By Shelby Stewart-Soldan
Staff Writer
Costa Rica — With a timeline of one week, a 2013 Brandon grad and another dozen people built a house for a family of four.
In June, Scotty Loughlin joined a group to go on a short-term mission trip to the Pavas region of Costa Rica to build a structurally sound house for a family that were living in rough conditions. Woodside Bible Church of Troy partnered with Joshua Expeditions, which organizes short-term mission trips all around the world.
“It was really eye-opening to see what the region was like,” said Loughlin. “It’s third-world living conditions. They live in these tin shelters and just try and keep sheltered from the rain. It was really eye-opening to see what the quality of life is there. It was really an emotional roller coaster to make a tangible difference.”
The family that they helped were a married couple with their two children, a 19-year-old girl and a 16-year-old boy.
“The space they were living in was essentially like a cave with water damage, exposed wires, the roughest living conditions I’ve ever seen,” said Loughlin. “They were just so kind and grateful. Obviously we didn’t fix the poverty, but to fly back home and know their quality of life is higher is really rewarding.”
Loughlin said he had previously heard of these short-term mission trips through his church, and said that this year he had enough vacation time at work to be able to commit to one.
“It’s kind of a vacation, but so much more than that,” he said. “The other reason I wanted to go is that my church supports a lot of missionaries that do this kind of work full-time. And I wanted to spend a week in their shoes so I could better understand what it’s like to better support them, and know what they do.”
The process of building the house was simple, Loughlin said. They partnered with local contractors to ensure the work was done correctly, but they broke into two teams. One team mainly handled the construction, and the other handled painting.
“I’ve done volunteering projects here in Michigan, and it’s great to help out, but you don’t always get to know the people you’re helping on a personal level,” he said. “It was special to connect to them. We also got to take them shopping to get them food and supplies to fill this new house. They wanted to connect and get to know us, even with the language barrier. We could still show them like the places we traveled and pictures of family.”
Once the house was built, the volunteers held a key ceremony to dedicate the house to the family. Each volunteer got to say a few words to the family, and then the family got to go inside for a few minutes before they welcomed in the volunteers to their new home.
“That was really special,” he said. “While we were going through the build, it was easy to get caught up in the work. We were enjoying ourselves and having fun, it was pretty light-hearted. So when we did this key ceremony, it was a switch from being so light-hearted, and it clicked with us how big of a moment it was. These people were getting a home that didn’t have a safe place to live before. That was probably the most memorable part, getting to say those words, then seeing them take their first steps into their home.”