GREEN COVE SPRINGS – Gwenda Trapp is a missionary who lives in Clay County who loves to spread God’s word. For more than 17 years Trapp, her husband and two daughters served in the Democratic Republic of Congo.
Before missionary work, Trapp worked with children, and her husband, Brian, was a carpenter. She knew she wanted to be a missionary when her church invited a missionary to come speak.
“We had a missionary come to our church and share about his ministry in Africa. He needed someone to come and help with construction, children’s ministry, and my husband is a carpenter, so we fit the bill on two accounts because I worked in children’s ministry,” Trapp said. “After talking with him [the missionary], we were sold on going out to Africa for a period of time as a trial.”
The Trapps did missionary work in the Congo for 10 months before leaving when Gwenda became pregnant with their first daughter. The Trapp family started doing missionary work in 1994, a year after they were married. The Trapps had another daughter, but they continued with their missionary work with their daughters.
“We stayed for 10 months and we were convinced that’s what we needed to do. We really loved to work there,” Gwenda Trapp said. “At that time, we were serving in Central Africa, right in the middle of DR Congo and we served there for our first three years.”
After three years of doing missionary work, the Trapp’s ended up having to evacuate and leave the Congo when civil war broke out. For the safety of their family, the Trapps stayed in the United States for a year before going back to the Congo. Once back in the Congo, the Trapps established their ministry in the capital of Congo, Kinshasa.
Gwenda Trapp began to realize there was a need for more Christian material.
“When I got to Africa, especially when we were in the village, in the interior setting, I looked around me and there was hardly any kind of Christian material. Even having a bible was a treasure for someone,” Trapp said. “And so, I got to thinking, how could we serve these people? And I happened to think of the bible lessons I used to do as a child.”
The bible lessons Trapp was taught were from Source of Light ministries. The Source Of Light ministries distributes simple, easy-to-read booklets depicting bible stories. In addition to servicing churches in the United States, Trapp found out they also work with ministries in Africa.
“Thousands of people come to Christ every year through these little pamphlets. It really is a blessing of a ministry,” Trapp said. “And I think it’s neat that I read these as a child and now I’m able to share them.”
To support their ministry the Trapp family also does a puzzle fundraiser every year.
The Trapps family named it the puzzle fundraiser by making the fundraiser more exciting by doing a 1,000-piece puzzle. For every $10 donated, another piece of the puzzle is put in. The money raised went toward the ministries.
Those wishing to contribute to the fundraiser can donate to Source of Light and include a note that says your donation is for The Trapp’s Puzzle Fundraiser and you’re giving for “Gwenda’s Hometown Day.” Updates on the fundraiser can be found on the Trapps Facebook page, “Trapps at Source of Light Ministries International.”