Fairfield Firefighters Help Others in Third World Countries

April 03--FAIRFIELD -- Two Fairfield firefighters said they have had life-changing experiences helping those less fortunate in Third World countries.

In January, firefighter Neal Ressler went to Nicaragua on a medical mission trip and firefighter Jeff Kenworthy spent time in the Philippines to work at feeding centers in Manila. While it was Ressler's first mission trip, this was Kenworthy's fourth trip in just less than a decade.

"I think every American should go on a mission trip," said Kenworthy. "It will change your life and it will change your perspective on what is really important in life, and as Americans."

Families with nothing but a few clothes and barely enough to eat to survive are happy, said Kenworthy and Ressler. Kids in both countries they visited are happy playing with just what's around them -- often times just rocks or sticks -- and they never saw arguments within the families or among the children.

Kenworthy said the missionaries took the kids at the feeding center they helped at in Manila to McDonald's, which their kids meals consist of a piece of chicken, spaghetti and rice, and noticed a 5-year-old girl wrapping up her chicken. Despite loving chicken, she wrapped it up to take it to her family.

That broke his heart.

"That's a 5-year-old kid who realizes her family needs food and she's sacrificing for that," he said.

Kenworthy, and his wife, Angie, volunteer with Manna Worldwide through their church and go every two years, and it started as "a spur of the moment thing." Members of their church started to talk about the trip and the Kenworthy's said, 'Let's go see what this is all about."

"We're pretty adventurous people," Kenworthy said. "Every time we go we fall more in love with the Philippines and the work that's being done over there."

Despite the poverty and hunger in that country, they're happy, he said.

"As long as they're surviving and able to feed their children, they're happy," he said of the Filipinos he's encountered. In contrast, Kenworthy said Americans "never seem like they're happy."

Ressler and his wife, Anna, plan to go back to Nicaragua for another medical mission trip. The trip went to the community of La Chuscada, and while Ressler spent one day of the trip at the hospital he spent more time out in the community helping to build one of their schools -- which he preferred, saying he "felt more useful out in the community."

His wife Anna, a nurse at Mercy Hospital-Fairfield, spent more time helping with the surgeries at the hospital.

"It really just opens your eyes that you're on this same planet with people that live very differently than how you live," said Ressler. "It makes you realize how much we take for granted."

Ressler helped build the community's elementary school, and no big machines were used. He said the goal was to get people living in the community invested so everything, from digging post holes to mixing concrete, was done by hand

Similar to the Kenworthys, the Resslers also learned of this trip supporting Amigos for Christ through their church.

"My wife wanted to do one, and he was hesitant because of the unknown," said Ressler.

But he said he's hooked on continuing to help, and plans to go on the same trip next year.

"It's amazing just to see how happy people can be with just little they have," he said. "It's eye-opening because we were born where we're born, and they're born there ... and it's just the luck of the draw of where you were born and what you have."

Ressler said he is more conscious in his consumption habits, especially with how much water and electric he uses.

"I don't have (the water) running when I brush my teeth, and I'm flipping lights off in the house," he said. "We waste so much here. It almost makes you sick to think about it.

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