On Saturday, June 14, 2014 12 Trinity Youth and their three advisors headed for sunny and warm San Antonio, Texas for Mission Trip 2014 – a week of service, reflection and fellowship.
During our time of service, we worked in the San Antonio Food Bank – where the youth described their time there as “cool” – which had a lot to do with the time they spent cleaning out the freezer. There were intense competitions between the three groups who worked different days at the Food Bank to see which group loaded and accounted for more pounds of food (to end the suspense, the team of Daniel, Rob, Morgan, Keeley and Katherine won with a special assist from Class of 2007 Youth Alum, Marie Henry who drove from Waco, TX to join us for the day sorting a total of 28,000 pounds of food).
We also spent time at the Catholic Worker House serving meals to the homeless and most importantly interviewing various members of the house and learning their stories. Sophie shared that “the stories we heard really changed my perspective on the homeless.”
Each group had an opportunity to work with children as well. One team visited the Guadalupe Community Center and as Rick shared” brightened the days of the kids there….we were doing God’s work.” The other two teams spent time at the Mission Road Developmental Center working with developmentally and intellectually delayed children.
No mission trip is complete without seeing the local sights and having loads of fun and 2014 was no exception. Macaulay shared our first night’s experience of “saddling up for the rodeo…where we saw bull-riding, bull-trapping and had a grand time taking it all in.” We visited the Alamo, were in town when the Spurs won the National Championship and spent time on the Riverwalk. We even spent the day at a waterpark where several youth experienced the “what happens when I don’t wear enough sunscreen” dilemma.
We welcomed new recruits of Sophie, Morgan and Rob and advisor Sarah and sadly say goodbye to graduated seniors Andy, Rick and Millie after this trip. It was another amazing trip filled with countless memories, inside jokes and strengthened faith.
Until Mission Trip 2015 (Los Angeles)…..
Katherine Lambert, Youth Advisor