East County team bound for Dominican Republic

Local missionaries preparing for trip

By Off My Rocker Tommi Halvorsen Gatlin • June 8, 2017 1:30 am
Tommi Halvorsen Gatlin | For The Vidette Where is the Dominican Republic? — (Posed photo) In front, Shaela Burtner, flanked by her parents, Michele and Pastor Aaron Burtner, points to the Dominican Republic on a map. Behind them are, from left, Tammy Antilla, Faith Ramstad, Elizabeth Martinez, Claire Bach, Krista Ramstad, River Johnny and Val Peters. The team, which also includes Shaela’s sister, Janae, will travel to the Dominican Republic next month to serve in various ways with Rick and Tammie Romano, of Mission TwentyFive 35. The hammer, paint brush and roller and work gloves hint they may be doing some construction work.
Tommi Halvorsen Gatlin | For The Vidette Where is the Dominican Republic? — (Posed photo) In front, Shaela Burtner, flanked by her parents, Michele and Pastor Aaron Burtner, points to the Dominican Republic on a map. Behind them are, from left, Tammy Antilla, Faith Ramstad, Elizabeth Martinez, Claire Bach, Krista Ramstad, River Johnny and Val Peters. The team, which also includes Shaela’s sister, Janae, will travel to the Dominican Republic next month to serve in various ways with Rick and Tammie Romano, of Mission TwentyFive 35. The hammer, paint brush and roller and work gloves hint they may be doing some construction work.

ome September, some East County folks will have much to tell about what they did on their summer vacation.

OK, it’s not exactly a “vacation.” But the trip they’ve been planning for two years will, no doubt, result in longtime memories — likely for them and those they’ll serve in the Dominican Republic.

On July 28, 11 people from two churches will head to Santiago, in the northern El Cibao (“rocky land”) area of the country on the island of Hispaniola, discovered in 1492 by Christopher Columbus. The Dominican Republic’s western border adjoins Haiti on the island between the Caribbean Sea and the Atlantic Ocean.

The team includes, from Elma Alliance Church, Pastor Aaron Burtner, his wife, Michele, and their daughters, Shaela and Janae; Tammy Antilla, co-leader with Pastor Burtner; Krista Ramstad and her daughter, Faith; Claire Bach; Elizabeth Martinez and River Johnny, with Val Peters of McCleary Community Church.

Three will first graduate from high school, Shaela from Elma, River from East Grays Harbor and Faith from Montesano.

First-timers

The mission trip will be the first for several:

Peters retired in January after 26 years as a Thurston County Jail supervisor and is “looking forward to how the Lord can use me in this season of life.”

Shaela Burtner, who has cerebral palsy and uses a wheelchair for mobility and an iPad for speech, has never flown before but looks forward to going, her dad said. She’s been using YouTube apps to learn some Spanish and will keep a photo journal while she’s in the Dominican Republic, he added.

Johnny says he loves helping people “in any small or big way.” A security company employee, on the mission he wants to learn “what we take for granted here in the States” and to appreciate it more.

Others have served previous missions:

Janae (a singer/musician planning a music education career) in Ensenada, Mexico; her dad, four, including in Ensenada and Tijuana, Mexico, and San Francisco; her mom (a dental assistant in Olympia) in Mexico; Bach (an Elma High School teacher who not only loves telling others about Jesus Christ but demonstrating “the love through my actions”) a dozen or so, most in the United States, another in Ecuador; Krista Ramstad (an occupational therapist whose “passion is to work with orphans and the physically challenged”) in Mississippi and, with Faith, in Ensenada, where Martinez (who’s eyeing med school) and Antilla (a state employee and McCleary Historical Society president) have also served.

At least one also plans another mission. Martinez, a 2016 Elma High graduate, intends to start Grays Harbor College this fall to prepare for medical school. She serves on missions, she said, because “I feel like God is telling me that is what I’m supposed to be doing with my life. Someday I hope to be a full-time missionary in Thailand working with an organization called Remember Nhu,” which rescues children at risk to the sex trafficking trade.

Mission Twenty-five 35

They’ll serve about a week with Mission Twenty-five 35, founded by Rick and Tammie Romano, who have lived and ministered in the Pacific Northwest, including Shelton. They’re now site missionaries in Santiago.

The ministry’s name comes from verses 35 and 36 in the 25th chapter of the Bible’s Gospel of Matthew: “For I was hungry and you gave me something to eat; I was thirsty and you gave me something to drink; I was a stranger and you invited me in; I needed clothes and you clothed me; I was sick and you looked after me; I was in prison and you came to visit me.”

Mission TwentyFive 35 shares the Gospel and helps establish churches “through implementing a solution that addresses the lack of clean water, food sustainability short-comings, limited access to primary health care and the absence of technical and vocational job training for the poor and marginalized in the El Cibao region.” (www.missiontwentyfive35.org)

The East County team’s service may include Vacation Bible School, construction (Janae’s “very good with a hammer,” said her dad; her mom’s also looking forward to construction projects and visiting orphanages) and more. Antilla said they’ll know more what to expect closer to their departure.

For two years, the team’s been raising funds for expenses, including travel and housing, and supplies for the long-term missionaries there. They’ve had an arts and crafts bazaar and baby-sat for another church’s conference.

A garage sale is set for 9 a.m. to 3 p.m. Friday and Saturday, June 23 and 24, at Elma Alliance Church, 315 N. Third St. Donations for the mission trip, which are tax deductible, can be mailed to Elma Alliance Church, Attn: Mission Team, P.O. Box 460, Elma 98541.