November 7, 2009 |
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Ascension parishioners assess needs in Jamaica
The Ascension Parish mission team helps build housing on their trip to Jamaica. “I really went there expecting to help other people, to bring God to them” said Natalie Amgottbut, 16, “it was the other way around – they gave God to me.” It was the first mission trip for the group. MELBOURNE | Visiting Ocho Rios, Jamaica, is a dream vacation for many. For a group from Ascension Parish here, it was a “survey” mission trip. Each day, eight teens and four chaperones witnessed a desperate need in a different mission field. They visited an orphanage for children with mental and physical disabilities, a state-run nursing home, a home for adults with disabilities, and they built an addition to a house. “It was a great experience,” said 16-year-old Daniel LaManna, soon to be a junior at Melbourne Central Catholic High School. “I really went there expecting to help other people, to bring God to them, but it was the other way around – they gave God to me.” From July 31 to Aug. 6, the mission team members focused on living in Christian community – beginning and ending each day with prayer, preparing their meals, working together to keep the community functioning. Each day’s activity had a specific theme, such as what it means to love, perseverance, service and being a light to the world. Natalie Amgott is also 16 and was most impressed by the children at the orphanage they visited. “The children would have been taken care of better if they lived in the U.S.,” Natalie said. “Everyone was touched by how poor the conditions were and how much better they’d be if they lived here.” Natalie plans to visit nursing homes in Melbourne now “to bring some joy to peoples’ lives,” she said. Ascension Parish contributed to the support of the trip. Father Eamon Tobin, pastor, said, “Whenever we take a mission trip to the Third World, we always receive more than we give. We get a clear understanding of how the other half of God’s creation has to struggle daily for the basics of life, which we take for granted – food and water. “I have found over the years that a mission trip like this for young people can touch their hearts more than just years of religious education. Invariably, it has a profound impact on their lives. I wish all teens could experience a mission to the Third World,” Father Tobin said. The team added a second room to a one-room house, a proud accomplishment. The group did nearly everything – from digging the foundation to finishing the walls. “I really liked building the house for the family,” said Michael Lee, 17, “because I was doing what I’m good at. I’m on the tech crew at Eau Gallie High School and we build all the sets for the plays. Plus, my dad has taught me a lot.” Now that he has returned home, Michael plans to “reach out into the community more with Habitat for Humanity” and major in mechanical engineering after graduation. Phillip Warwick organized the trip. An engineer, he was touched by his own experience on a mission trip to the Dominican Republic a little over 15 years ago. As a result, he developed a simple water filtration system to provide clean water to impoverished communities through a ministry called Gift of Water, Inc. “I see the way this opens the eyes and hearts of our teens and makes me believe that this will change the world far more than Gift of Water ever could,” he said. 
COURTESY | PHILLIP WARWICK This was the fourth mission trip for Warwick’s daughter, Sarah, 17, a senior at Melbourne Central Catholic. “I went because my dad needed someone who went before as a leader to help the other kids have a good experience,” she said. “And I went because on my last trip, I actually felt I was making a difference and I felt that’s where God was calling me to go.” Sarah was unprepared for the visit to a home for adults with mental and physical disabilities. “Jacob’s Ladder is where children from the orphanage go when they’re 18,” she explained. “The orphanage is filled with happiness, but at Jacob’s Ladder there were 33 people and only four of them weren’t sedated.” All of the teens individually and spontaneously mentioned a very old woman, Hilda, who is blind and dependent on a wheelchair. “She had so much joy,” commented Natalie, “we definitely learned the lesson that people can have such joy despite troubles.” “We saw God everywhere we went,” Michael said, and spoke of Hilda as an example. “She sang ‘Amazing Grace’ and talked about seeing God every day and in everything he did.” The teens were also touched by Karina, a 5-year-old girl at the house they were building, who has an iron deficiency and is only the size of a 2- or 3-year-old. “We tried forever to make her laugh and smile, and she finally did,” said Sarah. “When it came time to leave, that was one of the hardest moments during the trip for me because I had, in the matter of four hours, grown very attached to her and I knew that if she came back to the U.S. with me, she could get the help she needed.” Daniel said of his experience, “It made me feel compassion. God was telling me what I need to do with the rest of my life.”
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