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Birch
Continued from page 20
laying the cost. Medical compa-
nies often donate some of the
pharmaceuticals and supplies.
"The first time I arrived there
was no physical plant - no school
or church - just a piece of land A1-
mandoz bought on the outskirts of
Naragote. Luis had to sell fruit
from the land to help defray the
cost of the missionary work. The
next year there was just a shell of
a building with a dirt floor, but by
the third year, a beautiful new
building was dedicated," Birch re-
called.
That building, Sobre La Rocca,
meaning "Upon this Rock,"
serves as a church on weekends
and a school by weekday. It ac-
commodates 40 to 45 children
now sponsored at $40 a month by
donations from the United States,
which provide schooling, a hot
breakfast and lunch and personal
hygiene necessities.
The mission also supports two
full-time employees to perform
church-related duties, and two
full-time teachers.
Despite these improvements to
the natives' lifestyle, "a tremen-
dous amount of work still needs
to be done. Their health may
have improved, as well as their
spiritual well being, but they still
go back to live in cardboard huts
at night," Birch noted. "So much
of the work is temporal."
Beside the need to find more
sponsors for the children, The
Hope of Our Calling is also in
need of funds to build a parsonage
as well as a "crusade house" or
dwelling for the visiting mission-
aries such as Birch, who became
the godfather of Almandoz and
his wife Socorro's daughter
Malkha, which is Spanish for
"princess."
Birch, through a slide show,
gives an outsider a true impres-
sion of the poverty of the people
served by the mission and the true
progress that's been made since
Almandoz arrived. One slide
shows a young woman, Elizabeth,
on her recent wedding day, who
was the focus of an article in the
Cape Gazette a number of years
ago.
At that time, Elizabeth had just
arrived, thanks to Birch and his
team, for an eye operation at Wills
Eye Institute in Philadelphia, as
she was suffering from a severe
injury. If it hadn't been for the
treatment she receives stateside,
she may not have been pho-
tographed walking down the aisle
in her white dress.
"It's so gratifying to see people
you've seen before and feel that
you have improved a life," Birch
noted, adding that they plan to
span out their mission work,
heading for Guatemala in October
and Honduras in June.
Now, Birch is caring for anoth-
er patient, who was hit in the eye
with a pipe when he his home was
robbed.
Birch has brought the man to
the United States to have surgery
this month, and while the doctors
and support team donate much of
their time, the eye institute has a
strict payment policy.
"We just finished paying off
Elizabeth's surgery and now we
need to find $15,000 for Ha-
javier's surgery," noted Birch,
who has been a practicing Doctor
of Osteopathy for 15 years.
He said checks, made out to
"Hajavier's Surgery" can be sent
to Midway Assembly of God,
Route 1 and Postal Lane, Lewes
DE 19958.
For more information about do-
nating to the mission, contact
Birch's office at 644-0714.
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CAPE GAZETTE, Friday, Jan. 19 - Jan. 25, 2001 - 21
While the children at The Hope of His Calling receive
schooling and a couple of hot meals daily, they return each
night to homes often made out of cardboard boxes. Sponsors
are needed to support these efforts, with $40 a month provid-
ing schooling and meals for the children.
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