Ross Kalsey remembers his first mission trip – as a dad helper, recruited by Josh Sumpter, youth minister of First Presbyterian Church of Waynesburg.
“Josh knew I was mechanically inclined so I went with him and the kids to the North Side of Pittsburgh for a long weekend project.” Pretty soon, “Josh would get me to go as one of the leaders.” On a weeklong mission to the projects of Buffalo, New York, he found himself “the single site leader to three site managers for kids I didn’t know!”
By the time his daughters left for college, this dad was hooked on mission work.
We’re sitting in his office at Kalsey Insurance, Waynesburg and Kalsey is sporting a great tan and a happy grin. He’s just a week back from his latest foray into the sugar cane fields surrounding Hato Mejor del Rey in the Dominican Republic. It’s there in the isolated villages and camps where Haitian workers and their families bring in the harvest for products like Domino Sugar and Barcello Rum that much needed mission work happens.
Meeting God in Missions, a Pittsburgh based non-denominational Christian organization, offers short-term mission trips to the Dominican Republic that give volunteers a chance to share their talents as doctors, dentists, optometrists, construction workers, electricians, teachers, organizers, and those willing to help the best way they can. There are sewing, gardening, and construction projects and a children’s ministry that includes baseball. Volunteers are encouraged to “try something different every day to get the full experience, for the week they are there,” Kalsey told me. “Me, I personally like to do electrical and carpentry so that’s what I do.”
So does Craig Cerra of Blacksville, WV, another youth group volunteer dad from First Presbyterian Church, Kalsey said. “Craig and I have been going seven, eight years and made very good friendships with some new people too. I’m not one to preach a sermon, I’m one to provide a service to someone in need.”
MGM mission weeks happen in summer and winter – for Kalsey and Cerra, winter is the optimal downtime for them to get away from their busy lives. “Around the first of December we start shooting texts, getting ready to go,” Kalsey said.
A third hometown buddy, Bill Church, moved to North Carolina but meets up with Kalsey and Cerra to do construction work at Hato Mejor.
The day starts at 6:30am with breakfast and speakers in the mission compound’s cafeteria, then, for construction crews, it’s time to load up and be on the road by 9am. It’s a sometimes hour long drive on paved to gravel to dirt roads to get to a work site, then back to the compound for dinner and an evening of visitations, presentations, visiting churches in nearby villages, shopping local markets, and making new friends. The scenery is spectacular, the poverty is very real, the work done is greatly appreciated and spiritually gratifying, Kalsey said.
“I call it reset, for me. I go there to help others and they end up helping me. It’s a very true reality check. ”
Kalsey remembers his first trip to the Dominican Republic and the needs he saw as he worked to help alleviate some of them, as he got to know the Haitian field workers and their families and measured it all against what he had at home. “I love to listen to music, all kinds. That first time with MGM I remember I was in my room and Pandora pulled up Matthew West. I listened to the words of “Do Something”. It was like I’d never really heard them before.” The lyrics on the sheet of paper that he handed me had one verse highlighted in yellow: “Well I just couldn’t bear the thought of people living in poverty, Children sold into slavery, The thought disgusted me, So I shot my fist at heaven, Said, God, why don’t You do something? He said, I did, I created you.”
I catch up with Craig Cerra by phone – he’s in Rifle, Colorado, back on the job adding scent to natural gas. He remembers his first “aha” moment of understanding what mission work is all about. “My first year, when we read the daily devotional I wrote in the border every day “Who am I here for?” I went down to help other people, I dug a latrine, I wired a house.” That was when a 14-year old boy started hanging around the worksite, more interested in what was being done than the rest. “His name was Anthony. I let him hand me different color tapes for the wiring, then I let him put in screws. He spoke Creole so we couldn’t really communicate. I asked one of our translators when we were done, ‘Who taught him to do this work?’ and he said, ‘You did.’ That’s when I got it.”
