Category:
East Villagers Service Essay Contest
Braydon Lucas
East Villagers Service Scholar Essay 2010
Many people think that donating money is one of the best ways that a single person can help communities. They don’t believe their skills of time will have a meaningful impact on a community. I have participated in various volunteer experiences throughout my high school career that have had a positive impact on the people in the community. Locally I have served with feeding the homeless at the Wheeler Mission house in downtown Indianapolis. Nationally, I have helped renovate a family camp in Wasilla, Alaska that does outreach to the community. On a global level, I have served in Mexico providing vacation bible school services to young children for developing their faith in Jesus Christ. These service opportunities have helped shape my views on individuals who are less fortunate than I am and will influence the kind of person I will be for the rest of my life in regards to service and outreach opportunities.
My church youth group participates in many community service programs in the Indianapolis area. When I was in 8th grade, I made my first trip to the Wheeler Missions building downtown to prepare and serve a meal for the homeless. Our group made spaghetti and meatballs for a group of 70 individuals for supper. I remember that the amount of effort we had to prepare the meal was very difficult. The best part of the service project which surprised me was talking to the people after they were done eating. I will never forget the story that I heard from a middle-aged African American man of how came to the point in his life of being homeless. He had the typical American dream life: a house in the suburbs, a fancy car, and a loving family. He was laid off from his job and everything went downhill from there. His job searches ended up being dead ends and when he couldn’t support his family anymore. His wife took the kids and left. He said that he became depressed and turned to drugs to escape all his problems. He was very thankful for our group taking the time to serve dinner and fellowship with them. I realized homeless people are no different than me and most of them are not in that situation by choice. They need our support and compassion. This also taught me to never take anything for granted and be thankful for what I have.
Last summer our youth group traveled to Wasilla, Alaska to help with renovations to a family camp called Camp Challenge Alaska. The camp has 5 full time employees but have an average attendance of 40 people every week in the summer. Our youth group was there to give these hard workers a much needed break, perform various work projects and run the family camp. By the end of the week, our small team of 35 had built a 4 mile hiking trail, re-painted almost every building, did landscaping and laid a foundation for a new building. During this time we connected on a deeper level with several of the campers. My group was in charge of conducting a youth services. Every morning we developed relationships with the local youth and led a bible lesson. Some of the kids told us that we positively impacted their view of Christianity and others had a renewal in their faith. On our last night, Brad Helvey, the camp director, talked to us about how much we accomplished for his camp. He said we were the hardest working, most enthusiastic, and connected work group that has ever been to his camp. Brad was in tears when he told us how much gratitude he had for our service and what we accomplished in a week that they thought would take years. I touched my how passionate he was about providing a means of outreach to the community and the opportunity it had to positively impact peoples lives.
Two years ago, our youth group went to Piedras Negras, Mexico to conduct a vacation bible school for our sister church. This trip was the most life-changing trip I have ever been on. The location for our vacation bible school was the middle of a dirt street in a poverty stricken neighborhood. All of the students had thoughts of being attacked by local gangs in broad daylight, but when we set up camp, children from all area of the neighborhood started showing up. We played games and learned lessons from the bible together with only having one translator in our whole group. Their living situation that I viewed as harsh did not hamper the children from being genuinely happy to spend time with us and show us friendship. On the last night of our trip, our youth group attended a church service that was held in a bull fighting arena. The doors opened at 5pm and the attendance skyrocketed! The entire arena was filled with people who wanted to here the good word. Here in America, a church service will usually last for about an hour. In Mexico, the service didn’t end until 10pm that night. The worshipping never even took time for a bathroom break either. These people praised God for five hours without stopping. Those people were amazing. That trip taught me that a smile is a language of its own. When you smile at a young child who has never met you and doesn’t speak the same language as you, they are reassured that you don’t want to hurt them, you want to be their friend.
When I participate in community service projects, I don’t go to do manual labor so I can feel good about myself. I go to make connections with the people I am serving. The life lessons that these people have helped me learn have greatly impacted my views and actions and will continue to do so in the future. When I served the homeless downtown, I learned how to empathize with people and I learned that you don’t know what you have until it is gone. In Alaska, I learned that even though I am only a teenager, I can make a difference in someone’s life just by teaching them a simple bible story and reaching out to them. Mexico taught me that there is no such thing as a language barrier when people care for each other. A smile is a language in itself.
I will continue to participate in community service opportunities for the rest of my life, whether it is picking up trash on the street or building a house for an underprivileged family. The positive impact a personal experience has for the person serving and the people being served would not be achieved by monetary donations. Although some jobs may consist of hard work, dirt, and grime, the life changing experiences I will gain are priceless.
