A group of 28 teenagers and adults journeyed to the Pacific island of Kosrae in March to help repair and refurbish the Seventh-day Adventist Church. The team was organized by Canvasback Missions, Inc., of Benicia, Calif., at the request of the Guam Micronesia Mission.

When the Canvasback team arrived in Kosrae, the church looked as if a hurricane had hit it—church members were so excited about the project that they had already torn off the roof. “We have been praying for 10 years for help to fix our church,” explained Pastor Manuelito deGuzman.

However, things did not start out as planned. For days it poured rain nearly nonstop, drenching the inside of the church and churning up fields of thick mud all around the grounds. But the rain didn’t dampen the spirits of the workers, who put in eight 12-hour days to finish the job.

Working side-by-side with Kosrae church members, they installed a new roof and a redwood lattice ceiling on the building and laid new tile on the floor. Outside they dug through the mud to pour cement sidewalks, install backboards, rims and lighting on the basketball court, and prepare an area to become a volleyball court.

Handpicked by God

Leonard Grado of Placerville, Calif., served as construction superintendent for the project. “Leonard had such an incredible vision for the building,” says Jacque Spence, founder and executive vice president of Canvasback. “It went way beyond anything the islanders had imagined or hoped for.”

Grado’s daughter, Lauren, was one of eight youth who got their hands dirty working on the church. Four other youth — Dean Elloway, Mark Elloway, Sterling Spence and Scott Wilson — came from the Pleasant Hill church, which co-sponsored the trip.

Kendall Trood, 15, American Canyon, Calif., says for her the most rewarding aspect of the trip was helping at the Canvasback eye clinic, measuring visual acuities and finding glasses for the patients. “It’s so easy to go and get a pair of glasses here [in the U.S.],” she says, “but they don’t have the resources we do.”

Reconnecting With Old Friends

Returning to Kosrae after a 25-year absence were John and Dolly Jackson, Sacramento, Calif. They were living and working in Kosrae when the original church was built. In fact, John designed the church, helped obtain the charter for the school, and served as its first principal from 1979 to 1981. Dolly also taught at the school.

John worked on the church while Dolly ran a Vacation Bible School for about 85 children. “They had never experienced anything like it,” says Dolly of the children ages 2 to 16 who were enthralled by the daily offerings of music, art projects and Bible videos. “Kids from the public school would start coming at noon and would wait three hours for the program to begin.”

Dolly is particularly proud of the participation of her home church and school, Sacramento Adventist Academy, where she and John both teach. Upon learning of the needs in Kosrae, people from the school and church provided every item on a wish list for the Kosrae school and church, says Dolly, things such as a stove, washing machine, chain saw, vacuum cleaner, sewing machine, two keyboards and furniture.

Ministering Health

While some team members worked on renovating the church and providing a VBS for the children, others ministered to patients with eye and dental needs at the hospital. Optometrists Peter Hetzner and Judy Prima, both of Lodi, Calif., dispensed 456 pairs of prescription and reading glasses to the grateful islanders. Rita Giebel, San Bernadino, Calif., served as ophthalmology clinic assistant.

Meanwhile, ophthalmologists Loren Denler, Loma Linda, Calif., and Art Giebel, San Bernadino, performed 104 surgeries on cataracts, pterygiums and other eye problems. They were assisted by nurses Sandy van Iderstein, Danville, Calif., and Linda Lee, Moraga, Calif.

Art Giebel grew up in the mission field and actively participates in mission trips every few months. He is known to take breaks between surgeries to give educational talks to patients in the waiting room. At one point he was invited to speak before the Kosrae Legislature about the risk factors for the islands’ most prevalent eye diseases. “I have a burden for prevention,” he says. “Physicians have a personal responsibility to share with people who come to us for help.”

Team dentist Louis Cuccia, Lincoln, Calif., shares this strong belief that the first responsibility of a health care provider is to educate patients. “I look at myself as a healer and a teacher,” he says. “If I don’t teach them something, I’m not a doctor, because a doctor is a teacher.”

This was Cuccia’s first overseas mission, and he jumped in with both feet. With only three dentists on an island of 8,000 people, his team had more patients than it could treat. “Most [children] had five to 12 cavities minimum,” said Cuccia.

Undaunted, Cuccia believes that, with education, it’s not too late for the people to change the lifestyle habits that lead to diabetes, tooth decay and so many other health problems. He points to the body’s miraculous ability to repair itself as God’s way of giving them a second chance. “God has built in us the ability to stay well, live and thrive,” he says. In the end, all three teams returned to the U.S. exhausted yet elated to have been able to bring so much help, health and joy to the people of Kosrae. “Rain or no rain, God truly poured out His blessings on this mission,” said Spence.