Mission Trips

At church, in addition to my participation in the worship services, I volunteered at our church’s soup kitchen, medical camps and elementary school for underprivileged children. These experiences opened my eyes to the deprivation of love and care in the world and a dire need of God’s grace for people at large so they could receive forgiveness, healing and restoration in their lives.

I am writing to you today to tell you about an exciting opportunity I have through my school, Liberty Christian. My senior class will be going on a mission trip to COSTA RICA from Saturday, May 6, 2017 to Friday, May 12th. During this time, we will be working with the mission agency SCORE International in order to serve God by serving the Costa Rican people. We will have opportunities to serve and minister to the people we meet through various service opportunities, such as: children’s ministry, preaching, drama, and humanitarian aid distribution.

This summer I went on a mission trip to Minnesota, and it changed my life. I got to strengthen my relationship with God and my friends, all the while serving a community. While I was there, I was tested a few times, but my view of life was permanently affected. If I was asked to leave tomorrow for another trip, I wouldn’t even hesitate to go.

After landing in Mexico and meeting up with the people I would be working with during a three-day mission trip, we were crammed into a bus and spent the next two hours getting to know each other. We were there to build homes for a multitude of families in the town of Xochimilco, Mexico. When we arrived late in the afternoon, we were led to an empty school where we would spend our nights. Sleeping on the floor next to school lockers with bugs buzzing in my ears in a country I did not know well was an interesting experience to say the least—but that was just the beginning. At dawn, the real work began and so did a change in my thinking that had a dramatic effect on my perspectives about life.

In January of 2015, I experienced a mission trip in Guatemala. Although the trip taught me a lot about both myself, and the people and culture of Guatemala, one of the more prominent realizations I had was that the Guatemalan children had so little resources to get a quality education in life, yet they were still eager to learn. For example, each child was required to wear a pair of black dress shoes to school. Since many could not afford to pay for these shoes, they each walked to the missionary compound, no matter how far, to get a free pair of shoes that were offered. Additionally, many of the kids were more inclined to attend a short church lesson after eating dinner than play with their friends. After experiencing this dramatic change

This summer, I got to see firsthand the way my liberal arts education impacts the way I share Christ. Along with ten other OBU students, I was given the privilege of serving through the North American Mission Board in Portland, Oregon. My job as a church-planting intern was to build relationships with unbelievers, share Christ with unbelievers, learn what it would be like to actually plant a church, and ultimately, learn to live life on mission.

Out of all places I could go I would ultimately pick Kenya, Africa. When I was a little girl, my mom told me stories of how she went there for a mission trip and how it was an experience of a lifetime. But, Kenya has changed a lot since my mom has been there. The amount of people that face starvation has drastically increased over the past few years. I intend on going to Our Lady of the Lake of University and receive my bachelors in Nutrition and become a licensed dietitian. A dietitian’s job is to promote dietary health and devise eating plans based on the science of nutrition. I want to do exactly that except on a much greater scale. Around 1.5 million Kenyans are facing starvation across the country especially in arid areas due to low rainfall.

In the summer of 2014 I, along with 30 friends from St. George Church, took part in a week long mission trip to the beautiful country of Haiti. While there, we did a lot of service work, including planting trees and painting a school. But way beyond all that, we got the incredible opportunity to care for and play with hundreds of unbelievably lovable and, despite their unfortunate circumstances, immeasurably happy children, most of whom were abandoned, orphaned, or severely ill with HIV/AIDS. Their smiles and radiating happiness are among the brightest I've ever seen and they inspired our entire group to change the way we perceive the world. Therefore, getting the chance to see those beautiful kids again would make me and them, too, unimaginably happy.

Have you ever been so broken spirited that you just ask “why me”? Last summer my youth group and I journey to Philadelphia for a mission trip. We would be helping plant a church and provide outreach in the local community. We all expected it to be fairly painless trip, but we were blind-sides when God decided to transform our lives, while we were taking the opportunity to revolutionize others.

My topic or experience that reveals something about who I am is the mission trip I became a part of from June 18, 2017 to June 24, 2017 when my church went to Cannon Falls through Group Missions. During this mission trip, I have met some amazing people, made some great memories, and more importantly, formed a closer relationship with God. Before the trip, my relationship with God has just been at a plateau with me barely reading his word, praying from time to time, and just having a relationship with Him as if we were just acquaintances. During the trip, I met other people from different states: Missouri, Indiana, Iowa, Minnesota, and where I am from, Illinois. I made lots of connections with other Christians which helped with me being antisocial,

There was one experience which changed me and that I will never forget. During one of the days on the trip, we went out to the Boston Common. The leaders have us a few dollars, and put in a group of around 5 people. Our goal was to somehow use the money to feed ourselves and to have extra to give to someone. Everything was expensive, so we ended getting a small pizza from Papa Gino’s where we all had half of a slice of

Think about the poverty and problems that all countries around the world are facing today and every day. As Americans we have an urge to go into these countries to help as much as possible because of that we have begun a revolution. Americans began going on mission trips around the 1960s but did not really pick up until the 1990s. The trend grew after multiple natural disasters, Americans saw and need and went, since then short term mission trips show no sign stopping anytime soon. As the popularity of leaving our comfort zones, many people have found issues with the way the trips are led to the extent of questioning whether or not these trips are really worth the amount of money and time that they consume. Through periodicals, interviews, narratives, and articles, I will show the issues and improvements that could be made to the living situations, attitude of the Americans, and relationships that are acquired during the short term mission trips.

One setting in which I have collaborated and interacted with people whose experiences and beliefs differed from mine was when I traveled to Haiti on a mission trip. Initially, I did not realize how difficult it would be for me to experience the poverty of the poorest country in the Western Hemisphere, but when I arrived it suddenly occurred to me that not every nation as fortunate as the United States. I participated in many activities while in Haiti, including: vacation bible school for the children, taking clothes to a poor village, and volunteering in a pharmacy. These three experiences tremendously humbled me and allowed me to see how different cultures can be around the world.

During my ten years attending St. John the Baptist,the significant experiences that I had not only impacted my life in a positive way, but it also shaped me into the person I am today. Some of these experiences including interaction with the school community, growing in my faith, and participating in student council made me the person I am now.

Yanking shingles off of a roof in South Carolina on a scorching July day sounds unpleasant at the least. However, it was anything but that. While the physical conditions were strenuous, the experiences I had and the fulfilling feeling of doing service made the week unforgettable.