Mission Trip: ECHO 2017

Ron Herrold, IN, replacing fence. The storm took down several trees destroying the outer perimeter fence at ECHO.

FCFI has made the trip south to ECHO for week long mission trips for many years, with 2107 being our 11th year of serving.  This year, we found not only the normal repairs, but lots of work to help rebuild ECHO after the devastating hurricane Irene.

Karen Bridges, Wingham, ON and Linda Balzano, New Hartford, NY painting. The ladies painted seven building in total.

ECHO sustained major damage to many of their research projects, trees, and other planting. When FCFI arrived Oct 28, lots of the cleanup was completed, but there remained a great deal of pressure washing, painting, and rebuilding.

The storm did lots of damage to walls and roofs. Pastor Vin Upham and Jamin King both from Utica, NY working on replacing steel. This was Jamin’s first mission trip.

Twenty four FCF members from IN, NY, OH, PA, SC, IL, and Ontario, Canada made the trip to help our good friends at ECHO.

Two walk bridges needed to be replaced. Gary Beery, Radnor, OH, puts the final touches on one of the projects. Steve Brown, Remsen, NY and Bert Visscher, ON, helped as well.

It was a week well spent to help prepare ECHO for the upcoming missions conference starting next week. Almost 200 missionaries will make the trip to Ft. Myers for a three day conference, where they will be educated on ways to help grow food in their developing countries. FCFI is proud to play a part in helping the less fortunate in the world.