From a very
early age I have been active in my church and community. I can remember being in middle school and
going to the soup kitchens to help serve those that are less fortunate. I also would help feed the homeless at my
church every year from 6th grade and up. I liked the idea of helping people and
serving those in need. My friends and I
would not only serve them food, but we would also sit and talk with them
because not only did they need to be fed literally, but fed in other ways such
as general conversation with someone actually listening. As the years went on I felt that I needed
something more, so I had the opportunity to go to the Eastern Shore of
Virginia. While on the Eastern Shore
several members of the youth group and I worked alongside with the migrant
workers. These migrant workers would
harvest the left over crops that the farmers did not want or the machines had
missed and this is how they survived. We
worked alongside them for 2 days and enduring the summer heat just like they
had to do every day. After this
experience my church did not seem to offer much of anything else as far as
missions go.
Once I
graduated high school, and after my first semester of college, I was asked to
be the youth minister of my parish. This
is where I had the opportunity to organize mission trips for the youth. One summer we took a small group to St. Louis
to attend Catholic Heart Workcamp(CHWC), which is a service based organization
for high school kids that gives them the opportunity to get outside their
“bubble” and do service work for a week. They jobs ranged from painting homes, yard work, building wheelchair
ramps, re-flooring homes and much more. Then
in the mornings and evenings there was a program which had different camp
characters, inspirational videos, praise and worship, and a talk every evening
on a different topic. The following year
the director of religious education and myself had organized for CHWC to come
to Virginia Beach. Now this was a
different experience where we worked with different social agencies in the area
to find work projects for the kids to work for the week. We were able to meet with certain residents
and sit and talk with them to find out what their needs were and assign a group
of teens to go to their homes and work. At the end of the week of service the residents came to the evening
program and to speak about their experience with the kids throughout the week.
The
following year I applied to be a part of the CHWC college staff that traveled
from city to city. I found myself
experiencing something totally different again being on another side of the
ministry. I have continued to work with
CHWC for the past 4 summers traveling the country and be able to minister to
thousands of youth. I have one last
opportunity to serve with CHWC this summer before I leave for The World Race
for a year.
I am looking
forward to the coming year with World Race to have a totally different
experience with mission work. My passion
in life is to live as closely to the Gospel as I can in my everyday life and be
a witness to the world. I will continue
to learn and share the Truth to all those I encounter.
