Making a difference - by Zack Friedrich

Last year on the mission trip I was expecting it to be a lot like the one from two years ago, but boy was I wrong! On the first mission trip we went to the Yakima Indian Reservation, and my group partly painted a house, and picked up trash around the property (the other group finished cleaning and painting on a different day), then we worked in a Vacation Bible School type summer camp. It wasn’t very strenuous work or anything, but it was never below 100 degrees and there was almost no humidity, but it was well worth it to help all those young children and the trip really opened my eyes about how lucky we are to have the things we do.

 I was very surprised by our mission trip to San Diego, by how different it was compared to the Yakima trip. I wasn’t nearly as hot there (only about 80 degrees) first off and it wasn’t as rural as the San Diego is the eighth largest city in the U.S. When my group was assigned to our daily worksites for the next four days I was expecting the same thing as the year before. When we actually got to the worksites I was pleasantly surprised by the type of work we did, we did a lot of moving boxes and produce at a food delivery organization that delivered meals to people who couldn’t leave their homes due to illness or injuries. At the other worksite we worked in a food bank by filling boxes with food, sealing them, and stacking them on pallets to be delivered to homeless shelters. All that hard work really tuckered me out at the end of the day. At the end of the trip I really felt like I made a difference to the local community we stayed in for the week.

At the end of both trips I felt like I really made a difference in the two different communities in two really cool ways. On one trip I made a difference to a community by bringing the love of God to little kids in the area, and the other I physically helped others by preparing food for them and helping them with problems they can’t fix themselves. On this upcoming trip I really hope that I will be able to help others both physically and by sharing the love of God to them, kind of like a combination of the other trips, to change their lives. I also hope that through these actions I will become closer to God and figure out His plans for me in my life.