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Mission trips!
Mission trips!
I just got back from my first mission trip ever! It was to an orphanage in Honduras for kids with HIV/AIDS, called Montana de Luz, which means The Mountain of Light. It was completely amazing and utterly life changing. While I was there, patching up the dirt roads and mixing concrete for a new sidewalk at the mission, (and getting bitten by bugs, sweating ridiculously, and sunburning badly,) I realized that this was what God has called me to do. I didn't want to leave, and since today was my first day back in America, I spent half of it looking at pictures of all the friends I had made there and crying a lot. 
If I could have, I would have stayed down there the rest of my life and been ecstatically happy. Even though Honduras is the second poorest country in the world and is riddled with more problems than I had ever imagined, the people there are amazingly friendly and happy just to be alive. I saw kids carrying jugs of water that must've weighed twice as much as they did, but when I waved and shouted hola, their faces lit up like they had everything they wanted.
I'm having a really hard time with the re-entry to America, because it really is a different world in Honduras. Everything, even the things I thought were the most important to me before I went seem completely worthless and superficial now that I've seen what it's like in a third-world country. I'm disgusted at how materialistic I was before and I realize now that I don't need even a 1/8 of the things I thought I did. For some kids in Honduras, having a bad day means that you don't get to eat, and your only pair of shoes finally disentigrates. Anyone else who has been on a mission trip, respond por favor! I could go on about Montana de Luz forever, so just tell me if you want more info. 
P.S. Please, look up Montana de Luz. Maybe you can get your church to go on a mission trip!
submitted by Hannah M., age 12, Ohio
(November 13, 2008 - 5:39 pm)
(November 13, 2008 - 5:39 pm)
That sounds so amazing, Hannah! How'd you get involved? Can you tell more about it? I've never been on a mission trip, but one of the girls at my school has been on at least 2.
(November 14, 2008 - 2:47 pm)
It was really amazing!
I don't know how my church found out about Montana de Luz, but three or four years ago they sent my dad and his friend down to kind of "scout it out." They came back with glowing reports, and then we sent another group down a year later, with 13 people, and then this year, we sent down 19 people!
Random facts about Montana de Luz: The actual buildings sit on top of a hill above a really poor village, and at night, when everything is lit up, it looks really cool from down below. (Hence the name, Mountain of Light.)
It's a nonprofit organization, kept running mostly by donations, the work mission teams do, and a staggering amount of prayer.
They literally take dying kids from the streets of Honduras and give them a safe home, food, medicine, education, and love. The sad truth is, all the kids there that are my age, all the friends I made, would be dead right now if it wasn't for Montana de Luz.
Most of the kids have HIV/AIDS, and they're getting treated with a new medicine that will slow down the progression of their disease and may enable them to have a normal life span.
There's a boy there my age called Omar, and when we left he was waving and yelling "I love you!" at me, in English! Like I said, I made some awesome friends. =)
(November 18, 2008 - 2:35 pm)
Hannah, that's GREAT!!!!! I'm so glad for you!!! Although I've never been on a mission trip, I told you that my dad has. Just from looking at the photos and listening to stories, I have also realized what you did. We don't even need 1/8 of the stuff we have. I was painting my room this summer and redoing the carpets (too much dust), and I ended up giving away most of my old toys and clothes. I have three bags (yes, three whole bags!!!) full (yes, full!!!) of stuffed animals that I am going to send to an orphanage in the Dominican Republic where my dad helped volunteer. I'm going to surprise them, and draw pictures with Bible verses (in Spanish, of course!!) to send to them. I looked up Montana de Luz!! Whoa, for some reason, the letters just got really, really big... I hope they don't stay that way.... :) Good job!!
P.S. How was your first airplane ride????? :):)
(November 15, 2008 - 12:14 pm)
The plane ride to Honduras seemed extra-long, and the ride back was really miserable, mostly because I didn't stop crying for a good thirty minutes, and then would start up again at random intervals during the flight. I felt like I was being ripped away from my home and my family, even though I had just been there a week.
