Living Lessons
Just two years ago, I joined a summer program, Project Ascent, which sends American students to Sichuan, China, to volunteer in local communities and familiarize Chinese students with American Culture....
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Neuschwantein Castle and Magical Mystery Tour
A ‘mad’ king and a beautiful castle; it may sound like another one of the Grimm Brothers fairytales,...
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Amidst the Ruin Remains Hope
Landing in the Dominican Republic this past january, I was extremely uncertain. I had never been on a missions trip before, or even experienced much poverty. All at once however, I was being completely...
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Dhanyabaad ????????
Dhanyabaad is a word that I used so much in only two weeks. Dhanyabaad mean thank you in Tharu and the people of Dhurzhanna, Nepal had me using it so much with their outrageous kindness. Living in...
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You Can’t Save a City (N.O.L.A.)
On April 13th , 2012, I embarked on an amazing service-learning adventure to New Orleans, Louisiana, with 35 other kids from my high school. We spent almost a year fundraising and doing...
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Choosing Joy In Uganda
At 16 years old, I looked at my life, and realized I had no clear direction. I was still trying to figure out how and where I was called to serve. So at 16, I made...
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The laugh of a child is worth a million tears.
It was 3am Friday morning when I departed from Indianapolis on my way to meet up with my team before heading to Jacmel, Haiti. The flights themselves were nice and smoothe. The minute we arrived...
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The Week-Long Turning Point
In every person’s life there are events that will change him forever. I had the privilege of experiencing one of these incredible events over the summer of my junior year. My week-long mission trip...
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A Vacation of Giving Back
My family trip to Kanab, Utah, was an amazing opportunity. Though the trip there and back was extremely long (1,600 miles and 25 hours each way), the life changing experience made it well worth it. We...
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“What Are You?”
"You’re too dark, and your Chinese sounds too funny for you to be Chinese, you’re not fat enough to be American... what are you?” bluntly inquired the local six-year-old Shanghai boy at the Global...
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A Week with a Few Half Wild Elephants
I had always wanted a “real” volunteer experience and so, after three years of saving and a dream I thought would never be true, I was now sleeping in the jungle of Chiang Mai, Thailand with my sister,...
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The Innocence of a Child: Mexico Mission Trip
As the shore approached, I reflected on the reason of my being here in Mexico. A group of 11 from my home church of House on the Rock had gathered with the shared goal of spreading God's love on foreign...
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Travel Teaches: What I’ve Learned about Diversity from Travel
You’ve heard: Everyone is “one of a kind”. No mat
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A very different summer vacation
When I was thirteen years old, I took a trip that changed my life. After a summer spent constructing awkward Spanish phrases I was ready to board the plane to Nicaragua. A beautiful country, Nicaragua...
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The Most Wonderful People In The Most Beautiful Place
Ecuador takes my breath away; it is stunningly beautiful. In Ecuador, no one rushes to get anywhere, no one is in a hurry and they are frequently late. But they do not apologize or feel guilty because...
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Day At The Dumps
Some days are always remembered, not because of the laughter or happiness, but because they changed your life forever. Touching poverty like never before, I had the privilege of being part of a volunteer...
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Ordinarily Beautiful: NYC
To a thirteen-year-old girl in the twenty-first century United States, the concept of beauty is something that she has likely been bombarded with for over half of her life. I was certainly one of...
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Hope
Stepping out of that bus and seeing more than a hundred people looking at us was frightening, not because they were staring at us as if we were aliens, but because they looked at us with such amazement...
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Te Sakam Macedonia
Experience is a teacher. Every breath will show us something we did not know could be possible; every step will take...
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Definitions of Success
After leaving my clean room at the Kogelo Retreat Villas and Homes, I walked down a red dirt road in Kisumu, Kenya, dodging goats and stepping over puddles and piles of garbage. I was on my way to...
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El Salvador
As I made my way off the plane, I was more than a little relieved that the excruciating flight to El Salvador was at an end. We...
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Since Jamaica…
The fat white man gave us the last bit of advice: “Rule number three: In Jamaica time is not of the essence. Every meal will be in the morning at noon, and in the evening. The...
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Questions?
Even through a thick layer of smog-laden clouds, I could feel the heat baking my skin. Clouds of dirt rose every time I took a step. Even though sweat rolled down my back and my hair was plastered...
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Appalachia: Just Because It’s Different
Appalachia? Appalachia Kentucky? You’ve got to be kidding me. I can’t imagine anybody in their right mind spending their entire Thanksgiving break there. I mean…it’s just mountains and shacks and...
