Mission Trip to Haiti

This summer, I will be traveling to Haiti to intern with a missionary there. I have been accepted to Abilene Christian University’s World Wide Witness program, which is mission internship program that sends students on summer-long mission trips, giving them training through a class at the university, as well as mentoring and assistance with logistics. Ever since coming to Haiti last summer, it has been a fervent desire in my heart to return and serve again, and for a greater amount of time. WorldWide Witness is providing the way to do so.

Ever since my mission trip to Haiti last summer, I have been longing to return and once again let God use me among the people He has put into my heart. Service is something very near to my heart, and God is constantly inspiring me to worship Him by using my life to help others. In Haiti, I hope to serve God in all areas of my life and to see Him in this experience; it is my belief that God will use this trip to change my life and affect me for years to come. On the trip, I hope to encourage all the people around me and to share God’s love with them in all respects.  As Mother Teresa says, “Not all of us can do great things. But we can do small things with great love.”; I pray that in Haiti, in everything I do, whether small or big, that I can do it with great love.

I would be lying if I said that my love for service and the calling I feel to Haiti is the only reason that this trip is so important to me. Last summer, one of my teammates on the mission trip was Brandon Ries. Brandon had a deep love for the Haitian people and the most beautiful servant’s heart I have ever seen. Brandon and I talked often about our fervent desire to return to Haiti - as he said often, he was “Ready to go, but willing to stay.”.  This past fall, Brandon died. I want to go and serve because if he was alive, that is what he would have been doing, and I want to honor his memory.