By Lisa Stukel, Contributing Writer
Northborough – Over February vacation week, two families from the Good Shepherd Lutheran Church in Westborough traveled to Honduras on a missionary trip. Nancy Ahrabi-Nejad, along with her daughter Corrine, from Northborough, and the Wolf family from Hopkinton, traveled to the area of Chachalaqua (pronounced “chachawala”) in Honduras to help rebuild an Episcopal church that had been damaged in an earthquake a few years ago. Members of the Good Shepherd Lutheran Church have been going to Chachalaqua, in February for the past four years, and to another area for the past 10 years. traveled to Honduras on a missionary trip. Nancy Ahrabi-Nejad, along with her daughter Corrine, from Northborough, and the Wolf family from Hopkinton, traveled to the area of Chachalaqua (pronounced “chachawala”) in Honduras to help rebuild an Episcopal church that had been damaged in an earthquake a few years ago. Members of the Good Shepherd Lutheran Church have been going to Chachalaqua, in February for the past four years, and to another area for the past 10 years.
One of the missions is to “go where love calls,” according to Nancy.
“We'se been members of the Good Shepherd Church since 1992,” she continued. “My daughter Corrine and I have been talking about going to Honduras for a long time, and this year it worked out.”
The group worked at the construction site in the mornings and ran a vacation Bible study kids camp in the afternoons. The Bible study was assisted by Padre Midence, the organizer on the Honduras side.
The experience had a profound impact on both the volunteer families and on the children they met in Honduras.
“Everywhere we went, hundreds of children were reaching out to us and holding our hands,” Nancy said. “My daughter's hands were never free.”
“Each family that returns from Honduras remarks on how kind the people are, how engaging the children were and how uplifting the experience is,” she added. “We would say the same.
“We sweated a lot, but we laughed much more.”