This is the time of year when Ohio residents long for an escape from the cold and snow, to someplace where it's summer.  Recently, Bluffton residents Christina and Nathan Seidner did just that with a eight-day mission trip to Uruguay.

Christina, employed at Common Grounds Coffee House, and Nathan, a mechanical engineer at Grob, both belong to the First Assembly of God in Lima. They took part in a mission that included 17 others, including members at churches from Findlay, Wapakoneta and Leipsic. 

Although it was Nathan's first trip out of the U.S., this was not so for Christina, who had traveled to Peru previously on a mission trip.
Together, they traveled to Montevideo, Uruguay, to take part in a dorm building project for Teen Challenge, a drug rehabilitation program. 

The program currently has over 40 participants and Christina and Nathan heard testimonies from some of the clients about the benefit of the program. One of those testimonies was from the assistant pastor of the local church, who was also a graduate of the program.

The Seidner's stayed with a local family of Assembly of God missionaries in Montevideo, which is the capital of Uruguay and largely urban. Because it is located in the southern hemisphere, it is now summer there. While there, the weather was in the 80's most days, but Christina noted that there was always a nice breeze, but the sun was very strong. 

The couple was well cared for and fed lots of delicious Uruguayan food. According to Christina, Uruguayans love beef and  mayonnaise.  "They even had mayonnaise on the pizza," she said.

While the trip's purpose was primarily for the building of the dorm on one of the final days in Uruguay, Christina and Nathan and the group did get to do some local sight seeing. This included going to the ocean, visiting the tomb of the founder of Uruguay, shopping and seeing some examples of the semi-precious stones, such as amethyst and agate, that Uruguay is well known for.