Mission trips provide insight to world

Chaplain Jon Powers said many students at Ohio Wesleyan choose to participate in the spring break mission trips because the trips provide vital new insights into themselves, their world and their role in that world."My sense is that every volunteer, regardless of which team they are on, learns key things," Powers said. "Most importantly though, are new insights into their sense of place and purpose for their life calling."

One of the eight trips scheduled for this spring is the Belize Mission Immersion. Volunteers will be working with a missionary organization in Belize doing various service projects and working to build relationships with the local missionaries and community. The Belize trip is geared specifically toward Christian students. Junior Danielle Bonner, the Belize team leader, said the team would be working with two Christian ministries.

"We will be lodging at Blue Thumb Missions, working on their site," Bonner said. "We will be doing construction type of work at Blue Thumb Missions. But, for the majority of our time, we'll be working at Body N Soul Missions, which is just a mile down the road from Blue Thumb. With Body N Soul, we are planning on doing constructive work around their site and the nearby community, whatever their need is. We will also be host a youth night for the local kids of all ages. That will involve playing games, worshiping together, the presentation of some of our member's testimonies regarding their faith in Jesus Christ, and other various moments of fellowship."

Powers said volunteers spend their days working on the sites but also have reflections on their experiences when they come together at night.

"Every team works hard during the day, and every team does hard and heavy reflection as a team and as individuals each night," said Powers.

Funding for mission trips is all raised by the team members and staff involved with the trip. The spring break mission trip is primarily lead and initiated by the students involved, which includes the fund-raising part. Lisa Ho, the assistant chaplain and director of church relations, said there are three main ways that funds are raised.

"A portion of the money comes from our student participants through individual deposits," Ho said. "Most of our students choose to raise these deposits via personal appeals, fund raising letters to family and friends. Another portion comes from the Chaplain's office and WCSA."

Spring break mission week would not be possible without the support of the university. Finally, we also do fund-raisers and old fashioned sweat equity. We have cleaned houses, raked yards, hosted luncheons and held raffles at OWU basketball games."

The eight students and two staff members going to Belize have raised almost the entire amount of funds they need for their trip this spring.

"We are virtually fully funded," Ho said. "We have another couple raffle dates scheduled and some house cleaning projects to complete. These additional funds will allow us to fund and complete more work projects in Belize."

All in all the team members of the Belize Mission Immersion are working hard and are excited for their opportunity to change lives through spring break mission week at OWU.

"Spring break mission week at OWU is, time after time, a life-changing experience for many students! It is not unusual for students to return from a spring break mission team experience to change their major, or commit themselves to a year or two of service before they go on to graduate school," said Powers.