Lancaster's Julie Campbell ministers to the impoverished people of Wachara, Kenya.

She couldn't do it without the support of her home church, Hempfield United Methodist, at 3050 Marietta Ave.

In December, the congregation, with about 1,400 members, collected $26,000 to build Hope UMC in the remote crossroads that has been ravaged by HIV/AIDS.

Campbell, a missionary for Life for Children Ministries, serves as Hope's founding pastor. Now near completion, the building also will house a community center and school.

On Sunday, Aug. 29, seven people from the mission-minded Hempfield church will leave for a 12-day "Building Hope" mission trip to visit their sister church in the East African Conference of the UMC.

"The people of Hope want to meet us," said the Rev. John Longmire, senior pastor, who will lead the delegation.

"We want to share our lives with them, help them build leadership and communicate a lifestyle to children and families that will stem the spread of AIDS and give them hope and a future."

He believes the trip will be the first of many trips to Wachara, which has numerous needs, including farm equipment, clean water and schools.

Other members of the team are Julie Welles, Hempfield UMC's outreach director, and church members Tom and Barb Clingan, of Lancaster; Deb Flores, of Lancaster; and Dan and Cindy Macha, of Landisville.

Tom Clingan chairs the church council. Flores will serve as team journalist. Dan Macha, previously director of missions for World Harvest Mission, will share his expertise in foreign mission work.

Last month, the Hempfield congregation held a barbecue cook-off, which raised $16,000 for the $24,000 trip. They trust that God will provide the balance.

"You can see God's hand at work in this," Longmire said. "This is not a result of our planning."

Campbell, a former social worker, heard the call to mission work more than a decade ago. Hempfield UMC has supported her ever since.

Posted with Life for Children in Wachara for four years, she has so far placed 85 children of the Lost Generation, orphaned by AIDS, with families that could not care for another child without the accompanying funds.

Although she is not a nurse, Campbell has some medical training and dispenses medicine to the people of Wachara.

She also is the local ambulance driver, transporting the sick in her truck to the nearest health clinic 20 minutes away.

The team will take along colorful T-shirts and pillow-case sundresses made by the women of the congregation for the orphaned girls and and about 90 soccer balls for the boys, who "are crazy about soccer," Longmire said.

They also will cram into their suitcases care packages — with school supplies, toiletries, toys and personal notes — for the children.

And, at $20 each, they have purchased Bibles for the children in Luo, Wachara's tribal language.

"It will be the first time many of them will read the Bible in their own language," Longmire said.

Although the orphans are learning English in school, most of the people in the compound do not speak English. Campbell works with an interpreter.

Welles said the team members look forward to reading storybooks to the children in Wachara.

"They love 'The Three Billy Goats Gruff,'" she said.

But they won't read "Goldilocks and the Three Bears," Longmire said, "because they don't know what a bear is."

Also, they plan to take lots of photographs of the children.

"They don't have mirrors," Longmire said. "They have never seen their faces."