“What did you do this summer?†is the age old question that students answer every year when school starts. For several Heartland students, their answer involves much more than the usual family vacations, sports camps, and hanging out with friends. Five Heartland students spent several weeks serving in short-term ministry programs. We want to recognize them as a group for the August Heartland Beat Student of the Month for their service this summer.
Leah Friesen and Sidney Dick, both 2014 Heartland graduates, and senior Paige Mestl spent three weeks in Burgos, Spain, as part of the Mennonite Mission Network Youth Venture Program. Another Heartland 2014 graduate, Megan Boardman, was also involved with Youth Venture but traveled with another group to Ecuador. Senior Colton Siebert was in Gdansk, Poland, for two weeks where he participated in a mission trip sponsored by Lincoln Berean church.
Youth Venture is a program designed to help youth explore God’s presence in the world by partnering with local faith communities and working alongside them. Their trip was sponsored by the Bethesda Mennonite Church here in Henderson. While in Spain, Leah, Paige, and Sidney lived with three different host families from the church they were helping. Their days were spent in a variety of ways during their three week stay.
“The church there has started an English School so sometimes we would work there and teach the kids English through games and just conversationally. We also went to a coffee shop downtown that the church used as an outreach ministry for refugees where we held a story time for kids that helped them with improving their English. Otherwise, we did odd jobs at the church painting and cleaning while we were there,†said Paige.
The biggest obstacle all three girls faced was the language difference. All of them had studied some Spanish but not near enough to really be able to converse and understand adequately. They learned to be patient and slow down their speech especially when using a translator.
Leah Friesen reflected on her trip saying, “I think it was so cool to see how God is working everywhere! Even though we travelled on a plane eight hours away from home, I still could see God’s work. This trip was a real eye opener for me.†Sidney Dick really enjoyed “getting to know the people and the focus on building relationships with the community†during her stay in Burgos.
Megan Boardman also participated earlier in the summer on another Youth Venture trip that took her to Ecuador. Her first stop was in Quito for about a week where she hooked up with the missionary church and then she traveled to the villages of Riobamba, Banos, and Arajuno.
During all of these different stops, she stayed with local host families and got a real taste for Ecuador. “One of my host families didn’t know any English, so we laughed a lot when we used hand gestures and basically played charades trying to communicate,†said Megan. Like the girls in Spain, she also did some manual labor and painting projects at the churches she visited.
Lincoln Berean has a Global Outreach program that sponsors church planting around the world. Colton Siebert was part of a team of 21 that visited one of their church plants called Gospel Church in Gdansk, Poland, from July 24-August 4.
“I learned a lot about the culture of Poland, and I learned some things about what that country has been through. I visited a concentration camp, which left me sick to my stomach, but helped me understand all the struggles that Poland has went through as a nation. We helped invite people to the church that we have planted there and got to show people the fun and freedom that living with Christ brings,†said Colton.
There are a myriad of activities and events that young people can choose to participate in during their summer break but these students certainly made a worthwhile sacrifice that will probably be life changing as they close out their teenage years. Congratulations to Colton, Leah, Megan, Paige, and Sidney for making these trips that broadened their outlook about the world outside of Bradshaw and Henderson.
Written by Shannon Siebert
