GLEN CARBON - On Sunday, July 11, Father McGivney students went to Grand Rapids, MI with Group Mission Trips. The students & chaperones were sent in crews to different locations throughout the area and were assigned tasks such as painting, cleaning, building porches, and making repairs around each house. The McGivney buses left on Sunday 7/11 at 4am and headed back on Saturday July 17th. FMCHS was incredibly proud & honored to send 8 adult chaperons and 39 McG students.
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Principal Joseph Lombardi explains, “The mission camp provides our students with the opportunity to mix hard work, fun, and working with a diverse team with McGivney’s focus on service to others. This is one of the many ways we integrate faith into the McGivney experience, with the ultimate goal of fully developing our students; mind, body and spirit. Our students will be leaders. It’s important they see how compassion and humble service to those in need are necessary when taking on a leadership role.”
Crew #1 included McG students Jacob Jones, Collin Moore, Bailey Washam, Riley Strack, Evan Schrader, and Ethan Henze who were led by McG teacher Ms. Dani Boulanger. This crew built a front porch from scratch over a pre-existing porch. Other crews painted sheds or sides of a house or tore down a porch to build a new one.
FMCHS Faith Formation Director Mr. Craig Brummer explains, “Every year, the group on the mission camp comes back exhausted, covered in paint, and in need of rest. And yet, at the same time, they come back having grown in their ability to know and love their neighbors and the Lord. This Summer's mission was no different. Tripling in size since the last mission in 2019, this team was led by fearless adult chaperones who handled this week with grace, humility, and generosity.
"The kids had fun demoing, building, and painting. The adults of the group saw just how satisfying it is to give of oneself, in order to find oneself. In the hardships of what has been a year for the history books, our kids were troopers this week. As one of the favorite songs of the week says, 'You are the peace in my troubled sea,' speaking to Jesus Christ as the One who settles the tumult. And, oh, how sweet the peace that comes from being stretched and molded to love and serve.
"When we return from an experience like this, we must remember in humility that we are doing what we were created to do, discovering who we are in the process. No one should be 'impressed' by this group for what they did this week, as though it was something extreme, beyond imagination, impossible for the rest of us. Instead, they should be edified, encouraged, and motivated to do the same.
"Yes, these kids learned how to build porches and paint siding, but that wasn't the end goal. The work is not an end in itself, but rather a means to an end (virtue, humility, charity) that we are all meant to strive for. We are called to holiness, to love, to serve, and to give. And we must learn how to do this. This mission camp is a week of the year where that lesson is very much at the forefront.”
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