Hi! My name is Alisa Parry, and I'd love to share with you all a little bit behind the reason why I developed my love for mission. I've gone to Grace Church all throughout my high school years, and with that I had been going to student ministry as well. I developed such great connections with my peers as well as the staff, and it really got me to develop a closer relationship with Jesus even just by talking to my

small group. As I continued to go to student ministry, I saw the opportunity to go on a week long missions trip with high schoolers across all Grace campuses. It was a scary commitment, but I decided to take the next step and sign up for what was about to be the best week of my life. Something happened that week during the summer after freshmen year, and it really felt like a calling from God that this is where I needed to be. Ever since that week, I had been signing up for student mission every summer, even this year.

I got the bittersweet opportunity to go on one last student missions trip with my youth group and youth leaders as well as a lot of new faces from different campuses. One of my favorite parts of these trips is the new connections that develop from being stranded away from your normal lives, away from the stress, and away from your phones. I got to make so many new friends, so many new deep connections, and so many new jokes which I will still laugh at to this day. When we go serve in Allendale lowcountry, our entire group stays at an old camp area, which isn't the nicest, but provides us with everything we need. One thing I've learned going on these trips is sometimes you need to put yourself in an uncomfortable position to really see what Jesus is trying to show you. So often when I am in a difficult situation, I tend to run towards whatever brings me the most comfort which could be my phone or hanging out with friends to avoid doing work I know needs to get done. If I hadn't been placed in an uncomfortable environment, I might have missed out on some amazing friendships or even alone time with the Lord.

Serving in Allendale was an unexpected fun where we got to serve at a summer camp with kids that live in the area. The summer camp is 6 weeks long spread across the summer and is filled with lots of different classes each with a different age group and gender of kids. Every kid that came to camp came with a different background, most of them pretty difficult, but they all had the same need: to experience the love of Jesus. Pouring the love of Jesus into these kids could look different for other people. For example, I served in a class called the unicorns, which hosted 10-12 year old girls, along with 3 other girls around my age, and we all played an important part when serving in this class. One of my friends, Sylvie, played an important part of really connecting with one of the girls in our class who had been having a difficult time at camp. Whenever Sylvie was around though, she seemed to enjoy her company and would start participating in camp activities too which was cool to see. My other friend Chloe was great at keeping to the camp rules and schedule. She helped run all the camp logistics smoothly for our class and was always handing out compliments to the kids whenever she could, which really helped the kids feel like they belonged. My friend Emma was super into the sports activities. Whenever we played a sporty game, she always would be so into the game, which got the kids to be super into the game as well and have the best time. I helped out by pouring energy and excitement into any activity that was thrown at us. One of my favorite activities we did with campers was Just Dance, and best believe I gave it my all to make the game fun. Seeing everyone work in their own special way was super cool to experience, but it was also amazing to see how all those things came together to show these kids what the true light of Jesus looks like.

Not only did these kids learn so much, but us as students learned so much as well. Every night after our service was done for the day, we got to listen to a teaching by different leaders on the trip about what it looks like to lay our lives down for Christ. After our lesson, we would break into small group and discuss how the teaching applied to our lives. This may sound like normal youth group stuff, but it went much deeper than that when in Allendale. Again, we're away from our distractions which gave us time to sit alone in our thoughts and with God. We also have lots of opportunities to connect with those around us on this trip. It's always a blessing to see how close I can get with some of these girls just by sharing my testimony and how God has worked in my life. One night we had broken into small groups of 3 or 4 people, including a leader, and we got to just talk about the week and what we had been learning. I remember sharing a bit about how I had missed being surrounded by such a God loving environment, since it had been a while since I had gone to Church due to work and youth group had been over for us seniors. As I was sharing I just started breaking down in tears. I forgot how comforting an environment such as this trip could be and it made me scared for this even bigger trip that I have coming up because I felt as if I wasn't prepared. The Lord immediately showed me why He put me on a trip like this because as soon as I started crying the ladies around me started praying over me. And that's the beauty of God's love, I can't even put it into words but that moment was it right there.

I am so grateful for everything I got to experience that week in Allendale, all the friendships I made, all the areas I felt God's love, and all the ways I was able to pour God's love into others. And with that being said, that is my reason behind this trip and I can't wait to experience that feeling for 9 months, no matter how terrifying or unexpected it may be, I know God has so much He is about to show me, and I am ready to receive it.