Four members from High Hill Christian Church were planning on going to Africa for a mission trip this summer.

Instead, they had to go to another continent.

Cassie Hasekamp, Kellee Gentry, Jill Burch and Juanita Hadden headed south to Peru with the World Help organization in early June. It turned out to be an amazing trip for all four of them.

“We had planned to go to Uganda this whole time, but it was very clear that once we got to Peru, it was God’s plan all along,” Hasekamp said.

Hasekamp, Gentry, Burch and Hadden – who are all Montgomery County residents – shared their experiences of their Peru visit during a special meeting with the public on July 19 at High Hill Christian Church. Peru, located in South America, has over 32 million people.

“The experience that we had together as a group but also as individuals was just an incredible outpouring of God’s love,” Gentry said.

A year ago, Gentry and Burch went to Uganda and learned how World Help, a Christian humanitarian organization, changed lives through child sponsorship. They also went to Rwanda.

This year, Gentry and Burch were looking forward to having Hasekamp and Hadden to join them and cross the Atlantic Ocean to Africa. For months, they raised thousands of dollars by holding fundraising events at HHCC and the Montgomery County Senior Center.

But plans got changed.

“Originally, we were going to Uganda up until two weeks before we were going to leave,” Hasekamp said. “Two weeks before we were going to leave, we got a call saying that the Congo and Uganda were in a really bad EBOLA outbreak. At that point, it was no longer safe for us to go to Uganda.”

Hasekamp, who is the church’s communications director and discipleship ministry administrator, credited World Help for its help in planning the trip to Peru.

“They did an amazing job rerouting 20 ladies which were from all across the United States,” she said. “They rerouted all of our flights and all of our accommodations, lodging, you name it within five days. It was insane.”

The four members flew from St. Louis to Houston, Texas. After the layover in Houston, they got on a six-hour flight to Lima, which is the capital and largest city of Peru.

The next day, the members flew to Iquitos, the country’s ninth-largest city.

“We flew over the Amazon River, which was an incredible thing to see from the plane,” Gentry said. “We landed and we were like, ‘Where’s the airport?’ We were like, ‘Oh, it’s that tiny little shed right there. That’s so cute and run down.’”

After two days of traveling, the members were ready for their first day of ministry.

“Jill made us a devotional that we have to do every day,” Gentry said. “It was just basically readying our hearts for what God had for us that day. So we were ready to see the Amazon. We were ready to meet some new friends.”

The group rode on peek-peek boats, which are tiny wooden boats that are used to flow through the Amazon River. It made the one-hour trek through the Amazon rain forest to a village called the 11th of November. While there, the group saw people singing and worshipping.

“This is an experience that none of us would forget,” Gentry said.

Gentry, the church’s spiritual formation director, said she and her group visited the pastor’s house, toured a school and saw a church while at the village.

“We had a worship service together,” she said. “We were able to sing together. We were able to break the news that their village was going to get a new pastor’s house, they’re going to get a new church and they’re going to get a new kindergarten.”

Later on, the group went to another village called Central Union, where it saw pink Amazon River dolphins. It was also able to hand out dresses and soccer balls to the residents and worship with them.

“God showed off in all of these ways,” Gentry said. “It was a really great way. We were hot, we were sweaty and we ate bugs, but our hearts were full. We had new friends. The really cool thing about it was that we knew we were going to do it all again the next day.”

Hadden, who graduated from Montgomery County High School in 2022, said one of her best highlights of the trip was playing soccer with the children.

“I might look like I’m in shape, but I’m not,” Hadden said. “These kids are crazy. They are so energetic. They have so much energy for being in the 95-degree weather and the sun. I played for about 30 minutes and I was about to have a stroke. It was really fun, though.”

Burch, who is the church’s executive assistant, said she was thrilled to go on the trip with her granddaughter, who is Hadden.

“Taking her with me was one of the best things in my life,” Burch said.

During the meeting, the group shared information about making donations to the children in Peru. Donations can be made by going to worldhelp.net.