P.S. If you saw that video on the Montana de Luz website, I can name most of those kids and tell you about their personalities, like who loves coke and which ones really love soccer, etc. When I came back I watched that video twice because I was homesick.
(November 18, 2008 - 2:45 pm)
That's so sad! When are you going back?
(November 20, 2008 - 6:02 pm)
If I could, I would live down there. But until then, I'm joining the mission comittee at my church and trying to organize another trip next year. The only problem with this plan is that it costs an obscene amount of money to send so many people out of the country, so I'm praying for our fundraisers to be blessed. I'm planning on getting a job at Montana de Luz as soon as I'm out of college, possibly teaching english or something like that. I'm studying Spanish with renewed determination. =)
(November 20, 2008 - 10:21 pm)
Isn't it amazing when you know, for sure, what God has called you to do? I still don't know completely... I'm glad that you do!! I'll pray for the fundraisers, too!
(November 22, 2008 - 1:25 pm)
Thanks, Paige! It's a really cool feeling to know that my friends all over the U.S. are praying for this.
(November 24, 2008 - 5:40 pm)
That's one of the awesome things about the internet. It's great! :):)
(November 26, 2008 - 1:47 pm)
My church group and I went on one to Mexicali last spring break with YUGO ministries. It was amazing, too. I think I described it somewhere else, on the NaNo thread?
Anyways, yeah, I remember this one kid - maybe five or six - who was sitting there listening to the talk, and he had this huge cut on his leg, like three inches long and it was just bleeding and dripping down his leg and he didn't even cry or seem to notice. I was like, O.O dude, do you want a band aid or something? And when I asked him he was surprised.
Then we had a piñata for the kids at the end of the week when we had to go home, and after they had gotten the candy, every single one of them came up and asked, "Can we eat the candy?"
It was amazing though, the language barrier wasn't even a problem, even though we had ONE translator between seventeen of us and at least fifty kids, plus adults (who were anywhere from my age and up), so we had one translator (and also a kid who spent some time in Texas, Alejandro) running around translating for about eighty people at once.
By the end of the week we were all laughing and joking and eating tacos together. In the dust. There was dust EVERYWHERE! I mean, you'd make absolutely sure to have no dust on your shoes when you went into the tents and you'd wake up and just be covered in it. I swear it was growing...
Oh, and I nearly fainted when I had to give the talk because I was dehydrated and I'd left my notes behind (by mistake) and I couldn't remember what I was supposed to be talking about...
Andrea, our translator, ended up getting sick and loosing her voice from having to run around translating so much.
We've got a letter from Cesar, the pastor, pinned up on our church bulletin board. He spoke maybe five words in English but the day we left he and Ana (his wife) sat down and wrote us a full half-page letter in English, and then he read it to us out loud while we ate tacos.
(November 15, 2008 - 7:26 pm)
=D That sounds like a blast! I think I'm going to make mission work my career...
(November 18, 2008 - 2:36 pm)
Our church goes on mission trips to Mazatlan. Never been with them. Funny, though, how it's also a popular vacation destination. Hm.
(November 16, 2008 - 6:59 pm)
Oh wow, Hannah!:):):) It sounds like you had a real fantastic, eye-opening time!:):):) I wish I could go there sometime!:):):)
(November 22, 2008 - 12:52 pm)
Forgive my ignorance, but what exactly do you do on a mission trip? I'm non-religous, you see...
(November 23, 2008 - 1:02 am)
It depends on the mission. I've never been on one, so the best person to answer would be Hannah, but I'll tell you what my dad did in the Dominican Republic. First, Dominicans are dirt poor (literally. They're covered in dirt and have no money.). All the men on the mission helped to build a small church, which required making a concrete wall (not easy!). The women helped with a VBS for the kids. If you don't know what a VBS is, it stands for Vacation Bible School. Usually, kids go to the church every day, play games, eat food, sing songs, watch funny skits, study the Bible, etc. And, it's free! Every person on the trip got a day or two off, where they could relax, or, if they want help out with the medical part. I'm not sure what they do, so ask Hannah. And, at least my dad's group, got one day on a tropical island!!!
(November 24, 2008 - 5:27 pm)