2022 Mission Trip recap

An the coming serving project

"For even the Son of Man did not come to be served, but to serve, and to give his life as a ransom for many." - Mark 10:45 

“For I was hungry and you gave me something to eat, I was thirsty and you gave me something to drink, I was a stranger and you invited me in” - Matthew 25:35

Some common sayings in my church are ‘Come, Grow, Go’ and ‘Live, Love, Lead like Jesus’.

I have been fortunate enough to be able to come to church, grow in my relationship with God, and go out in the world to teach others by attending the mission trips held by my church.

Come this July I’ll be heading to the Dominican Republic to work in the poverty stricken villages that dot the coastal city of Santo Domingo. (I’ll update yall with a post about that when I get back XD)

So in honor of the upcoming mission trip, I wanted to share a little of what we did the past years.

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2022

For my first mission trip ever, I went with a group to Gatlinburg, TN. There was roughly thirteen of us students and six or so leaders. Our church teams up with Team Effort—they set up the mission sites, dorm rooms, food for the week, nightly chapels, and give each group a Team Effort leader who usually stays with your group for the entire mission day (sometimes they are given multiple groups and jump back and forth).

I’m going to be honest with you, this wasn’t my favorite mission trip now that I’m looking back at it but we’ll get to that in a little while.

For our project, we worked at a coffee shop/thrift store. A group went outside and worked on the landscaping while another worked in the thrift store.

I was with the group working inside—out first order of business? Sorting through clothes. Not just any clothes though, smokey clothes. This is still an ongoing inside joke to this day.

An man, who smoked, came in with two, I believe, bags of clothes. Well we were tasked with smelling them, if salvageable, put it in the keep. If not…throw it away. And so piece after piece, pants, shirts, dresses, were pulled out and as soon as it was pulled out of the bag we could tell that the smokey smell would never leave.

After 45 mins? (maybe more, probably not less) the entire bag was deemed unsalvageable. And the headache that ensued afterwards was a whole other story.

Throughout the week, we sorted clothes, summer/winter, mens/womens/childrens, went outside a few times and spread mulch, and vividly remember washing a water table toy behind the building where I slipped at one point on the mud.

The vivid memories we have XD.

Now back to what I said at the beginning… don’t get me wrong, I absolutely LOVED this trip…I was just terrified…the first day, the person who worked there and was showing us what had to be done—she was amazing. She was so sweet, and so grateful, she explained everything, she was the best. But the woman who was there the rest of the week scared me half to death and she definitely had favorites…

Again, LOVED the mission trip and had the time of my life, but my people pleaser side was terrified XD.

The trip was Sunday to Saturday, with a half free day on Thursday and full free day on Friday. Thursday I was picked up early because I had dance that night, rehearsal Friday, and the recital Saturday.

And so come Thursday my trip ended. And even though it was only four days, I felt like it went so fast!

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The mission trips to come would continue to teach me so much, but this one in particular showed me that even at a young age we can help. The landscaping had definitely seen better days when we got there, but with just roughly a dozen kids, it was transformed.

We don’t need experience or age, to help those in need. All we need is to live, love, and lead like Jesus.

~Ali