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Exeter Times -Advocate
Wedneday, January 11, 2006
Queensway residents help Nicaraguans
By Scott Nixon
TIMES -ADVOCATE STAFF
HENSALL — Residents on the retire-
ment home side of Queensway Nursing
Home have put their time and skill
towards a good cause — making items
such as diapers, quilts and dolls for
newborns in Nicaragua.
The packages will be delivered by
Mark and Brenda Bachert, missionaries
who now live in Dolores, a small town of
about 5,000 near the Pacific coast of
Nicaragua.
Mark and Brenda visited Queensway
last week to pick up the packages and
speak to the residents about their efforts
in Nicaragua.
Mark, who grew up in Walton, said
he's affiliated with the Gospel Hall in
Clinton and works with a mission of sev-
eral churches in Nicaragua.
One of the factors in deciding to do
missionary work in Nicaragua, Mark
said, was recognizing a need there and
wanting to help out "with their physical
needs as well as their spiritual needs."
Mark and Brenda intend to spend most
of the rest of their lives in Nicaragua.
The couple married in May 2004 and
have lived in Nicaragua since, although
Mark lived there for a year and a half
previously.
On a typical day, Mark and Brenda do
personal study of the Bible and learning
Spanish, followed by visits to families in
the afternoon and a service at night.
"We love it," he said, adding that it's
great to see the residents of Queensway
involved with helping the Nicaraguans.
"They've been a great help."
Mark describes Nicaragua as a beauti-
ful country, but one with a high unem-
ployment rate and the poorest country
in the western hemisphere after Haiti.
Houses are "very small," often with
three generations living together.
He said it's common for the grand-
mother to raise the baby while the
mother works to bring in income for the
family.
Brenda said she and Mark have visited
Residents of the retirement home side of Queensway Nursing Home have been busy over the past year making diapers,
quilts and dolls as part of care packages that have been sent to Nicaragua, Zambia and Venezuela.Another 50 packages went
to Nicaragua this week with missionaries Mark and Brenda Bachert, who visited Queensway last week. From left are
Queensway food service director Maxine Curry and Queensway residents Beth Knox and Erla Coleman. (photo/Scott Nixon)
the local hospital several times, deliver-
ing packages of blankets, diapers, cloth-
ing, toys, baby powder and shampoo.
"It's a great start to the baby's life,"
Brenda said.
Such donations are important because
the mothers often don't have anything to
give their own babies, she said.
Former Queensway retirement home
director and current director of food ser-
vice Maxine Curry said the residents
have been putting the packages together
for a year and, in conjunction with
Clinton's Gospel Hall, have so far sent
about 125 to Nicaragua. The group also
sent 50 dolls to Zambia and 200 diapers
and 15 quilts to Venezuela. She said the
residents enjoy helping out the babies.
Above, missionaries Brenda and Mark Bachert intend to spend most of the rest of
their lives helping out in Nicaragua.At left, Queensway Nursing Home resident
Violet Durman works on a quilt that will go to Nicaragua as part of a care pack-
age. (above photo/Scott Nixon; left photo/submitted)