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You are a 16-year-old student and have an opportunity to spend your spring break:
* sightseeing and taking in the history of Europe;
* freezing your fingers in Winnipeg serving food to the poor;
* working in the equally cold inner city of Montreal;
* carrying lumber and doing odd jobs on a construction site in Honduras;
* changing diapers in an orphanage in the Philippines; or
* trying to communicate friendship to street kids in Venezuela.
What would you choose?
This is not a trick question. These options were put to the grade 11 and 12 students of Abbotsford, B.C.'s Mennonite Educational Institute, and, if you guessed most of them would rather take a tour of Europe, you're wrong.
According to Dave Loewen, vice-principal of MEI and a missions team leader, "Sixty-three kids signed up for the missions trips, and only eight signed up for the trip to Europe. Loewen pointed out that the European trip is important for educational purposes, but the keen interest in serving others "was overwhelming".
On March 11, the 63 young people from Chilliwack, Abbotsford and Langley, aged 15-18, left school for spring break and headed out for the trip of a lifetime.
The students were sent off following a commissioning service where students were challenged by Matt Ewert, an MEI alumnus, a youth pastor at South Abbosford MB Church and a participant in the first MEI mission trip to Haiti in 1995.
"An amazing number of kids who have participated in previous missions trips are finding their way back into missions in some way," said Loewen. "Of the 17 kids who went on the first MEI missions trip in 1995, 13 have gone on to other mission experiences. This is a life-changing opportunity."
All of the students participating in the trips pay a portion of the cost. Additional funds come from fundraising efforts through the school. One student worked a part-time job in order to earn her money for the trip. She was able to earn more then she needed, so she made an anonymous gift of two $100 cholarships to help fellow students who where short on their funds.
Loewen said that these trips build integrity in the participants. Last year, a student named Jason didn't have the money to go on the missions trip, but his team leaders felt he would be an asset and encouraged him to step out in faith for his funds. Jason received the money he needed for the trip but had very little spending money. While working in the Philippines, he saw a little boy who only had a shirt. Jason went to the nearest store and bought him four pairs of shorts. The little boy's face was "radiant with thankfulness".
This year, Loewen and his wife Grace, Charlene Siemens and Brian Knoll led a team of 15 students in an inner-city ministry in Montreal, working for Mennonite Voluntary Service.
Ten students, led by Ken and April Bartsch, worked in a ministry centre at Selkirk and Main, one of the neediest areas of Winnipeg.
Henry and Sonja Zukowski led a team to Honduras, where they engaged in construction and to children.
Ten students, led by Jim Blakeley and Orilyn Pasiuk, went to Caracas, Venezuela, where they engaged in construction and street ministry to youth.
Eight students, led by Heather Smith and Nancy Baarda, worked at an orphanage called Camp Jabez in the Philippines.
A sixth group of nine students, under the guidance of John Vanvloten, remained at home and kept in touch with the other groups via e-mail. Theirs was the special task of intercessory prayer.
Phil Hood
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