Nevada County Picayune and Gurdon Times Newspaper Archive

Escalante does mission work

Brandi Escalante, daughter of Stan and Cindy Escalante of Gurdon, has been one busy young lady this summer.

Escalante has just finished her freshman year at Baylor University in Texas.

Escalante has always been involved with her church and enjoys mission work.

This summer Escalante went on a mission trip to England with the Highland Baptist Church mission group from Baylor, Texas. This is the church that Escalante attends while in college.

Escalante said she first arrived in Middlesborough, England and stayed there a week with the Portrack Baptist Church of England.

While there she would go to schools during the day to talk to children about what it is like to live in America. The group would then perform funny yet educational skits for the children before discussing the Plan of Salvation with them.

While visiting England Escalante was able to visit London for three days. While in London she saw Big Ben, the Tower of London and the British Museum and stayed in the Knotting Hill district close to where a movie was filmed.

Escalante came back to Gurdon after two weeks of England and visited and rested for a few weeks until she left for Africa.

It took Escalante and the group she was traveling with 31 hours to get to Capetown, Africa. She had a meeting as soon as she arrived and finally got to bed at 1 a.m.

Escalante was to be up and dressed by 8 o'clock in the next morning. You must also remember there is a seven-hour time difference in America and Africa. Needless to say Escalante was ready for a good nap.

Escalante reported most of the buildings and facilities she visited while she was there to be fairly nice.

She and her group stayed in a place called the Hostile. "It was an O.K. cheap hotel basically," said Escalante. "The Africans do not believe in having any type of heating or cooling system indoors. This includes fireplaces and furnaces. It was so cold most of the time. It is winter in Africa right now and the temperature fluctuated between 32 to 70 degrees each day," Escalante said.

Therefore Escalante spent many nights in her clothes to keep warm.

Mornings came early to the mission group. They would get up early and dress in their uniforms consisting of pants made of wind suit material and sweatshirts. These uniforms had to be worn for six days straight. "The Hostile washed them for us but you couldn't even smell the detergent," said Escalante.

After dressing each morning they would divide up into groups and head to school classrooms. There they would gather groups of four children each and give a personal testimony.

Sometimes in foreign countries missionaries must disguise themselves as a sports team to be allowed in the country. This was not the case for Escalante's group. Although they did travel as a basketball group, they were welcomed as missionaries.

After visiting with the children in the mornings and giving their personal testimonies, the group would play games with the children including basketball.

Basketball is not a big sport in Africa. Most Africans play Rugby. Escalante said she participated in some Rugby games and learned quickly that it is a contact sport.

Unfortunately for Escalante she tore cartilage in her knee and blew out her ACL tendon while playing a game of basketball in Africa.

Escalante has done this before. She's tough and lasted the rest of the trip. However, she will have surgery in December.

Escalante said it was well worth the trip. More than 1,300 decisions for salvation were made in just two weeks time.

Escalante also enjoyed seeing zebras, baboons, penguins and whales in their natural habitat.

Escalante said, "I don't want to worry my parents, but I've almost decided to continue with medical school only major in sports medicine. That way I can still do mission work and enjoy basketball by traveling with these particular groups."