Nicaragua Mission Team 2017 served at The Center’s fried chicken dinner Sunday
<p class="p1"></p><p class="p1">The Center hosted its first-Sunday fried chicken dinner from 11:30 a.m. to 1:30 p.m. July 9 (rescheduled from July 2 because of the Independence Day holiday), and this month’s servers included members of the Nicaragua Mission Team 2017 from Ozark County. All tips earned that day went to help fund the August mission trip planned by Shelby Kinsey, Emma Wharton, Kady Lovan and Harlee Berning. </p><p class="p1">Pontiac resident Karen Mahan, whose niece Tammy Stearns and her husband Travis direct and serve with the Project Hope ministry in Nicaragua, where the four Ozark Countians will work, said the girls “have worked hard to raise the money for their trip, which costs $1,550 per person. They have sold candy bars, tee shirts, cleaned yards, had yard sales and saved."</p><p class="p1">Karen and her husband, Corkey, have been involved in the Nicaragua missions effort since 2012, when they helped raise money to send their granddaughter Courtney Berning there on a mission trip. In January 2013, their niece Tammy and her family – husband Travis and children Taellor and Slaten – moved to Nicaragua permanently to work with Project Hope full time. </p><p class="p1">“When Tammy told me they would be going there to serve full time, I told her that Corkey and I would help in any way we could, and Tammy said, ‘Send me people,’” Karen said. “Since then, we have worked to send people to serve with them every summer. Our biggest team was five members in 2014.” </p><p class="p1">Through the years, the Mahans have sent a total of 10 family members to serve, including their daughter Malina Berning and her husband Robby Berning and their daughter Courtney; the Bernings have all gone twice. The Mahans’ granddaughters Hannah Kinsey and Whitney Wharton have each gone once. </p><p class="p1">The girls going on this year’s trip are also veterans. This will be Shelby’s fourth mission trip, Harlee’s third, and Emma’s and Kady’s second.</p><p class="p1">For the past four years, the Mahan teams have partnered with Ridgecrest Baptist Church in Springfield, going as part of the church’s summer mission team. They spend a week in Managua, Nicaragua, helping Project Hope with its various ministries.</p><p class="p1">“While our primary focus is to give witness of our faith in Jesus Christ through our personal commitment to serving others, we also help build homes, feed the hungry at the city dump, and visit the women in the cancer center and the House of Hope (a ministry that helps rescue and restore women from the brothels),” Karen said. </p><p class="p1">The team also helps with the children at Tae’s House, which was built in honor of the Mahans’ niece Taellor, who served there with her missionary parents until her unexpected death at age 19 in June 2014. “Tae loved the people of Nicaragua , especially the children, and they loved her,” Karen said.</p><p class="p1">Donations to help the Ozark Countians complete this year’s mission trip may be made to them Sunday at The Center or mailed to Karen Mahan, 49 Berning Lane, Pontiac, MO 65729. Donations may also be dropped off with Kady’s mother, Angie Lovan, at the MOCH office on Elm Street in Gainesville. For more information on Project Hope, visit http://pjhope.org/Ministries.cfm or visit Tammy Stearns’ Facebook page.</p>
<p class="p1">From left: Harlee Berning, Emma Wharton, Kady Lovan and Shelby Kinsey served the “first Sunday” fried chicken dinner at The Center to raise funds for their mission trip to Nicaragua in August. (The dinner was rescheduled to July 9 due to the Independence Day holiday weekend.) All tips earned by the girls and their helpers went toward their mission trip, which costs $1,550 per person. </p>
