Personal Narrative: My Mission Trip To Jinotega, Nicaragua

I have been a part of different activities for my community service. I offered to volunteer in my church in the Vacation Bible School, Tiger Link Crew, Knight of Columbus, International Dinner, and Fall Festival. What I am most proud of doing is Vacation Bible School. I enjoyed being a part of the Vacation Bible School because it gave me good experience to be involved with children.

Cleaning out a barn, organizing a hoarder’s collection, painting a garage, hanging siding on a house, pouring concrete for a walkway, making meals for families--all projects promoting my life goal of helping make communities better and serving others, especially the less fortunate. I have been able to go on several mission trips with members of my church volunteering their efforts in completing helpful community projects where needed. These trips changed my life and made me a better person.

One of the services I do now is helping with band lessons, and it is a great feeling once the kid you are teaching finally plays something right and tells me how much they appreciate it. It is also a great feeling knowing that your band teacher picked you to be one of the band lessens teacher. Another service I have done is walking the dogs at the Humane Society, which was great because I got the chance to walk and give my attention to a dog that does not get that everyday. It made me happy that I got to give that animal a taste of freedom and love.. The third service I have done was bring therapy animals to a Assisted Living, that was a great experience because I got to make all those people feel happy and excited.

While going to college I got to have the experience of a lifetime. Myself, and a group of 15 others went on a mission trip to New Orleans, Louisiana. We all got to see many cultural differences and help people in need. Helping people in need just

At a young age I discovered a passion for helping others and I have continued to be passionate about serving my community since then. At the age of eight years old I began the first year of what would soon be my ten year membership of 4-H. Through that program and my church’s youth group I truly began to understand what selfless service was all about. I first began helping others by walking dogs at the local shelter and helping my 4-H club clean the sides of the highways. I later was able to experience several mission trips that opened my eyes to the larger aspect of service. My love for helping people continued to grow as I got older and I continued to find ways to make a difference. One of my favorite experiences was getting to help cook and serve a meal at a homeless

For my service project, I chose to work at the Meadowlark Meals organization. This organization takes in donations of food and uses them to make meals for children at the school to take home on the weekends. If these children did not take this food home, they would not eat at all over the weekend. I chose to work at this organization because I love kids and it is sad to see them hungry when I have plenty of food to eat. I wanted to make a difference in their lives and I thought that this organization could help me accomplish that.

As I stepped out of the airport, followed by my family, I was unprepared for the snowfall and icy pavement that is so commonplace in January in Michigan. If I had thought enough about it, I would have worn winter boots on the plane and maybe brought my puffy white coat to block the wind. Instead, I stood shivering in brand new, pink ballet-flat shoes, while snowflakes filled my eyelashes.

The community service that changed my outlook on life is my missions trip to Haiti. When I saw how the Haitians lived day by day, I realized that my life in America is extraordinary compared to theirs. My dream is to send musical instruments to anyone who wants to play in their church.

Last summer, I flew to Nicaragua for ten days with a team of sixteen girls and boys. I knew a couple people who have gone to mission and service trips like this and they said it was a really good experience, so I thought about and eventually made the decision to go. It was both one of the most terrifying and amazing experiences I have ever had. When we landed and arrived in Managua, I saw people living in extreme poverty left and right. People lived in houses with large rusty metal sheets for walls and roofs. Kids played outside

Going to another country can be a little bit scary, especially if you are going to a third world country and you don’t plan on staying in the safe touristy areas. With this blog, I hope to appeal to others who are going on a mission trip to Nicaragua for the first time. Through my personal narrative, I hope to calm those first time jitters that people are inclined to get before doing something outside of their comfort zone. It can help when you have an idea about what you are getting into, but there are some things that no one can understand until they have been there, and that’s okay.

My trip to a third world country opened my eyes to see that everyone is not as blessed as we are here in America. Nicaragua is a very poor country. People in Nicaragua are robbed of the luxuries we Americans have. Such as, simply, having three meals a day. Most people have to travel far just to find food to bring home to their families. I felt like God had called me to go to these people not so I can bless them, yet so they can bless me and my eyes would be opened.

“Mangos, mangos, 3 Quetzales !!”. This is the first thing I heard and saw on my trip to Guatemala this past summer. I saw a 9 year old barefoot boy struggling to walk through the busy streets of Guatemala carrying a woven basket that contained ripe and bright orange mangos inside of it. I turned around to my dad and said, “Dad look!! Oh my gosh!! Shouldn’t he be in school?”. My dad always told me about Guatemala and the continuous struggles that he and others faced on a daily basis when he lived there. For the first time I actually saw what my dad talked to about with my very own eyes. What I was seeing was crystal clear and not what I hoped to be a dream.

Early that morning I got up and got my things ready and headed to the airport. I met my new classmates from UCO and learn a little bit about them. We all shared what we would want to experience on this trip. I shared that I would want to be away from the tourist spots. The reason for that is that I feel I would see the real Nicaragua. I can talk to the people in the streets and learn their stories. And also eat authentic Nicaraguan food in smaller local

One of the best experiences that I’ve had while doing community service is while I was volunteering at Vacation Bible School through my church. I helped elementary school age kids learn about religion while having a lot of fun. The creative activities that I helped make kept the kids engaged while still teaching them about the Bible.

It was the last day of my trip, and while I was washing plates in my grandmother’s house, the sunlight was reflected on the plates to my eyes. The fear going through my veins, my mind confused with everything that have happened two weeks ago. Uncertainty of what event would destroy or rebuild my heart. What would happen next ?. The future is unpredictable, so far that is a concept that now I understand. Considering the time spent in my country Colombia , vacations, friends, and parties were the words that stay on my mind for the first two weeks, otherwise the next two weeks were not what I planned. Firstable I was not supposed to be there for these last two weeks, but I am grateful. “No puedes viajar hoy” were the words asserted by the airline