By Priscilla Greear, Staff Writer

BUFORD—Teens of the Amigos for Christ Foundation, fresh from a mission trip to Nicaragua, gathered May 5 to celebrate the opening of an Atlanta regional office of Food for the Poor and their successful partnership with it.

A nonprofit Christian outreach based in Florida, Food for the Poor opened an office in Buford in April. Donated by Rick Trinkle of HT Development Co., the office is staffed by John Bland, regional director, and Angela Lenahan, regional coordinator. It will focus on destitute communities in Nicaragua, Haiti and Jamaica. A brunch was also held in Dacula for Doctors for the Poor, a subset of FFP, to gain medical community support.

Founded by Ferdinand Mahfood in 1982, FFP has distributed over $583 million in food, medical, educational, building and small business supplies to 26 countries in the Caribbean and Latin America, with the poor receiving more than 91 percent of all donations.

Nearly 50 teens and youth leaders from Amigos, a nonprofit organization founded by Prince of Peace Church, Buford, jumped on the mission bandwagon April 2-10 to aid their Nicaraguan neighbors recovering from devastation caused by Hurricane Mitch. Baking in 100-degree heat, but cooled by the Spirit, the Amigos built houses in Chinandega, Nicaragua, as part of an FFP project. The young ambassadors raised about $40,000 for the trip and also donated to and served in a medical clinic.

Bland said the trip is a good example of how people in the archdiocese can join forces with FFP to battle international poverty more effectively.

“Amigos for Christ is just a perfect example of how a grassroots organization can work with FFP and it can be incredibly beneficial ... (We hope) other Christian groups (and) youth groups can join together to work together for FFP,” he said.

The Amigos returned to the region where on their first mission trip last year they laid bricks for housing to replace makeshift shacks and taught local residents how to build houses following the hurricane. Bland, an Amigos board member who led both trips, said the group was thrilled to witness their impact.

“When we went back we saw there were 50 houses and a couple of communities. It was incredible. It proved that the community, with (the) means, can do it ... We wanted to show them that other people cared for them, but they need to know that they can care for themselves and that’s what they did,” he said.

“It worked out fantastic ... We got to see where we worked last year and how successful that community has become. Second, we were able to accomplish a lot. Third, we were able to form some really tight friendships with the people we worked with and, fourth, we’ve got a lot more motivation to keep going.”

Lenahan’s son, Luke, participating in his first mission trip, was impressed by the gratitude of those with nothing. In 1998 his sister, who had cerebral palsy, passed away. In a town called Mount of Olives he saw another little girl with cerebral palsy.

“She was about 8 years old. She had a wheelchair. For me to see her live to be 8 was phenomenal, to know that her family cared so much for her was phenomenal ... That was probably the highlight for me, getting to almost see a piece of my sister,” the 16-year-old said.

He added that the church is the cornerstone of the Nicaraguan community. “Everybody went at 5:30 p.m. It was a place of gathering and worship. It’s also like the center of Chinandega to get away from the outside world and problems that they had to deal with everyday.”

For him, the trip made a world of difference.

“Seeing their faces, how destitute they are, it gives you a different feel—not how destitute they are, but (that) I need to help them. I want to go to the churches and tell people they need our help and they’re so appreciative of the simplest things we do.”

Second-timer Katie Yost, 15, was amazed by the rows of houses which have sprung up. A godchild, who lives by the dump, is healthier since the Chinandega 2001 Foundation built a feeding center close to a school.

“She was one of the kids from the dump. Her stomach stuck out from malnutrition. When I saw her last year she was this scary little thing hardly talking, but this year it was a complete change. She was healthier. She had grown a little bit,” she said. “The money we sent down there, they always put it to good use.”

Yet Amigo volunteers report that they’ve only “scratched the surface.” Through FFP and the Chinandega foundation, their next project will be in El Limonal, where families live in plastic tents and cardboard shacks near a garbage dump.

In a letter to supporters, they wrote, “As uplifting as the sight of completed houses was, seeing entire families scavenge through the garbage dump for food and items to sell was very sobering. Our immediate goal is to house, feed and supply the medical needs of the area known as El Limonal. There are 1,500 people existing like rats; living in makeshift houses ... hoping to find something in the garbage to eat or to sell to buy some rice.”

Bland said FFP will fund 326 El Limonal houses. Other Nicaraguan projects are providing rice, beans and other foods and giving women sewing machines, materials and training to start businesses. In Haiti, FFP has several feeding centers, supplies boats and nets for fishing and has a 30-bed hospital. In Jamaica, among other projects, FFP has a medical clinic treating about 500 patients monthly.

Volunteers are needed in public relations, to garner support from schools, the medical community and corporations, to help with fund-raising and to give hands-on service.

“There’s a special need for people who are willing to work in church outreach and school outreach and another on forming corporate sponsors. These are the three areas we really want people to get involved in—having a church group get involved to go down there and help us fund projects. We want schools to get involved by partnering with a school—for example, a small school in Nicaragua,” he said. “For corporate sponsorship we’re really looking for corporations to step forward and to fund the construction of homes in Nicaragua.”

Making a pilgrimage to an FFP project site is key to getting involved, Bland said, and the organization will make three to four trips yearly. FFP identifies ongoing projects it is funding which mission groups may work on.

By participating in a pilgrimage “they’re forever changed and they want to help for the rest of their lives. That’s the big goal for Atlanta. Atlanta is very youth-oriented. People’s first response is to say they want to go down there. They need our resources—our financial resources and our spiritual resources—and they need to know we care about them and whatever together we can accomplish we’ll do it. If FFP has 50 Amigos for Christ organizations out there it would be awesome,” he said.

Mahfood, a Catholic who founded FFP after a conversion experience, described the need for a regional office.

“So far, the Atlanta community has shown itself to be very receptive to our cause. Our Atlanta office will help us continually communicate our mission with the local community and help them gain a hands-on experience with international aid,” Mahfood said.

A former owner of a software business and a Peace Corps volunteer to Paraguay, Bland has a degree in management science from Georgia Tech and for five years volunteered with the Prince of Peace youth group.

“It’s very different, but I feel like God’s really laid this in my lap to do and there was no way I could say no ... The most rewarding thing is being able to provide people a means for serving Christ through serving the poor,” he said. “All my life I’ve always liked to work with poor people. As a kid from a middle-class family I always hung out with poor people. It felt right. I’m getting to do exactly what I want to do and it’s spiritually satisfying to me. It’s perfect.”

The destitute can sometimes better count their blessings than those who have more, he said. “It’s easier for (poor) people to have a strong faith than it is for us. I believe that because we’re so economically successful, we forget who made it that way. We think it’s all us and forget it’s God’s gift.”

Bland talked about the organization’s Gospel foundation. “It’s certainly a humanitarian service that’s being done, but it’s done for the important fact that God calls us to do this,” he said. “I feel like it’s God every day telling us, ‘Here’s an opportunity to serve.’”

The office is located at 1845 S. Lee Court, Suite A, Buford 30518; tel. (770) 614-9250; e-mail FFTP-ATL@mail.com.