on the mission trip. He asked me whether I knew if someone were filling her spot. I was speechless. I sat, stunned, unable to process what was going on, as my friends all urged me to call Mr. Brown, our mission trips coordinator. But there was one tiny detail: my passport was at home in New Jersey, and the bus for the airport was leaving in less than 12 hours. One of my friends offered to drive six hours to go get my passport, if I would just call Mr. Brown. So I did. At 5 p.m. I was going home and at 5:30 a.m. with passport in hand, I was going to Guatemala. And we were leaving campus in 7 hours. Even though all my friends had been packing for days, everything just fell into place. I waited nearly two hours to go to confession, and thank Christ for giving me this beautiful opportunity. Everyone lent me clothes, and other necessities like travel size shampoo and sunscreen. I had close to no information about where we were going or what we were doing. All I knew was I was going to Guatemala. I was so overcome that I sat in the middle of the cafeteria during dinner crying, unable to eat a bite. The trip was everything I knew it would be. The people in Guatemala are poor and suffering. Even the Sisters we worked with had very little by American standards. And yet they were so happy doing Christ’s work, pouring their life into helping those in need. In Guatemala, the primary problem is that the children are malnourished, and, because of this, they’re very sick. We went into the mountains with the Sisters one day with medicine. Mother sat in their tiny chapel all day, seeing children and administering antibiotics, while we played with the kids. It was astounding when each of us went in to listen to Mother. The children we were playing with were so happy and mischievous and childlike, yet they were so sick they should’ve been laying in bed. I witnessed Mother tell a little boy that she couldn’t help him; he had 8
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to go to the city and see a doctor. But the boy knew he couldn’t because his parents couldn’t afford a physician. It was heartbreaking. We spent most of the week chopping wood with machetes in the forest. The wood we chopped enabled the Sisters to make tortillas and beans for the children, their primary food source. We helped around the convent and hospital, taking care of the children and doing maintenance and yard work. It was amazing to see my fellow students pouring themselves out in self-gift for these children as they toiled on behalf of the unfortunates. Every morning we attended Mass, consecrating our work to Christ. Without the time we took for prayer, the work would have been long and laborious. Instead, it was rigorous and satisfying. The experiences I’ve had on these mission trips wouldn’t have been possible without Christendom and the missions program. Since these trips, I have been seriously considering dedicating my life to service of the poor. Whether that be forever or for a year, abroad or in my hometown, I don’t know. But I do know I never would have discovered this without Christendom.