January 23, 2009

ELGIN, IL – Rex Miller, executive director of Camp Alexander Mack in Milford, Ind., has made a number of visits recently to the Milford Food Bank. The camp is an outdoor ministry center of two Church of the Brethren districts: Northern Indiana District and South/Central Indiana District of the Church of the Brethren.

During the fall, Camp Mack recognized great need in the local area and invited its Waubee Lake Association neighbors to join the camp staff in a food drive. The drive supported needs at the local food bank. Lake area residents multiplied the amount of food that Camp Mack staff could give.

Camp Mack is also concerned about being a good global neighbor. With the financial and farming support of members of Bethany Church of the Brethren, Goshen United Church of Christ, Nelson Beer, and Max and Gary Tom, the Camp Mack 25-acre field has been farmed in 2006, 2007, and 2008. Proceeds from the sales of crops have gone to the Foods Resource Bank for hunger relief in Guatemala.

The corn and beans sold during these three years netted over $20,000 for a food security project benefitting Mayan families in 20 rural communities in Totonicapan, in the western part of Guatemala. Monies raised have helped Totonicapan organizations work with families to build wells, purchase hand pumps, learn to grow vegetable gardens, build cisterns and drip irrigation systems, build greenhouses and patio or yard gardens, work at reforestation, and receive training in marketing their agricultural surpluses at the municipal level.

The Foods Resource Bank report notes: "The families participating in the project in Totonicapan...are extremely grateful for the technical assistance and training received during the period, as well as the words of encouragement and gesture of friendship that they received."

The Church of the Brethren is a Christian denomination committed to continuing the work of Jesus peacefully and simply, and to living out its faith in community. The denomination is based in the Anabaptist and Pietist faith traditions and is one of the three Historic Peace Churches. It celebrated its 300th anniversary in 2008. It counts more than 125,000 members across the United States and Puerto Rico, and has missions and sister churches in Nigeria, Brazil, the Dominican Republic, Haiti, and India.

Church of the Brethren News Service
This report was provided by Phyllis Leininger, office manager for Camp Mack.