Unique Mission Trip Stories

March 23, 2018

The Scranton missionaries found some unique shirts during their sorting. Photo Credit: Kat Kelly/Used With Permission

From March 10 to March 17, Academy students went on mission trips Nicaragua, the Dominican Republic, Costa Rica, Scranton, Appalachia, Mississippi, and Ruskin/Heart of Tampa. With such a wide range of locations, students were bound to have a collection of unique experiences. Here are some distinctive mission trip stories:

Kat Hahn (‘18) said, “I accidentally told some woman I had six kids. It was a language misunderstanding. I took Spanish for ten years but now I take Latin.”

Julia Lee (‘18) said, “There were two hills we could go over to get to our service site, and one of them was super steep and bad. Our driver accidentally went over that one. When we got to the bottom, he looked up and wasn’t sure if he could get back over the hill. We all had to get back in to help with the traction – it was honestly really scary. Our driver was like, “Do you believe in God? You better start praying.””

Katherine Nitchals (‘18) said, “In North Carolina, we asked one of our ziplining guides what his favorite vine was and he said, “The frost grape was the first vine that spoke to me.”

The missionaries expected a response about a video from the six-second social media app, Vine, but instead got a nature fact. Photo Credit: Pexels/Used With Permission

Riley Kayton (’19) said, “In Scranton, we went to a house for the nuns that had a hangout called the Nun Cave, and Mia Leto (’18) sat in one of the Sister’s chairs and fell asleep.”

“I was really tired from making lasagnas for a few hours. As soon as I reclined in that chair, I was a goner. I didn’t want to fall asleep, but that chair was really comfortable,” said Leto (’18).
Photo Credit: Sara Phillips/ACHONAOnline

Lauren Dingle (’19) said, “In the Dominican Republic, we went to English immersion classes for college students, and they said their favorite movie is “50 Shadows of Grey”.”