This is the first of what will hopefully be a three or four part series called “In Their Own Words”. I have asked various students from our mission trips this summer to write a guest post for my blog detailing an experience they had on the trip that impacted them in a special way. Whether that was a service moment, time with our group, or anything else that connected them with God in a new way.
This first post is from Mary Schneider. She will be a senior in our group this coming school year and has been on many mission trips with our youth. This is a special post for me personally because Mary was in the group I led in Denver and the experience she describes was just an incredible joy to watch. I got to see first hand how God worked through Mary in Denver. It was a really special thing to see! I’ll let her describe it…
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This summer I had the wonderful opportunity to go on both the high school mission trip to Denver, Colorado as a student and on the middle school mission trip to Grand Rapids, Michigan as a student leader. As a mission trip veteran, I had high hopes for both of these trips. Each trip was unique in itself and I found that both brought the groups closer together than any other mission trip I had ever been on.
On the Denver trip Castleton was split up into work groups with students and leaders from other states that I can honestly say that I was unsure of at first, but as the week went on we started to share stories with the groups from Illinois and Wisconsin and heard how the trip was impacting their lives. Their excitement inspired me not to just dismiss their groups because we were all leaving in a week and to be open with their groups.
In Denver the work was not as labor intensive as it had been on other trips. My work group worked at Briarwood, one of the many nursing homes in the area, for the half the week and a local neighborhood makeover organization for the other half. Even though we got hot and sweaty on the days we were outside working with our hands, the days at the nursing home were the hardest days and took the most effort. I am not a good conversationalist so I had my doubts about what we would encounter at Briarwood. When we got there we were paired up with a buddy to spend our time with and I was paired up with Ann, an elderly woman who suffered from memory loss.
The first day we painted drums together in preparation for their upcoming history lessons at the nursing home on the Native Americans. I struggled to start an ongoing conversation with Ann because she was only able to concentrate on one thing at a time. Occasionally Ann would forget what she was doing so I had to do my best to reassure her that everything was alright.
The second day at Briarwood we took the residents to a local museum, a task that would not have been achieved without the help of volunteers to partner up and look after every resident. I helped wheel Ann’s wheelchair as we went through each exhibit and tried to read her the information and engage her attention on what was displayed. How much Ann absorbed that day I will never know because she was easily distracted by things that scared her such as the dark lighting or when the rest of the group got too far ahead and left her sight. As the day went on the more frightened Ann got and the more reassurance she needed. I just kept telling her I was there with her and I would not leave her alone in the museum.
That day was the hardest work day out of both trips this summer. On the way back to Youth Works our group discussed our experiences with the residents. I was not the only one who struggled with their partner but we all agreed that the day had been rewarding in more ways they we could have imaged. I realized how much of an eye opening experience I had been through because my grandfather was diagnosed with the early stages of Alzheimer’s disease last year. My family has recently started to struggle to get my grandpa because he is slowly starting to become limited in his daily activities but as I saw from meeting Ann, we have to cherish the moments we have with him.
I had never expected to be working in a nursing home that week but it opened my mind up to what I could learn from the residents or other people in general. I was met with numerous uncomfortable but gratifying situations on each trip this year and I watched the people around me grow into a family where they found love and support. I saw incredible ways that God has worked in our lives this summer and I know that many more amazing things will happen in the future with this youth group.
–Mary Schneider
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Mary did an amazing job on both trips, but the way she cared for Ann will stick with me for a long time. I watched as Ann continually got scared as she forgot where she was and what she was doing. Mary continually calmed her down and reassured her every time she had a break down. I saw Mary read the information on numerous exhibits to Ann, help her eat her lunch and just be by her side the entire day. All of our students did a great job with the nursing home residents that day, but Ann was clearly one of the more difficult one’s just because she would get so scared, so often.
I was so impressed by Mary. As she said, she was not totally comfortable in her ability to work with a nursing home resident, but I don’t think she could have done any better. The way she cared for Ann had an impact on me and I fully believe she was Jesus to Ann those couple of days. Her grandpa is blessed to have a grand daughter like her.
Thanks to Mary for writing this guest post! There will be more posts from students in the coming weeks.
The post In Their Own Words – Part 1 – Guest Post by Mary Schneider appeared first on Chase the Setting Sun.