Spring break sacrifices
Most students utilize spring break for fun in the sun, partying and taking a break from studying.
Haslett senior Marie Opland and Gaylord senior Melissa Stiles experienced a spring break with an entirely different meaning.
Both students were site leaders for mission trips to help the less fortunate.
Opland led a His House Christian Fellowship trip to Philadelphia through the Center for Student Missions.
“I really like to help the homeless,” she said. “People are always ignoring the poor and making assumptions about them and I wanted to treat them like Jesus would.”
Students worked at different homeless shelters, soup kitchens and after-school programs while in Pennsylvania’s largest city.
The group was not satisfied with the amount of mission work and wanted to do more, so they decided to forgo their dinner one night to help the homeless, Opland said.
“We stayed very open-minded and prayed God would show us the way to help someone on this trip,” she said.
Opland and the group got to know a man at Sunday Breakfast, one of the homeless shelters, who always wanted to play the trombone in the brass band for his church.
The group researched used trombones on the Internet and was able to purchase one for Sunday Breakfast and donated it in his name.
“This trip was a great experience for me,” Opland said. “I was able to show the homeless they are valuable people and spread God’s love to them.”
Stiles also helped the homeless, but in a different way and in another hemisphere.
She lead the Alternative Spring Break trip through Habitat for Humanity in Beius, Romania.
The group of 10 students helped build a house for a family who had been living in a small apartment for a long time.
“We had the opportunity to almost complete this house,” she said. “Even though there was a large language barrier, we could tell the family was pleased with the work we had done.”
Stiles, a three-time site leader for Alternative Spring Breaks, got hooked on alternative trips during her sophomore year and said she has no reason to stop going.
She learned a special lesson on this particular trip though.
“These people wish for necessities in life and material things are not necessary to them,” Stiles said. “They live for the moment and get by with the basics, which is so genuine.”
