By FRANK SOJAK
The Tribune-Democrat
July 13, 2008 10:37 pm
—
Annie Fiffick and her co-workers are taking a well-deserved rest after helping to rebuild a church in Peru that was damaged by an earthquake in 2007.
Fiffick, 15, and more than a dozen other youths and adults from Oakland United Methodist Church, located on Bedford Street in Oakland, spent a week last month helping the Emmauel Baptist Church in the city of Chincha to rebuild.
The church itself did not suffer much damage but two of its buildings and a 10-foot-tall wall that serves as a fence around the church sustained extensive damage.
The group razed the damaged portions of the two buildings and poured new foundations in those areas. They were able to rebuild most of the wall during their stay.
Fiffick and the five other youths in the group would take time out of their construction duties to help Compassion International teach children from tents on the church’s property.
Compassion International had been using the two buildings as classrooms for children in that poverty-stricken area.
Fiffick said they worked hard, starting at 9 a.m. and working until 4 p.m., when they went back to their hotel to clean up and eat supper.
She said they then traveled with the pastor to outlying areas to conduct services for folks who could not make it to the city.
She said other church groups had been there to help and others will follow to finish.
She said all the members of her group enjoy helping people and did a fine job.
“We have been a blessed group and everyone wants to give back,” she said.
The entire congregation at her church is generous and always is doing something to help other people, she said.
Last summer, Fiffick traveled to Mississippi with groups from her church and Mount Hope United Methodist Church, located near South Fork, to help Hurricane Katrina victims rebuild.
Fiffick said it’s important for her to have made those trips because she has been blessed with so much and wants to help others in need.
Fiffick also is involved in the drama team and youth group at her church and is president of the Johnstown region of United Methodist youth groups.
For the past two Christmases, Fiffick and her 10-year-old sister, Gabby, have collected gifts for ill children at the National Institutes of Health in Bethesda, Md.
In the past two years, the pair has sent 1,350 toys and $800 in donations to the medical center’s Winter Wonderland Shoppe.
Fiffick said Gabby is battling four chronic illnesses and has been treated at that Maryland medical center.
She has stayed with her sister at the medical center during Christmas and saw firsthand how much the generosity of others who donated gifts to the medical center means for the children and their families.
“I just wanted to help and give back for all they have done for my family,” she said about her project.
The sisters, who attend the Westmont Hilltop School District, collect the gifts at school from students, teachers and staff.
“The school is great,” she said, adding that anytime a student is working on a project that helps others, everyone generously supports the effort.
For her efforts, Fiffick, a Southmont resident and daughter of James and Tammy Fiffick, is the Person of the Week.
Jim Bickford, a member of Oakland United Methodist Church and team leader for the trip to Peru, said no matter what job needed to be done at the construction site in Peru, Fiffick was right in there.
“She has emerged as a beautiful person who gives her heart to help others,” he said.
The same can be said about anyone who goes on a mission trip, he said.
“Therefore, the members of our team, or a team from any church, do it because they have a passion to help others,” he said.
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