The Mission Trip of a Life-time by Kiana

The Mission Trip of a Life-time by Kiana - May 2018 Scholarship Essay

“Come join twenty-five random teenagers and adults on a six-hour flight out of the country with no phone service and no one you know!”

Sound enticing? Apparently, I thought so, because this is the Instagram post that made me sign up for the trip the next day. In June of 2017, I went on a mission trip to Peru. This was my fourth mission trip, but this one was different. I had only ever gone on mission trips with my close friends whom I have known for a good amount of time. I had to drive to Miami to meet twenty-five strangers who I would be flying to another country with the next day. The biggest thing I learned on this trip was being able to push myself out of my comfort zone.

One of the biggest ways I had to step out of my comfort zone was through the people I went with on this trip. I had to meet twenty-five complete strangers and get comfortable with them, as I would be spending the next eleven days with them in a foreign country. I am a more reserved person when I first meet others, so getting to know them in such a short time was something I was not comfortable with, but had to force myself to do. These people became like family to me and I have made life-long friends. Even now, ten months post-trip, I still talk to some of them on a daily basis. I have visited with a few of them, even though they live all over the country. If I would have let my discomfort get in the way, I never would have made these friends and built these relationships.

Another way I was forced out of my comfort zone was when we were actually in Peru and had to manage the language barrier. I had been learning Spanish for three years at that point, and I was comfortable speaking it to friends and teachers, but public speaking is already something i dislike, and even more so when it is not in my first language. Of the people on this trip, I knew the most Spanish, so although we had translators, we only had two of them and twenty-five others, so I had to help out. We worked with children in the pre-school and also helped out some of the families in the barrios, as well as praying over people in the church. I not only had to speak to many of the locals there as we delivered food and helped with basic needs, but I went up in front of a church of 200+ people and shared about the Bible. I had the choice of whether or not to do it, but looking back, as uncomfortable and nervous as I may have been, I am glad I did it. I was able to use my skills to go out of my comfort zone and share the Word of God with others.

Thirdly, I was pushed out of my comfort zone when we went on a three-day hike through the Andes Mountains. I have never hiked before, and I was told this would not be a difficult hike. However, it was extremely challenging--and I was in Nike sneakers. Overall, this hike was eighteen miles. We went up to 15,000 feet above sea level and had to camp in tents, bear the cold, and even harvest potatoes for one of the villages along the way. I am from Florida, which is basically at sea level, so this high altitude made it challenging to breathe, especially while having to hike steep mountains and rocks. There were spots that if we made one wrong step, we could fall and likely die. At night, temperatures got down to five degrees Fahrenheit. We tried to start a fire, but had no success. We would all lay out at night, huddle for warmth, and watch the stars while we shared about our lives back home with these strangers we only met a few days before. We met some people who lived in the mountains and we harvested potatoes and helped care for their alpacas, which was something none of us had ever done. Through all of this, I was pushed out of my comfort zone by having to try all these new things, as well as putting others before myself.

This mission trip to Peru is one that I will remember for the rest of my life. Through the friends I made and the experiences I had, I was able to grow and learn. I was forced out of my comfort zone and had to do things I did not want to, but if I could go back and change that, I wouldn’t. I am so grateful that I had this opportunity and could experience this.