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Missionary Reflections
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After working behind the scenes throughout the week sorting donations, cleaning camps, completing landscaping and painting projects, the highlight of my week was my team’s final hour of service when we served the men their meal at 5pm on Thursday. We felt a bit apprehensive not knowing what to expect.Read More
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The Urban Mission Trip this year really had an impact on the way that I view my life. Hearing the stories of the homeless community members about how they became homeless was truly eye opening. Most of the stories I heard had a common cause. They all became homeless because of drug use and addiction. I have always known the dangers of drugs, but seeing the effects of them was astonishing.Read More
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I am writing to express my sincere appreciation for the opportunity to participate in the Urban Mission Trip. The experience was absolutely transformative. I was unsure what to expect when joining the mission and certainly had some preconceptions. Sadly, much of my beliefs about the homeless are a result of our social bias towards them and the way they are portrayed in the media. I am thrilled to say that my perspective was positively and permanently changed.Read More
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My experience on the Urban Mission Trip through Light of Life allowed me to see the world in a different way. One of my favorite experiences from the trip was serving dinner to the homeless people at Light of Life. At first, I was very apprehensive to serve the homeless men who came through the doors. By the end I realized that those men aren’t so different from anybody else. They are people just like me.Read More
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Over this past week, I was on a mission trip in Pittsburgh to help out with the Light of Life organization. Every time I was asked how my trip was, I would respond that it filled me with a lot of stories to tell. However, I haven’t told anybody this story yet. I figured that I should explain the whole story in depth with as much detail as I could.Read More
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Thank you Saints John & Paul for the opportunity to travel to the city for the urban mission trip. I had a great experience going on this trip. My favorite part of the trip was when we were cleaning up the camps on the last day and some of the homeless people came down to talk and help us clean.Read More
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The mission trip taught me so much from when I started till it ended. I learned so many things about the people that live there and the people who help. It has impacted me in so many ways. Now when I go into the city I don’t just see the pretty view and a bunch of homeless begging for money. I see people who have been through so much and want to gain back what they had. I am so happy I went because it changed me in only a week.Read More
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This mission trip required me to step out of my comfort zone, meet new people, and journey into a place that was very unfamiliar to me. My first day was spent with my small group and we journeyed around downtown to different abandoned homeless camps to bag up all of the left behind trash. In just a few hours we were able to gather together 82 bags of trash and clean up multiple camps. It was amazing to see the difference we were able to make in the community.Read More
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Thank you so much for doing so much to organize our Urban Mission Trip in Pittsburgh. It was an awesome experience to be a part of such a big group effort to do good and bring justice and love to our community. Before this trip, I had never done a service or mission trip organized by a church, so it was truly special to meet new people and build community within our parish while doing service in the surrounding community for the glory of Christ.Read More
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I am so grateful to have been a part of the urban mission trip. In the past, I have done only a few outreach programs, none of which involved interacting with the people we were serving. I wasn’t sure what to expect. If anything, I was expecting sad and tired people, who were closed off and distant. However, I was met with some of the happiest people ever.Read More
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This mission trip was very impactful for me. A personal favorite part was the picnic where I met two kids that I became very close with in a short amount of time. I played all kinda of games with them and was even introduced to their mothers. The mothers went on for a while about how thankful they were for our service and it really touched me. I have grown closer to God than ever and look forward to another trip.Read More
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Can you consider a fourteen mile drive, a distance shorter than many commute to work, a Mission Trip? Yes! The five days spent on Pittsburgh’s north side at Light of Life Rescue Mission (LOL) were powerful.Read More
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It was an honor to attend this mission trip. It opened my eyes to see the world around me. It helped me to see that addiction is affecting people here in our community. The trip helped me to grow in my faith.Read More
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This trip has been life changing. Though I made many new friends, I felt the Holy Spirit come to me. I’ve never had anything like the feeling I had experienced. Through relationships, experiences, fun times, and many more, I have realized what truly matters in life. I finally noticed how lucky and grateful I should be for everything that I have.Read More
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In the stories you hear about the Urban Mission Trip, you will probably hear all the big events, because we tend to think about those as the most important. But I disagree. While they may have created a big impact, the true soul of the mission was found in the little moments that we often overlook.Read More
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I recently returned from a week of service at the Light of Life Rescue Mission through Saints John & Paul Catholic Church. It was a phenomenal experience with my 2 sons.Read More
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Thank you, for the many prayers and gracious donations. I went into this trip with an open mind, having no expectations, thinking nothing could outdo the previous missions I had gone on. Little did I know God had some amazing things lined up for me.Read More
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The Light of Life Mission was an incredible experience for me. I learned how fortunate I am and how some other people are not as fortunate as I am. With all that being said, I would like to share one specific experience from the trip. I mentioned this to the group at the pavilion, but I wanted to share it to everyone else.Read More
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Words cannot describe the amount of love, wisdom, and hope I felt when going on the Urban Mission Trip. I felt more loved than I have felt probably since the last mission trip I went on, I learned more than I have learned in my entire lifetime, and the hope that was set before me provided overwhelming peace in my life.Read More
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My name is Grace Lieb and I would like to tell you about this amazing experience I had last week. Going on mission trips in the past, you never think that you could be changed or witness God in a way like that before... once again I was proved wrong. The people we met, the inspiration that was shown, and the witness to the faith that was seen this week was tremendous.Read More
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