Sessions with Sydney is a weekly column by features editor Sydney Ray. For more installments of Sydney’s ideas, opinions and ramblings, check out the opinions page, and check back every Friday for a new issue.

In 2006, I made the journey to a small city just outside of Cairo, Egypt with a group of teens sent from Teen Missions International. Our job was to renovate a Christian orphanage there and minister to the orphans.

The renovation went well. We got an entire floor of rooms primed and painted. But what affected me the most deeply was not the amazing way God was able to use us to help the orphans; I was terribly upset by what I saw in the slums of Cairo.

Whenever our team would go somewhere as a group, we were advised by the orphanage staff to have the boys to walk in a circle around the girls, so that we girls would not be snatched up by one of the Egyptian men who wanted to marry us in order to come back to the U.S.

I had seen what I thought was poverty here in America, but in Egypt my young eyes were opened up to a whole new level of what it meant to be poor. Sometimes whole families would live in dirty, one-room apartments. We could see their tattered clothes and bedsheets hanging outside to dry.

One day my teammates and I went to an outdoor market to shop. Before long, we noticed a bulky-looking man in a leather jacket who seemed to be following us. Being the silly teens that we were, we reported this to our leaders, telling them our fears of being kidnapped.

Our leaders then asked our tour guide about the man, telling him how scared we were becoming. The tour guide told the leaders not to worry – that was just a bodyguard assigned to guard our team.

When I heard that Wendi Hammond, a representative from Project Glory, would be speaking to our class on Friday, Feb. 5 about making water pasteurizers (WAPIs) to send to Swaziland, the memories of Egypt came flooding back.

I know Egypt is in a much better state than most other African countries, but I still associate them in my mind. Anything we can do to help would really benefit Africa, and especially Swaziland.

Hammond began to tell my third period Bible class about the dire situation in Swaziland. She showed us pictures which illustrated poverty even worse than I had ever seen in Egypt. My heart was touched as we listened to her presentation.

She brought us good news, though. We had the opportunity to help the people of Swaziland by making WAPIs. She encouraged our class to make as many as possible in order to help the most amount families to have the confidence of drinking safe water.

The next day, our class got right down to business. We went from station to station, completing the several steps, in order to assemble the WAPIs. While most people to chose to make the WAPIs one at a time, my friend Mary Reynolds, ’11, and I decided to make four each at the same time in order to reach our quota quickly.

Although I often claim that I am “too busy” to volunteer, this service project was a healthy reminder that helping others does not require a great outpouring of effort. I was able to enjoy fellowship with friends during class while still making an impact in the lives of those across the world.

I believe being a useful human being requires having compassion for others and helping out. Making WAPIs is an easy way to help out, but it did not require flying thousands of miles across the world to a foreign country.

For more information, read the Feb. 9 article, Bible class receives outreach education.