As I grew up in the church and advanced into high school, I began to hear the phrase ?mission trip? more often. Kids in my youth group would return with amazing stories of their encounters of the lives they touched. For a long time I felt content to listen in awe, wondering how I could ever muster enough courage to someday join them.

As I was shy, I struggled to find a solid group of friends at my church, and always felt intimidated of the idea of sharing Jesus. I was not afraid of foreign land or homesickness, nor did I ever shy away because of itineraries that included lots of dirt and hard work ? an intense image of missions trips simply daunted me.

As March of 2009 rolled around, I decided to join with The Well Student Ministries? (WSM) mission trip to inner-city Fresno during Easter break, April 6-9. The trip sent both junior high and high school students to teach kids at Susan B. Anthony Elementary School in sports, paint a house and prepare a shed to be a reading center.

I knew this three-and-a-half-day trip held obstacles; I did not have much experience with little kids, and none of my youth group buddies were attending. I was also the only upperclassman.

Regardless of these issues, I felt God telling me to use them as an opportunity for more growth, so I awaited the trip with anticipation.

As Monday came, I found myself awkwardly trying to teach some kids how to hit a T-ball. Fortunately, little 5-year-old Priscilla showed up. She grabbed my attention as she hung from the monkey bars, asking for my help, and from that moment, we became friends.

We played on the jungle gym and the ?bar cage? until lunchtime. As we ate together, we hung our fruit-rollup strips out of our mouths to resemble lizards’ tongues.

Like most kids, Priscilla liked to eat the brownies first, before (or without) touching the rest of the more nourishing food on her plate. One of the days though, she took the rest of the food home with her. This made me wonder if her family had enough to eat at home; at our devotional time a student had mentioned someone who had said her mom couldn?t afford healthy food ? something I take for granted too often.

I realized Priscilla and I had something in common: We both loved roller coaster-like thrill. I could feel her smiling as I gave her a fast pony ride to the water fountain and back. After watching me hang upside-down on the bars, she determined to learn herself. By the end of our time together, she had worked up enough courage to discover the giggle-worthy joy of seeing the world from a new perspective with only a little of my help.

Each day, after lunching with the kids, we traveled to our work projects. I helped out at the shed renovation site, proudly part of the Team Gravediggers and Team Sheetrockers. We took an old, dirty, cobweb-filled shed and prepped it to be turned into a usable building. We hammered, swept, measured, mudded, sanded and dug, seemingly endlessly.

Seeing all the work we accomplished as a team and knowing the influence we were making really blew my mind. God instilled in each one of us a hard-working spirit and gave us the strength we needed to make a difference each day and wake up the next morning ready for more.

I saw myself pushing past my invisible fences, feeling exhilarated as God provided the strength for my growth.

As we packed up to leave Thursday morning, despite how tired I felt, I was not anxious to leave. Through teaching kids how to dribble a basketball and crazed late-night games of “Spoons,” my team had become a family.

For more information on Easter break mission trips, read the April 24 article, Easter break outreach develops service passion.