Group back from successful mission trip to Costa Rica

T. J. ROYAL

Several Edgecombe County and area residents are satisfied with their eight-day mission trip to provide medical care and construction help in Limon, Costa Rica.

The group of five medical doctors, nurses, dental care specialists, an oral surgeon and residents returned from their trip May 3 after they left on April 25, said Joan Sugg of Tarboro.

Sugg, 62, did reception work during the trip, as her and three other members of Calvary Episcopal Church were among the people who went on the trip.

During the four-and-a-half days the medical clinic was open, she said the team of doctors and medical personnel saw 1,139 patients.

More than half of them, 776, were checked out by the medical staff, with an optician helping out 199 people over two days. There were 174 people who received dental work.

Thorne Drug owner Bill Thorne was another Calvary Episcopal parishioner who went on the mission trip, his second to Costa Rica. He helped provide medicine for this year's trip, after spending time with teenagers during last year's trip.

When he went this year, Thorne said the reactions of the children were what really stood out to him. "They were really excited to see us, would hug us and smile. ... It meant a lot to them" to have the group come to their community again, Thorne added.

The trip was sponsored by the Rocky Mount Episcopalian congregation of The Church of The Good Shepherd.

The Rev. Louise Anderson of Tarboro, a deacon at the church, said that Costa Rica has been the destination for those mission trips because North Carolina's and that country's dioceses are "sister" dioceses.

Also, the people they have helped for almost a decade "would not have medical care" if not for visits from the Edgecombe County and area residents, Anderson, 47, said.

"God calls us to do his work in the world" and in the local area, Anderson said. She added that the church group and she have been able to build friendships and relationships with many of the people in Limon during their mission trips.

Rusty Kent of Tarboro also went on the trip with wife Ann Elise Kent for their fourth trip together to Costa Rica on a mission trip. While most of the workers managed the health care aspect of the trip, he said that five people helped do some painting work at an elementary school in Limon.

Their work on the roof was "kind of delayed" due to some unexpected rainfall, Kent said, but that the group decided to use their time to paint one of the rooms inside the school that would be converted into a computer room.

"We got the job accomplished anyway, which was good," Kent added.

Sugg said the group of 20 who went on the trip did so at their own expense.

For her, she said the trip cost her "no less" than $2,000, although the trip could have cost more.

Sugg said she has been able to pay her way on this last trip, as well as two others in 2006 and 2007, by selling crochet and other handmade crafts at Tarboro's History Days and Happening on the Common events. She will be at Happening on the Common this month.

The medical doctors who went on the trip were Dr. Paul Bondy, Dr. Rick Kroncke and Dr. Jim Thorp, all of Rocky Mount; Dr. Charles Sawyer of Ahoskie and Dr. Mike Alston of Windsor.

Dr. Ken Barringer was the oral surgeon who went on the trip, and Thorne, Anderson, Maureen Kroncke and Alice Thorp assisted with pharmaceutical needs. Tarboro residents who went to Limon, Costa Rica were Anderson, Sugg, Thorne, Valerie Strickland and the Kents.

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