It was last summer when my youth group and I went to Student Life Mission's Camp for a week. Our trip had every aspect of a mission's trip and a Christian camp. While we were there we went to Philadelphia each day to work at a committee center. We cleaned up the outside of the building and just built friendships with the kids. We joined about 20 or 30 other youth groups to have worship and a sermon in the mornings and evenings. This trip really has changed my life..... The Camp Pastor, Wade Morris, preached about how God can use us Here and Now. I finally understood that God didn't care that I was a teenager in 10th, he still has a plan for my life. God doesn't want me to wait until I'm an adult to spread his word. This whole idea hit me big. I've grown up in a Christian home and always known God, but all the sudden the passion to do God's will started to burn in my heart. When camp was over I had decided that I was going to go into my school as a missionary. God has placed me in Spring-Ford High school to spread his love. As I pursued God's will for my life, I felt him calling me to look into a mission's trip. That's how I came to be on this team and going to the DR with you guys!!

There was another event at camp that has shaped my life. We had just finished with the evening sermon and my youth group was getting ready for our "Family Time", or a time where each individual youth group has a chance to sit down and talk with each other about the day. When I entered the room my youth pastor, Scott, said that we were all going to hold hands and pray out loud as God calls us to. At first it was quiet and awkward but then people started to open up and pray meaningful prayers. Many of us opened up in prayer about struggles, sin, and temptations we had been facing. I sat there with 17 other of the Christians and that's when I realized that we aren't perfect and shouldn't pretend to be. All of us have struggles and it is better to be open about it then hide it. When you are real with people and take off your mask of being a perfect person, then you can get support and encouragement from your brothers and sisters in Christ. So the two main things i got out of camp last summer was to live for God Here and Now and to take off my mask of being a perfect person. I hope to carry these two ideas with me through life and on our trip!!