July 27-August 2, 2024, St. Andrew Outreach + Missions chair, Rebecca Jones, in coordination with others from Otterbein UMC in Otterbein, MD, taught six ‘Days for Girls’ workshops that included information on puberty, female and male reproductive systems, menstruation cycle, self-defense, hygiene, and use and care for the reusable menstruation kits. Three workshops were taught at Mission Guatemala’s Clinic located in San Andres and the three additional workshops were taught in remote villages of Panimache, Tocache and Caliaj.
St. Andrew By-The-Sea supported nutritional supplements for children 6 months-6 years through the Christmas offering and three workshops included the young mothers whose children are receiving the supplements. Several of the young children were at the workshops.
These life-changing kits were sponsored by designated funds from St. Andrew’s Mission Trip budget.
St. Andrew By-The-Sea has supported missionary, Sara Flores, annually since 2016. She is a missionary with the General Board of Global Ministries serving as Children’s Accompaniment Ministry Coordinator with the Evangelical United Methodist Church of Ecuador in Ecuador. In December 2021, SABTS gave additional financial support to the Integral Ministry for Children that supported new children’s bathrooms, Sunday School and Vacation Bible School. In addition, the funding helped to construct a roof that today protects children from the extreme tropical sun and rain.
In 2001, the Evangelical United Church of Ecuador, a union of protestant missions started in the 1960s, decided to join the Methodist community and is now in the process of maturing and growing. Much of its work is in marginalized urban and rural areas and among indigenous communities. The Church currently has 16 full congregations and eight new mission advance congregations. Sara was assigned to this ministry in Ecuador in 2011 after a term at Global Ministries’ headquarters as a regional executive for Latin America and the Caribbean. She earlier served as integrated ministries advisor for the Evangelical Methodist Church in Bolivia, working to strengthen the church’s ministries in health, education, and community development. The ministry also included national programs for children, women, and the elderly.
Sara’s work in Ecuador places an emphasis on diaconal ministries, supporting congregations in the development of projects that respond to the prioritized needs of the congregations and communities. Her ministry includes working with the national office of the church in the planning and implementation of integrated ministries, the central goal of which is to strengthen and facilitate local leadership training.
Born and raised in Bolivia, Sara holds a degree in Sciences of Education from the Universidad Mayor de San Simon in Cochabamba, Bolivia, and has completed post-graduate studies in both development and community health. Her husband, Dakin Cook, is a retired Global Ministries missionary. The couple lives in Quito, Ecuador.