Most travelers from students to businessmen around spring break time are all in search of the same things: to get away from their everyday lives of work or school and just have a good time and relax. But, some students donate their entire spring break to working and helping others in need. In a small community in Mexico there are poor, disabled, and ill people that just need kindness in their lives. All they need is for someone to show them this kindness and help them through rough times, while building a stronger relationship and learning about a different culture. This is exactly what Blue Valley Southwest students Alexa Kathol and Jenna Schmidt did on their time off.

Legacy Christian Church on Metcalf Avenue hosted their 2014 mission trip over spring break. Traveling to Eagle Pass, Texas, Piedras Negras, and Coahuila, Mexico; these young volunteers across Blue Valley spent their time helping the poor, assisting the disabled, fixing up homes for those who could not afford to paint or sand their walls, giving food to the hospitalized, building relationships and bringing joy to the lives of every person they met along the way.

“We went to support and share God’s love with Collegio Biblico (a local college in Mexico), a special needs children’s home, two churches, and the surrounding community of Piedras Negras,” Blue Valley Youth Pastor Zach Anderson said.

These volunteers had nothing they would have rather been doing than helping people and making lives better during their time off. The goal for this church was to support those in need and share the love and kindness of God with everyone around them through service and development projects. On March 15, they set off on their trip to achieve these goals.

“Being able to meet with the people and interact with them,” freshman Jenna Schmidt said, “was my favorite part of the trip.”

While most people bring back a snow globe or sea shells from their vacations, this group didn’t need to bring back any tangible items. They only brought back their faith and love for God and their success in loving every single person unconditionally. Although you cannot see this, or hold it, or put it on a shelf in your bedroom, it is far more valuable than a gift shop item.

“I learned that every human being wants just one thing,” freshman Alexa Kathol said. “Love and attention from other human beings. Whether we were eating meals, jumping rope, playing frisbee, painting fences or cleaning yards, we were doing it together, having fun every step of the way.”

Each person that attended this trip had a reason to be there and a personal task to complete. Driven by these goals, each student volunteer brought back something that would be useful to them in building future relationships and being the best person that they can be. Not only were they learning skills that they can keep with them forever, but they were learning through helping others at the same time and making positive strides in bringing communities closer together.

Blue Valley Northwest sophomore Eli Britton said, “For most people going on mission trips, they have a mindset of thinking how the trip changed their life. But, it’s really so much more than that. The reason you go on a mission trip is to make an impact on the place you’re going to.”

There were so many key factors that this church learned about. It wasn’t just about looking helpful or kind to the public.They have so many things to cherish from their experiences throughout the week spent in Texas and Mexico.

Blue Valley High School freshman Lydia Deboer shared her personal experience and said, “(My main reason for going on this trip was) to get a new perspective, and to get a closer look at what it’s like to go to church and worship in a different culture.”

Interacting with people from a completely different ethnicity that come from a completely different culture and speak a completely different language is very special to the members of Legacy.

Blue Valley Northwest Senior Abby Britton shared her thoughts on the trip as well. “It’s crazy,” Abby said, “how such little time and attention with some people goes such a long way.”

They were able to reconnect with friends and build new friendships along the way. Another achievement was having God shine through them by their actions; That is how they shared their love with strangers. Loving each other unconditionally, overlooking differences, and helping one another is what Zach Anderson has taught his students at Legacy to do. Each community service project completed only brought them closer to God and all of the people in the Mexican communities that they made an impact on.The stronger the relationships they created, the more successful they were in sharing kindness to those in need.

“My favorite part was watching our students form relationships with people from a different culture and seeing their perspectives change as a result,” Anderson said.

Even if they speak different languages, live in different places, wear different clothing; it doesn’t matter because they are all serving the same purpose: spreading the love of God. Instead of looking at all of the differences, focusing on the one similarity is when success in relationship with strangers are found in this world. Legacy is teaching its members, non-members, church-goers and non-church-goers, that no matter how different people across the world may seem, no one is really that different after all.

“The best part,” Kathol said, “is that, even though we had never met before, we still had one thing in common: our love for God.”

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