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Steve Lingenbrink is very active in local, national and international service. He currently serves as the Executive Assistant Governor of Rotary International District 5030. Over the past 16 years he has served in many different capacities at the Board Level at the Bellevue Breakfast Rotary Club (BBRC) including President, Director, Secretary, Sergeant at Arms and many other board positions. The Bellevue Breakfast Rotary Club assists needy families on a local, interstate and international level. See their web site for further information about the Bellevue Breakfast Rotary Club (www.bbrc.net). Steve also serves as President of the Kirkland Networkers (www.kirklandnetworkers.com). Kirkland Networkers supports many businesses with business leads and business development in the Greater Seattle Area. He serves on many other non-profit Boards, including Washington State Trial Layers Association (www.wstla.org) where he currently serves as the Vice President of Development.
Steve has been very active in his church over the years, both in leadership, worship and missions abroad. One local ministry that he was involved in locally was both an instructor and Supervisor from 1995 - 2003 in the organization known as Bible Study Fellowship International (www.bsfinternational.org).
In 1999 and 2001 Steve and a team of 5 others conducted a humanitarian trip to a Romania Orphanage. This trip was an extension of several prior visits made by Dr. Michael Hyodo DDS, who has been successful in establishing a dental clinic at an orphanage in Botosani. That orphanage is supported by the Hand of Help Ministry, founded by Dimitru Duduman and his family many years ago. During that trip Steve and Mike and the team continued dental service to the poor, as well as direct assistance to the neediest of people in the Botosani area, including the funding of buildings, land, farm animals, food and clothing to provide immediate relief. They also provided funding for long-lasting benefits in the infrastructure. Botosani is a city of 100,000 people, with an unemployment rate over 80% and average wages of $80/month. Inflation has run rampant with the exchange rate jumping as much as 2500% per year. With that inflation, the $20,000.00 USD in support from various organizations and individuals went a long way to help the people of Botosani and the surrounding communities. To see some of the photos from the 2001 Mission Trip click here.
In May 2002 Steve and a team of 6 others traveled to an Uglich, Perm, and several other cities in Russia and Ukraine through Rotary International. The purpose of the lengthy trip was to provide financial assistance to orphans and widows, build a medical/dental clinic and explore the implementation of a internet cafes designed to educate and employ the orphans. To see some of the kids that they went to help click here.
In March 2003, Steve began what would turn out to be a multi-year and multi-organizational journey with Agros International (www.Agros.org). He traveled with a group led by Mike Yukevich (from Seattle). They visited the villages of Trapichitos and Xeucalvitz, Guatemala. Trapichitos translates “the place of the Little Sugar Mills,” and Xeucalvitz translates “halfway up the mountain.” The group had a 3 hour hike into Trapichitos and an additional 3 hour hike the next day up to 8000 feet at Xeucalvitz. Trapichitos was at that time the 16th village in Guatemala, El Salvador, and Nicaragua supported by the Agros Foundation (see photos by clicking here).
With 14 million people, Guatemala has been racked by a 30 plus year civil war and 5 million of the population is living below the poverty line. There’s not much land for ownership. It’s a problem of disproportionate ownership. Agros buys land and sells it back to the farmers and helps them develop plans for their new land (see, http://www.agros.org/ag/how-we-work/agros-development-process/).
Agros International has helped families in Guatemala, El Salvador, Nicaragua, Honduras, and Chiapas, Mexico build self-sustaining and thriving communities. Our development process is simple but powerful.
Today, thousands of people who had lost hope are healing their scars and building a brighter future for themselves and their children. Families who for generations knew only war, cruelty, murder, and poverty are buying land, growing crops, and building homes. Remote mountain villages destroyed by war are constructing house-to-house water systems and latrines. Soldiers who only knew how to kill are growing medicinal crops for their community. Parents who never had an education are building schools. Children who were born in refugee camps are dreaming of college. Families who were evicted and abused by cruel landowners now own their own productive and sustainable farms. Women who had no hope of escaping from abusive husbands have become entrepreneurs capable of supporting themselves and their children. Churches, communities, and people all over the United States are giving gifts that change people’s lives—and are being transformed themselves in the process.
Agros’ unique approach, based on empowerment through land loans and
training, has helped thousands of Central American and Mexican families learn
to dream again. For these families and villages, life will never be the same.
Through Agros’ time-tested, practical assistance, they have gained the
land and skills to build a better future.
More on the trip to Trapichitos,
Guatemala.
Since that trip in 2002, Steve and his family have become champions of the village of Xeucalvitz (www.agros.org/ag/our-villages/guatemala/xeucalvitz/). They along with Mike Yukevich and a group from Pennsylvania and undertaken the task of developing a self sufficient village at Xeucalvitz. This is no small undertaking, as there at 109 families in this village!
Multiple trips later, Bellevue Breakfast Rotary Club members Steve Lingenbrink and Curtis Cummings, along with their daughters Sarah Lingenbrink (10) and Ciara Cummings (8), returned to the village of Xeucalvitz, Guatemala. The Team was organized by Mike and Kelly Yukevich of Agros International. The purpose of the trip was three-fold:
More on the trip to Xeucalvitz, Guatemala.
Since then Steve and his family have returned again to the village is September of 2005 and February of 2006.
The trip in September was particularly memorable. That was a defining moment in the history of Xeucalvitz. The land signing ceremony commemorating the purchase of 500+ acres of land for the village was held while the team was in the village. This is the first step in becoming financially independent. Equally important was the dedication of the fresh water system for the village. That system was funded by the Bellevue Breakfast Rotary Club and a matching grant from Rotary International. The difference in the health of the children due to clean drinking water was readily apparent on the next trip in February, 2006. (More pictures from each of those trips.)
The next scheduled return trip is in the spring of 2008. There are teams going multiple times per year to the village of Xeucalvitz. They continue to support and champion the cause of the people of Xeucalvitz. If you are interested in supporting a village or a child please contact Steve directly steve@lingenbrink.com.
In August, 2007 Steve traveled to Kenya, Africa with fellow BBRC member Curtis Cummings, his wife Carla and Randy Ostman (from the Newport, WA Rotary Club). The trip was multi-purpose and multi-organizational as well. They toured Nairobi Slums, visited multiple rural schools and gathered information, which helped set the ground work for Rotary participation in Ol Pejeta College of Business, Economics and Conservation. This whirlwind trip covered thousands of mile and helped uilt new relationships for broader Rotary project scope in Kenya. But it also involved America’s Foundation for Chess (www.af4c.org) in ways not first envisioned. The return trips will involve chess in a much higher profile than originally anticipated. Critical thinking, as nurtured by learning chess, is a welcome addition to the curriculum at schools of all levels in Kenya.
Click here for a PowerPoint presentation about the August 2007 trip.
Click here for a gallery of photos from the August 2007 trip.
For in depth information about the Kenya project read, Rotary International Water Project: Brief Background History: Word Doc | PDF.
Stay tuned for much more information about this to come.
Steve
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