While many are chilling at the pool, taking on a summer job, or going on vacation, a few students at BV West are planning to make the most of their summer by helping others around the country and around the world. During the summer, mission trips are offered to students in the community who want to help others and experience life in a different place.
Around BV West, students are traveling to a variety of places this summer in order to help those in need. They will work in inner cities, homeless shelters, and orphanages to change the lives of others as well as their own lives.
“I feel really good helping others and last year was one of the best weeks of my life,” junior Jadyn Flores said.
Over the summer, Flores will be travelling to Dallas, Texas with the Church of the Resurrection and will be working on construction, helping the inner city, and an organization called Shoes for Orphan Souls. She will also work at a food pantry. She went to Dallas last year and is excited for the trip this year.
About eight hundred miles away, Keegan Sullivan will be travelling to Atlanta and Nashville to do mission work there with the Resurrection Youth Orchestra. They will be playing music in homeless shelters, doing flood clean up work in Nashville, and taking foster children from the United Methodist Children’s Home to an Atlanta Braves game.
“I’m excited because I get to spend an entire week with people I enjoy and do mission work,” freshman Keegan Sullivan said.
An ocean over, Katelyn Jarvis will be working for two weeks in Nairobi, Kenya. She will be going with Blue Valley Baptist Church and will work for two weeks in an orphanage and build new churches. Jarvis will have the opportunity to work with Kenyan children as well as learn about new cultures. At one point, they will go to a disabled young girls’ school to work with the kids there.
“I’m very excited but also kind of scared,” sophomore Katelyn Jarvis said. “I had to get all of my immunizations and that was kind of scary. I don’t want Malaria.”
While safety is important, religion also plays a big role in mission trips. Worship is a big part of the trips, but students are not required to be religious to go.
“I don’t think that you have to be religious to go, but you need to have a reason for going,” Jarvis said. “My reason for going is that I want to spread the word of God.”
It is not all work on the trips. There are also fun days to lighten up the trip and to just enjoy time with other team members. Sullivan will be spending time at Six Flags and Stone Mountain during the fun day planned.
“Last year we had a fun day and went to the mall and got a private tour of the Dallas Cowboys Stadium,” Flores said. “Oh and we play some intense Foosball. My friends and I were the Foosball champs last year.”
The purpose of a mission trip is not only to serve others and God, but to also see life from a new perspective.
“It opens up your eyes and changes your life because you get to see other parts of the country and the challenges that they have to face,” Flores said.
Jarvis seems to agree with Flores that mission trips are very beneficial to students at BV West.
“It is a great experience to see the world and it is completely different from the area we live,” Jarvis said. “It will be nice to see it from a drastically different perspective.”
Mission trips also enable growth within students, and give them great opportunities to have fun and make new friends while helping others.
“It gives us a chance to earn community service hours and make new friends,” Sullivan said.
Mission trips have a lot to offer to students at BV West, by providing the opportunity to experience seeing how other cultures live. It can cause a new perspective and help those who are not as fortunate.
“I think that here at Blue Valley West we have a different outlook on the world,” Flores said. “Things are kind of easier for us. Going on a mission trip opens your eyes to different parts of the country that don’t have it as easy off as we do.”