In July a mission group of 12 members from St. John the Baptist Catholic Church journeyed to Guatemala for 11 days to learn from the culture and help with repairs from recent earthquake damage in St. John’s sister parish, Union of Aldeus Corpus Christi, in the Guatemalan Department of San Marcos.

The team leaders were Jim Tanasse of Covington Rotary and Jessica Mendoza, a physical therapist at Valley Medical Center. Four team members were high school students residing in Kent and Covington, namely Tatiana Sigurdson (Kentwood), Jalen Koon (Kentlake), Nichole Soepardi (Kennedy) and Elizabeth Cranstoun (Bellarmine).