ON A MISSION … Marion Kessler (right) and sister Arla Fry (left) man a table at the front of Shiloh CU Church’s craft show and lunch on Saturday. The event is a fundraiser for Kessler, his wife, and 16 teenagers to go on a mission trip to Argentina, where Kessler’s daughter is starting her second year of continuous mission work.
By: Jesse Davis
THE VILLAGE REPORTER
jesse@thevillagereporter.com
Locals made purchases for a purpose Saturday during a craft fair and lunch at Shiloh CU Church, which was raising money for an upcoming mission trip to Argentina.
“Argentina is a pretty open country for the gospel and my daughter is actually there,” church member and trip leader Marion Kessler said.
According to Kessler, the June trip will include himself, his wife Sheri, and 16 teenagers among a few others. They will spend three days receiving training in New York before spending 10 days in Argentina.
“We’ll be ministering to the missionaries that are there, and we’ll also be in orphanages and ministering to schools,” he said.
Kessler said the Argentina mission trip will be the church’s first international trip since COVID. The church usually tries to do a mission trip every other year, alternating between domestic and international destinations.
“We had a trip scheduled during COVID- to Costa Rica – and of course that got canceled on us,” he said. “This is exciting for us because the youth that have known my daughter in youth program now get to go the mission field and see a missionary in action.”
Kessler said his daughter, Sadie, was home about a month ago and was able to share her experiences with the youth group, both what she’s been working on and what they’ll be doing when they go.
She is one year into a two-year internship through Word of Life International Ministries, which is also in charge of the church’s upcoming short-term trip.
“I’m a Word of Life graduate, from their bible institute in 1990,” Kessler said. “I was the first one from this area that went.”
“My son and my daughter have both went there, and probably close to 20 kids from our church over the last 30 years that have been to Word of Life for the first year of their studies to be able to study the word of God.”
There are three Word of Life youth clubs at Shiloh CU, including a preschooler “Gopher Buddies” program, an “Olympians” program for first grade through sixth grade, and a third group for teenagers.
The church also sends its youth to Word of Life summer camps in upstate New York in the Adirondack Mountains. Kessler was not the only member of his family involved on Saturday, as the main table was staffed by and filled with sweet treats made by his sister, Arla Fry.
“My sister does all the baking and her – world famous at this point – peanut brittle that she makes and is sold in the community,” he said.
“She makes well over 1,000 pounds every year and has done that for 30 years. It’s crazy. If you haven’t had the peanut brittle – it’s to die for!”
The craft show has been going on for more than five years, and the church also fundraises through other vendor shows in the area.
“Last year there was a good amount of fundraising for my daughter to be able to go for the two years. So that was exciting to see the church get behind that as well,” Kessler said.
The church currently supports more than 50 missionaries worldwide, including Sadie and the pastor’s daughter, who is a full-time missionary in Chihuahua, Chihuahua, Mexico. Both she and Sadie were launched last year.
For more information on Shiloh CU, visit shilohcu.church. For more information on Word of Life International Ministries, visit missions.wol.org.