PLAIN/SPRING GREEN — St. Luke and St. John the Evangelist Parishes of Plain and Spring Green helped to send 11 students and three chaperones on their first mission trip in June of this year.
They joined a group from St. Peter Parish in Madison and journeyed to Nashville, Tenn., to work with Catholic HEART Workcamp.
The first goal of Catholic HEART Workcamp is to serve and share the love of Jesus with the neglected, brokenhearted, and marginalized.
This not only helps to revitalize communities and to beautify homes for the elderly, disabled, and those who cannot afford needed repairs; working in the community in this way also inspires participants to serve in their local communities.
The second goal of Catholic HEART Workcamp is to empower participants to live as disciples of Christ through serving others, and to foster the spiritual growth of each participant through the Sacraments, sharing the Catholic faith, and prayer.
Volunteer work
While at camp, students were able to work in a daycare center, an elementary school, senior center, Second Harvest warehouse, thrift store, medical supply unit, and in homes where much was in need of repair.
Students scraped off old paint and repainted, sorted foods, counted and packaged medical supplies for overseas shipments, sorted clothing at a thrift shop, worked with children in a day care, tutored elementary students, and made senior citizens happy.
Participants slept in sleeping bags on air mattresses on the floor of the high school and woke up at 6:30 a.m. each morning. After breakfast and daily Mass, the students traveled by bus to various worksites within the city and to neighboring towns.
At each site, the students encountered loving, caring, people who lived with very little and had no one to rely on.
From 3:30 to 5 p.m. each afternoon, all 350 students from 52 different worksites returned from their work looking forward to a shower, something to eat and drink, and camaraderie with their new friends from Texas, Kansas, Massachusetts, and other states.
Opportunities for prayer
Evenings were spent in Adoration, Reconciliation, Four Corners, and our own parish meetings, along with entertaining activities.
Students expressed strong emotions of being able to pray with so many others their age and how they felt their individual relationships with Jesus were so much deeper than before the mission trip. No one had to be reminded to be in their rooms by 10:30 p.m.
Plans are underway for a mission trip in 2013.