Support Betsy's Travel Opportunities

Hi friends! My  name is Betsy Kelly, and I'm a high school student in Durham, NC. Over the next year and a half, I will have the opportunity to participate in several mission, pilgrimage, and educational trips.  Here’s a bit of insight on each of the trips:

WPC Youth Mission Trip: Atlanta, GA with DOOR Network:
Door stands for Discovering Opportunities for Outreach and Reflection and is a Christian non-profit mission agency with six urban ministry site across the US. DOOR provides opportunities for service, learning, and leadership development within an urban context. We will be serving ministry sites all over the city of Atlanta ranging from food banks to soup kitchens to homeless shelters.

Montreat Youth Conference:
The Montreat Youth Conference is a conference in the mountains of North Carolina where high school students from all over the country get to spend a week worshiping together and studying God. We participate in presby-famous energizers, study scripture with a small group (a group of 25-30 people whom you meet that week and become best friends with for the rest of your life,) and become even closer with the youth in our home church. MYC is an experience that has truly changed my life over the past few years, and I cannot wait to have the chance this summer and next! The theme of MYC 2017 is ‘A Missing Peace.’ We will be studying what it looks like to share the peace of Christ in the unrest of our world.  In the summer of 2018, I will be attending the Montreat Youth Conference for my very last time. Montreat means more to me than I could ever put into words, and I will forever be thankful for the opportunity to experience such a thin place.

Motion of Physics Lab at Disney
In January of 2018, I will be traveling to the Happiest Place on Earth to participate in Disney’s Motion of Physics Lab. This trip is through Riverside High School’s Project Lead the Way (PLTW) Engineering Program. We will spend three days experiencing physics and engineering in practical application throughout the Disney theme parks. My engineering classes at RHS have been some of my favorite throughout high school, and I’m excited to be able to apply my knowledge in a real life setting.

Westminster Presbyterian Church Senior Highs Scotland Pilgrimage
In the summer of 2018, a group of high school youth and youth advisors from Westminster Presbyterian Church will set out on a spiritual pilgrimage to Scotland. A spiritual pilgrimage is a time when a person or group of people travel to a place that is significant to their faith community. While on the pilgrimage, we, as youth, will have the opportunity to go through a spiritual transformation, opening our hearts and minds and souls to the Holy Spirit. We will be traveling to Iona, Scotland, a holy site for Christians all over the world and particular to Presbyterians, a place where our heritage has been formed by the centuries of Scottish Christians who have traveled to this thin place. This trip is meant to feed our spiritual hunger through intentional time away to be with Christ and be with Him in community.

Haiti Mission Trip
Through working at Chick-fil-A over the past two years, I have come to know and be best friends with some of the most amazing people. This tightknit friendship led to me becoming a part of a small group with some of the girls from work. Every Sunday afternoon our small group, lead by sweet, sweet, Merriem Franks, meets, shares treats, studies Christ, and supports each other in our walks of faith, and life in general. We’ve decided that we want to not only serve each other, but we want to serve our city, and even nations globally. We plan on traveling to Haiti in the Summer of 2018 to serve through Heartline Ministries. Heartline Ministries works to strengthen Haitian families and prevent children from becoming orphans through initiatives that empower Haitians with maternal and infant health care, education, vocational training, economic development, and Christian outreach. We will spending time with ministries and organizations that are doing the hard but rewarding work of creating jobs, alleviating poverty and strengthening families,  attend a Haitian church, visit Heartline’s maternity center, and love on and serve kids at a Haitian orphanage.

First and foremost, I ask that you support me through love and prayer.  In addition, I ask you to consider being my partner through financial giving. I am thrilled to have the opportunity to participate in each of these trips, and I truly believe that my life will be changed by each of them by the time I’m off to college next Fall. Thank you in advance for your support!