Student Testimonials


Jamaica Mission Trip

Meet Lauren Minor

Lauren, what mission or service trips have you participated in?

I went to Montego Bay, Jamaica to Blessed Assurance- A community serving children with disabilities and teenage mothers. I have also gone to Jackson, Mississippi, to the John Perkins Foundation.

What motivates you to give up your breaks during school to go on these trips?

I give up my personal time to serve others because my time belongs to the Lord; it is not mine. The more I have fallen in love with Christ, the more I have fallen in love with his people.

What lesson(s) have you learned from the trips you have been a part of?

An extremely valuable lesson I have learned through the mission trips I have participated in is that our human weaknesses are of no significance to God’s plan. The love of God has no handicaps. God may prefer to see through the blind, speak through the mute, hear through the deaf, supply through the poor, show strength through the weak, heal through the sick, and teach through the uneducated because these people cannot complete the tasks on their own. They must have God in order to see, speak, hear, give, heal, and teach! As a result, Christ receives all glory. In Jamaica, four teenage girls with babies shattered my judgmental attitude. Their legacy lives on inside of me and they were some of the poorest and vulnerable ladies I have ever encountered. In Mississippi I learned that John Perkins does not have an education past the third grade. However, he is over eighty years old and continues to accomplish great feats in justice through his passions and wisdom.

If you could create the "ideal" mission trip to go on, what would it be?

My ideal mission trip is one that mixes labor with relationship building and involves children and medical service. I think when a mission team physically works hard for a community of people it opens the door to relationships with those benefitting from the labor. As for the children and medical components, there is something about the spirit of a child and the atmosphere of medical needs that sets my passion for serving the Lord on fire.