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Students from a previous service trip pose for the cameras with some of their new friends at the Child Rescue Centre in Bo, Sierra Leone. Floris United Methodist Church, with Senior Pastor Tom Berlin at the helm, will lead a local group of young adults on the next service mission from May 26 through June 9.

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From Herndon to Sierra Leone

Floris United Methodist Church leads student service trip.

Emily Lopynski started her Pen Pal relationship with Afiju, a boy of about the same age from the Child Rescue Centre in Bo, Sierra Leone, when she was in the third grade. Lopynski, a Herndon resident, just finished her freshman year at William and Mary College. She and Afiju are still in touch. In fact, their communication over the years has grown. “It was so wonderful when he got access to Facebook,” Lopynski said. “We could really keep up with each other and have a real conversation.” A vast improvement, considering that for most of the time since the two first “met,” their friendship relied on the exchange of letters that sometimes took as long as five months from the writing of one to the reading by the other.

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