Winter 2010 | Volume 108 | Number 654
Have Hammer, Will Travel
For some Thrivent Financial members, helping others and going on vacation is a match made in heaven.
Rita Keegan, a Thrivent Financial representative, lives in Bismarck, North Dakota. She stands just 5 feet 2 inches tall. So when she found herself in a 7-foot-deep hole in El Salvador, she may have wondered how she ended up there.
Keegan's journey to Santa Ana, El Salvador – where Thrivent Builds Worldwide is constructing a new community of more than 70 homes in one of the hemisphere's poorest and most overcrowded nations – began with her own yard work. "I became involved almost by accident," she says now, laughing at the memory. "I live on two and a half acres. One day I was complaining to myself about all the work it is to keep up. And that very day I came across the application for a Thrivent Builds Worldwide trip. After reading about the homes and living conditions for many of the people in El Salvador, I realized how blessed I am to have what I have and was inspired to help."
Keegan made her first trip to the community in El Salvador in November 2008. As she pitched into the work – including digging that 7-foot-deep hole by hand – she found the experience's effects on her own emotion and faith stunning. "I came back totally convinced that this is a reflection of what God wants us to do," she says now. "God wants us to cross borders and help other people."
Back home, Keegan spoke to her pastor and inspired her own Lutheran congregation to get involved. In May of 2009, she led a team of 13 people back to Santa Ana to take part in Thrivent Builds' $1.3 million project there. During the trip, she saw how this kind of "voluntourism" benefits communities. And besides taking Keegan to a place – and into a situation – she never expected to go, her journey to El Salvador also taught her that when it comes to service, there's no substitute for hands-on experience.
"Until you go and see another place and meet the people, I think it's easy enough to say, 'Well, why not just send a check?'" she says. "There's nothing wrong with sending a check, but if you go and invest your time and labor and your emotion, it's more than money. You establish a relationship."
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