Last week the two missions opportunities were revealed to the student body during a Flex Assembly. One domestic trip to the Los Angeles Dream Center during spring break, and one International trip to northern Spain in mid-Summer. Many students have never gone on a missions trip and wonder the purpose. It’s been reinforced that it is not a vacation or a chance at popularity, but an opportunity to demonstrate servanthood to other people within or outside of the CHS community. Mr. Molumby and Mrs Lanz has been very involved in planning the mission locations and fundraising, and are excited with how the teams are assembling.
When asked the biggest reason for putting together a mission’s trip for 2020, Mrs. Lanz stated, “As a school, we think that missions are really important for helping kids to grow in Christ because it’s important to put ourselves ‘second,’ put others first, and learn to serve.” Principal Lanz goes on to state that “it’s one thing to read about serving or see others serve but it’s a whole other thing doing it yourself.”
The process of selecting the trips took a few months. There were many people who were consulted and asked how CHS wanted to make missions a reality and how to give the students the opportunities to serve and change personally. What the faculty team decided was that instead of having a bunch of di fferent missions trips, they would pare it down to a couple of options and get as many kids involved as possible in those few options. The missions team did have multiple local options such as Phoenix, LA, Costa Rica, through the missions program at Shadow Mountain. However, what they discussed over the past several months was that Spanish is taught as a second language at CHS, so kids would be able to use that second language on a mission trip and apply it in real life.
Alyssa Heinrich became an intrical part as well in selecting the destination to Spain, as she and some other students went to Spain and had an amazing experience. At the camp where Christian High students will be serving, there is a waiting list for the Spanish kids to go to camp because they want their kids to learn English, but what CHS students get to do is teach about Christ and the missions team at CHS really liked that opportunity. Mrs. Lanz stated that it’s “a pretty great opportunity for our kids to use Spanish if they learned it and to work with kids who don’t know Christ at all.”
The trip to Spain has two different dates, one from June 21st to the 27th to serve elementary age students attending the camp, and the second is from June 24th to July 4th for early teens. Students will be “camp counselors,” where they will teach English, but knowing the Spanish language is not a requirement. Though most of the time will be spent serving at a camp, there will also be time in the city of Madrid to adjust to the culture and time difference, and explore the beauty of Spain.
