Close to 315 supporters gathered to celebrate and champion the mission work of Friends In Action International (FIA) at the Sheraton Harrisburg Hershey Hotel on Oct. 29. The event kicked off with an African drum expo led by Sue Dieffenbach, a former Cedar Crest Middle School band teacher, using her African djembe. The master of ceremonies was FIA deputy executive director Matt Durkee. Guests enjoyed a full buffet, including beef tips over noodles, chicken in tomato au jus, roasted potatoes, a vegetable medley, salad, and dessert, including peach cobbler, cakes, and pies.
Focused around creating awareness and fundraising for FIA's water-themed infrastructure projects, the event featured keynote speaker Jeremy Effler sharing about well-drilling efforts in Africa. Effler, FIA's field leader in West Africa, shared how clean water is transforming lives by providing secondary health, educational, and economic impacts among villagers. As villagers receive clean water, missionaries working among the people are welcomed to share stories of Jesus, the Living Water.
Guests were invited to join FIA in traveling to West Africa in 2022 to continue construction of a base camp in FIA's new location as the organization prepares to serve in the area. Readers can learn more about a variety of FIA's volunteer work trips at http://www.fiaintl.org/get-involved/trips/.
After he and wife Jan were honored for his 30 years of faithful service, Tim Johnston, FIA's executive director, shared about FIA's Vanuatu Water Project. The effort involves running 16 miles of gravity-fed piping from a mountain source to 30 villages below, enabling more than 3,500 NiVan villagers to receive clean drinking water and have an opportunity to hear the Gospel. A game of "The Price Is Right" enabled the audience to guess prices of the 4-inch high-density polyethylene pressure pipe, shovels, and the McElroy Pitbull Fusion Machine necessary to the project's success.
New to this year's annual banquet was the presentation of the Amanda Brandt Volunteer of the Year Award. Created in memory of Amanda Brandt, an FIA volunteer to the Rama Cay people of Nicaragua who died in 2018, the award honors other FIA supporters. Lily Medich, 12, and Kallie Medich, 9, of York received the award for raising over $5,000 on FIA's behalf by selling hand-painted straw bags and hosting yard sales. FIA used the funds to help hundreds of children in Bolivia and Nicaragua through COVID-19 relief aid, provision of basic necessities, and biblical training. For their efforts, the girls received wooden animals hand-carved by Bolivian villagers.
The evening concluded with an auction led by Roy Shirk of Shirk's Auction Gallery in Annville, featuring African drums and carved wooden animals, original artwork by local artists Julia D'Orazio and Dave Haldeman, and quilts hand-sewn by the Little Pieceful Quilters of Mansfield, Mo.
To learn more about FIA, visit http://www.FIAintl.org. To support FIA during the Extraordinary Give on Friday, Nov. 19, visit http://www.extragive.org/organizations/friends-in-action-intl.
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