects of each program - be it the Wilmarth's farm or the Howell's missions with Hope United - is seeing the gaps that can be spanned by the bridges built with a little sacrifice and compassion, both Jean and Bob say. Socioeconomic, communicative or other, the gratefulness can be visible without uttering a word.

"Even though we spoke very, very little Spanish, we could feel the love for each other as we hugged and saw that they could see with their glasses and read their bible," Jean said.

"It's just miraculous."

Eric Horchy can be reached at 727-815-1071 or ehorchy@suncoastnews.com.

Share this:

Loading Comments...

Email Print

ADVERTISEMENT