The Gateway Church mission team includes (back row, left to right) Paige Haase, Mike Lamb, Sterling Haase, John Boorman and (front row, left to right) Morgan Wilson, Gloria Califf, Lucille Deslandes and Doug Haase. On Tuesday, July 7, the group will depart for Nicaragua, where they will help build a church. They plan to return home on Monday, July 20. The Gateway Church mission team includes (back row, left to right) Paige Haase, Mike Lamb, Sterling Haase, John Boorman and (front row, left to right) Morgan Wilson, Gloria Califf, Lucille Deslandes and Doug Haase. On Tuesday, July 7, the group will depart for Nicaragua, where they will help build a church. They plan to return home on Monday, July 20. Contributed photo

Eight members of a Washougal church will spend 10 days lending a helping hand in one of the poorest countries in the Western Hemisphere.

The group from Gateway Church will depart on July 7 to Nicaragua, and begin its first full day of work to construct a church on July 9. The mission will mark the sixth time a delegation from Gateway has traveled to the Central American country, where they have helped build several churches and a carpenter’s school.

The group will be in Chinandega — a city populated by 122,000 residents. The trip is coordinated through a Denver, Colo.-based organization called Missions Door — formerly known as Mission to the Americas.

“Wherever we’re going, we come to work alongside the people there,” said team leader Mike Lamb. “It’s entirely driven by the local people.”

In addition to Lamb, the local volunteer team includes John Boorman, Lucille Deslandes, Gloria Califf, Morgan Wilson, and Doug, Paige and Sterling Haase.

To fund all aspects of the construction of the church, Gateway and its members raised $7,500. Each of the volunteers raised the $2,000 they needed for travel expenses.

Read the rest of the story in the June 30 edition of the Post-Record