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My African Escapade
A foreign place is not something one can simply imagine or feel through a book or movie. In order to grasp the true meaning of "foreign," one must experience it first hand. During...
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My Nicaraguan Experience
If you wish to take your family on a one-week adventure that will affect not only your lives but the lives of thousands of children and their families, I have just the trip for you. Last...
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Night and Day
They’re as different as night and day”. I’ve heard those words throughout my life, but they never seemed truer than when I worked on a service project on the island of Oahu, Hawaii. I...
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“A Fire That The World Cannot Explain”
I. Getting There As a junior in high school, sixteen years old, I decided to go on my sixth trip to the state of Kentucky. I had begun taking these trips...
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Regalos Pequeños (Small Gifts)
This last summer I had the privilege to serve in the impoverished areas of the Dominican Republic with many of my fellow youth group members. We touched them with the material gifts and services we brought,...
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Co’ qui?
Rather than waking up to the drone, hackneyed roar of snow plows in Maine, we were carried out of bed by the soothing lullabies of the restless co’ qui frogs and the pungent aroma of juicy, apple-filled...
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Small Voices, Big Hopes
Outstretched as far as the eye could see, stood a sea of colorful little shanties dotting the hillside like confetti. Each one represented a family much like my own; one with hopes and dreams...
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One Precious Moment
The brilliant sun almost blinded me that first day. Walking out of the airport in Johannesburg, South Africa, my senses were bombarded by the glare and the heat. Modern buildings were interspersed with...
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Sawdust
“Hola chico/chiquita! Como te llama?” I say the words hesitantly, and my tongue feels like it is covered with sawdust as I speak the few Spanish words I know. To say that I am loud would...
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Capturing Liberties
I wrote this post over the summer during my one-month stay in Uganda, Africa. As a seventeen-year-old photographer, I had the opportunity to live in an apartment on site...
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A Trip To Honduras
On Febuary 18, 2012 I took the trip of a lifetime. As corny as that sounds, I could not phrase this experience in a more truthful way. An old teacher of mine, seven classmates, and myself traveled...
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Journey To The Dominican Republic
As the runway fell away beneath the plane my stomach dropped with it. I shut my eyes and fought the fear creeping into my mind as the flight attendant alerted us that we'd land in Santo Domingo in two...
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Vietnam and Cambodia
Our first stop in Phenom Pehn was Tol Slong, a former prison during the Cambodian genocide. Before the genocide it was a high school, but the Khmer Rouge converted it into a prison and place...
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Find Your Independence… 6,000 Miles Away in Laos and Thailand!
The reason that banks created credit cards was because everyone was looking for a solution to get away from that noisy, heavy, constant reminder in their front pocket: loose change....
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The perspective changing trip to Costa Rica
An abrupt silence fell over the previously boisterous bus. I had never seen anything resembling such an area in my entire life. I could not have imagined anything similar. Compared...
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Welcome to the Jungle!
“Welcome to Jamaica! We got fun and games!” bellowed my fellow team members as we bumped down a dirt road. I only paid half my attention to their Guns ‘N Roses parody, for...
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My Life Changing Experience
Fall 2009, I was chosen to be on the leadership team at my high school. I was put in charge of a Christmas shoebox drive for Haiti. I was excited to help collect shoeboxes...
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Nicaragua’s Next Top Model: The Real Deal
I take my first step into a world that, until a few years ago, I never would have conceived knowing. The humidity shocks me, giving my straight, smooth hair a new, un-appealing...
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The Greatest Gift
They came from all over by the thousands. They traveled for miles. Some of them even came from neighboring countries. They walked, rode motorcycles, piled into the...
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A Requiem for Hope in a Forlorn Nation
A thick blanket of humidity and heat surrounded my mother and me. We had arrived to the rendezvous point where our Haiti Medical Mission Team would assemble before departing for...
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The Land of Melancholy
In but a few hours, I had managed culture shock of the highest degree: I had traveled from the wintry Milwaukee airport, full of businessmen typing on laptops, college students...
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Sin Cuenta
Our group of high school juniors and seniors stayed up until midnight at Las Tortugas, a turtle reserve in Limón, Costa Rica. The night before, we patrolled for four...
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The Other Side of Costa Rica
I have been blessed with the opportunity to travel all over the country. By age sixteen, I had visited New York, Hawaii, Florida, and many other states. However, I had never...
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Names and Faces
I reach to my collarbone and touch the small gold coin hanging on a worn leather strap. I look at the crested crane and the words “Bank of Uganda” and memories flood my mind. I hear their voices...
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