Mission trips are notorious one to two week work camps that high school students go on in the summer with their churches, which typically consist of being jammed into a twelve passenger van (which may or my not have working air conditioning), sleeping on air mattresses in vacant schools or host churches, and of course spending the week painting and/or building in the summer heat with an assigned crew of strangers.

Why would anyone want to do this? Give up weeks of their summer, the comforts of home, and voluntarily spend all day doing hard work on someone else's house?!

Answer: Because it's worth it. It's worth all the time, sweat, and being forced out of your comfort zone! While away on these trips you grow much closer to your friends you thought you knew so well, you learn to appreciate what you have back home, and the time that is spent reflecting on yourself and where you've been, and where you want to go is unparalleled.

Through these high school mission trips I was given the opportunity to travel to states I wouldn't have otherwise been able to go to, I've grown closer to my home church community through shared struggles and accomplishments, and these trips never failed to serve as highlights of my summer (regardless of the lack of homely comforts.)

Regardless of where my church mates and I traveled to on these trips, we always started out with the same processes. First, we began with months and months of planning where we wanted to be sure to hit while traveling, until we finally reached the day of departure which was started and ended with a group prayer.

While on these trips the first day or two usually turned out to be what I'd call the "honey moon stage." At this stage no one seemed to care too much about being in such close quarters with each other, and all those hours on the road were filled with laughs, stupid pictures being taken and inside jokes being made.

Although, just as every stage comes to an end, as does this first one of bliss.

The second stage typically is made up of excitement and the anticipation of meeting new people, a bit of anxiety about being thrust into a crew of people you don't know, and the desire that a new found stranger will take a genuine interest in your life, where you come from, and what's made you who you are.

Alas, just like the first stage, the second one which started out on feelings of uncertainty have transformed into feelings of closeness and you now walk away with feelings of community instead of anxiety. Here, it's not unusual to leave this crew of once strangers as friends.

Overall, these mission trips I went on with my church while in high school are ones I wouldn't trade for anything, and I believe they leave each person changed for the better.