Local church raises money for Honduras

Mountain Park Community Church will host a fundraiser Sept. 20 and 21 to assist people in need in Honduras.

Members of the church and the Phoenix community have been traveling to Honduras for the past seven years to aid the Honduran people. 

"You feel so gratified to go down there, that you're so blessed," said MPCC Associate Pastor Greg Battle.  Greg Battle is one of the leaders of the annual Fundraiser and has made the trip to Honduras five times; he is also a Desert Vista assistant football coach.

The money raised by the fundraiser will be given to Heart to Honduras, an organization committed to satisfying the basic needs of the people of Honduras.  Every dollar raised will go straight to helping the Honduran people. 

For more information about Heart to Honduras you can visit their website www.hth.org.

After his first trip to Honduras and seeing how many people lack bare necessities such as running water, Battle said he came to appreciate his life in the United States like never before, "You look at some of the things you have and you feel blessed."

In order to bring fresh water to one village, Battle and other volunteers installed irrigation systems that now bring fresh running water to thousands.  The volunteers erected a piping system that transports fresh water from mountains to the village.  The project took two and half years to complete.

The volunteers also built a church called Iglesia Evangelica Brazos Abiertos that is now the sister church to Mountain Park Community Church.  When the church was first built, the parish grew and the church was continually filled to its capacity.  The church was then expanded but the Parish has continued to grow and the church remains filled. 

The funds raised last year by the church were used to build the second floor of an orphanage and to add a cafeteria.  Since the project was completed, the orphanage has been able to accept more children and to feed local community children as well.

The Honduran people are very grateful for the assistance they receive and people from the community always assist the volunteers with their work and construction.  "They're so gracious, they welcome us with open arms," Battle said.

The fundraiser will include a dinner with silent auction, golf tournament and also a guarantee winner raffle for a 1982 Mercedes Benz.  Tickets for the raffle are $25 each and it costs $125 to play in the golf tournament, which also includes a meal and a shirt.  Mountain Park Community Church is still looking for sponsors.

For more information about Heart to Honduras, visit www.hth.org.

And to learn more about the church or the fundraiser, visit the Mountain Park Community Church website at http://www.mountainpark.org.

For tickets and sponsorship opportunities, contact Greg Battle at (480) 759-6200 or gbattle@mountainpark.org, or Ron Gonzalez at (602) 692-0773 or rongon1@cox.net.

Danee Garone is interning this semester at the AFN. Garone is a sophomore at Arizona State University.