Youth Reflection - John

This morning, after an early wake up and a quick rush to the shower in order to ensure a prime spot in the line of groggy boys that came out of our room, I realized that two days ago I had signed up to write a blog post on the last day of the mission trip. That position holds a lot of weight because instead of having one or two days to write about I needed to sift through five days of service in order to find the best moments. As the day continued the deadline crept up on me until it was 10 pm and the second to last person who was tasked to write a blog post was beginning to sit down and I had neglected to think about what I was going to say. I knew that I needed to talk about where I saw God in the world. This of course was not that difficult, I saw God in the lines of homeless people smiling when they saw us ready to volunteer, the food insecure who took home grocery carts of food and the other volunteers who were giving their time and talents along with us. However I rarely had an extremely powerful moment with any of the people with which we served and decided that just talking about the many small times I saw God was not as intriguing. It was on our last devotional of the week when we sat in a circle and gave affirmations towards one another that I realized where I truly saw God this week, in the other youth I worked with. Amanda, who was always quick to come up with a new game to keep us hydrated, Amy, who would keep the group motivated by singing allowed whatever song was currently running through her mind, Madeline, who would come to the aid of anyone who needed it and was always eager to work, Sara, who would keep the group entertained with her ridiculously long story jokes and riddles with complicated solutions, Nadia, who was everyone’s big sister, there to lend a helping hand and refill supplies at the food bank when they got low, Marianna, who no matter how difficult a problem seemed would persist and work harder than anyone else, Chris, the youngest in our group was always able to crack a joke and make sure everyone was in the service fully, and Anthony would be there to answer questions thoughtfully and insightfully. I was so lucky to be able to work along side this group of amazing young people and help make this world a better place by being the hands and feet of Christ.

-John, WPC