This past winter break at Bonas, the club “Enactus” went on a service trip to the Bahamas. Unfortunately, I was unable to go since I am saving up for studying abroad in Italy. Even though I missed out on that trip, I personally have had my fair share of mission trips.
This past summer, I went on a mission trip to Alderson, West Virginia for six days. Myself and four other members of my church traveled to Bethlehem Farm to work with around 40 other volunteers. The farm is a non-profit, Catholic community that focuses on helping the local members around the area with any house-repair work they may need.
I have been on a mission trip like this before at a place called Nazareth Farm, which is also located in West Virginia. Plus, it is what inspired the creation of Bethlehem Farm. Anyways, going into this trip, I already knew what to expect. Therefore, quite honestly, I feel that the entire experience was not as impactful as my first experience at the other farm.
Even though that may be true, I still had an amazing time and thought I should share what I took from it with you all.
To begin, as we pulled up the driveway, we were swarmed with smiley strangers who began to hug us as soon as we stepped out of the car. They grabbed all our bags and greeted us with the line, “Welcome Home.” Hearing this was definitely an eye-opener because I realized that no matter what each of us were going through back where we came from, we were being viewed as any other human being.
In addition, we were being welcomed into a community that is all about acceptance and love. In other words, it was not about looks, popularity or money; Instead, it was about the amount of our heart we were willing to give to others who needed it.
In my opinion, the purpose of life is love. There are so many things possible that we can achieve through love. For example, when working on a site during the trip, I met a family that was very poor, living in a house that was basically floating on top of water, one of the residents being pregnant. It was obvious that the family was struggling physically, although their generosity was nowhere near lacking. Ignoring the fact that we had lunch already packed with us, they relentlessly offered to buy and give us food. It seemed as if they eventually laid out their entire kitchen for us.
The point is, even though they owned so little, they were willing to give so much. Their home may have been considered empty, but their hearts were full. I think that this was an important reminder that as human beings living in a materialistic world, we often get selfish. We must remain selfless and willing to share our love to truly make a change in this world. One of my favorite poems from the book “Milk and Honey” by Rupi Kaur is as follows:
most importantly love
like it’s the only thing you know how
at the end of the day all this
means nothing
this page
where you’re sitting
your degree
your job
the money
nothing even matters
except love and human connection
who you loved
and how deeply you loved them
how you touched the people around you
and how much you gave them
I hope you all enjoyed reading about the message I received from God that week in West Virginia, and I hope you can take it and spread it, because in the end, love is all that really matters.