Every school year Carmel Christian High School sends groups of students all over the state, country and world! This year the newly named “Impact Week” ventured out the last week of February to serve, learn, connect and explore the world outside of the classroom. This year 282 students, faculty and staff went on mission trips focused on making disciples locally and globally covering seven different countries: Costa Rica, Dominican Republic, Guatemala, Mexico, Peru, the United Kingdom and the United States. 73 students, faculty and staff went on educational trips. Alongside the school-sponsored trips, many students chose to do internships exploring various career options or ministry paths. The students returned to school with stories, experiences and lifelong friendships formed over the week away!

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Responses gathered from the various trip leaders:

Trip Location: Mexico

Trip Purpose: Service

Trip Leaders: Nathan Gilson, Jenni Briggs, Marilis Santos and Ryan Jackson

Main Activities:

• “We poured concrete for multiple projects at the orphanage we were working at along with finishing off their playground, cleaning up their property, hanging out with the 5 kids at the orphanage, and leading 2 outreach

  

  events for the community around Big Heart orphanage.”

Highlights:

• “Getting to see what God was doing through Big Heart Ministries.”
• “Singing while we worked, eating the best food ever, going to the Mexican market on Sunday afternoon, seeing all we accomplished to support the orphanage, hiking on Friday afternoon, and hanging out during our downtime.”

A Student Who Stood Out:

• “Jahir worked super hard all week and maximized every opportunity. He had a great attitude and seemed to want to serve everyone in every way.” 
• “Jahir was an incredibly hard worker who always had a great attitude and did extra work just to help, and he is fluent in Spanish, so he often translated for us!”

Main Impact:

• “I think we had an opportunity to see a lifestyle and living situation outside our normal experience. “Poverty” on an international level doesn’t look the same as being poor in America.”
• “Seeing how so much of the world lives as the community outside of the orphanage impacted us, as did know that we accomplished at least 4 months worth of work for them to continue their vision to help the kids and community at the orphanage.”

Overall Thoughts:

• “God is so cool. I don’t know entirely why every person was in Mexico, but I am 100% confident that God had a plan for every person.”
• “It was a ton of hard work, but it was also a lot of fun! I am very proud of so many of our students because they gave it their all each day and had great attitudes to serve!”

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Trip Location: Chattanooga

Trip Purpose: Service

Trip Leaders: Melissa Solomon, Alex Fox and Terry Gilmore

Main Activities:

• “Both teams of girls built handicapped wheelchair ramps for two separate widows, and they also did a bible study with the widows and had an evening of dinner and worship. The girls all mastered the escape room and toured Lee University.”

Highlights:

• “The girls saw how hard construction work is and how planning and patience play a role in making sure to build a

  

  safe and sturdy ramp. It is not a quick process at all, and they saw how over time the task was accomplished. Many of them also learned how to use power tools.”

Students Who Stood Out:

• “Brianna Stewart, Charlotte, Anna Lee, Finley Ascuye, and Mackenzie Randall.”

Main Impact:

• “Being the true hands and feet and taking care of widows, but also seeing how being patient and teamwork was such a great life skill.”

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Trip Location: Guatemala

Trip Purpose: Service

Trip Leaders: Lisa Denny, Ailene Vayas, Alex Miller, David Fox and Chad Meers

Main Activities:

• “House Building, VBS”
• “We built three houses, worked with children in the community (VBS), and brought donations to an orphanage.”

Highlights:

• “Highlights of the trip were disconnecting from technology and learning to be present. Watching our students truly understand what Jesus meant by ‘the Son of Man did not come to be served, but to serve.’” 
• “All our students had a positive attitude. They worked very hard and showed the love of God to the families and children of the community of Santa María de Jesús. All were respectful to the cultural differences and showed empathy.”

Students Who Stood Out:

• “Anna Jernigan and Dylan Brown were tremendous leaders in speech and action for the entirety of the trip. Zach Watterson was a surprising leader who stepped out of his comfort zone, especially during VBS, and was a great leader throughout the week.”
• “As a Spanish teacher, as a Latin American, and especially as a Christian I am very proud of the students who taught in VBS. A group of 8 students from Spanish 3, Spanish 4, and AP Spanish prepared and practiced a month before the trip to teach in Spanish. My students not only spoke fluently in Spanish but also brought the message of God’s love to Guatemala’s children showing dignity and respect for their environment.”

Main Impact:

• “I think the main impacts were being almost completely disconnected from the outside world and distractions and being forced to focus on the tasks at hand. It was amazing to watch the students socialize and interact with their community and their friends on a much deeper level. This trip forces students outside their comfort zone in one avenue or another. On the one hand, you have the building crew who were far more at home with tools in their hands, and then you have the kid’s crew who thrived for VBS and interaction with the community of Guatemalan children. Both groups did a great job stepping out and trying new things.”
• “Our students greatly impacted three families who received a new house. These families lived in difficult conditions and thanks to the work of Carmel’s students now they have a safe place to live. Carmel’s students were Jesus’s hands and feet when building these three houses.”

Overall Thoughts:

• “Impact Week Guatemala requires a lot of preparation and effort before and during the trip. However, it is worth every minute. This trip is an experience that transforms our lives and helps us to be sensible in the face of differences and share the gospel through service.”

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Trip Location: Orlando

Trip Purpose: Service

Trip Leaders: Amy Abbott, Chris Friar, Mike Quint and Karen Tabor

Main Activities:

• “Rise Against Hunger – prepared pallets of food to be used to make future meals, Salvation Army – Organization,

  

  Second Harvest Food Bank – warehouse food categorization, Christian Service Center – administrative work, meal service, clothing ministry, Straight Street – serving meals to the homeless community, United Against Poverty – Grocery store/food services, Pathlight Home – painting/trash pick-up and beautification”

Highlights:

• “The highlight was watching the students engage in their work and work as a team in order to be a blessing to the local community.”

Main Impacts:

• “A main impact was the realization that most of us are only a few unfortunate events away from desperation. The people we met in the community are the brothers/sisters, sons/daughters, moms/dads, etc. of other people. Reflecting on that reality is sobering and gives cause to be thankful.”

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Trip Location: London

Trip Purpose: Educational

Trip Leaders: Jennifer Grimes, Meredith Menti and Donovan Law

Main activities:

• “We visited Shakespeare’s birthplace, the Globe Theater, the Tower of London, The Charles Dickens House Museum, St. Paul’s Cathedral, Westminster Abbey, and the London Eye.”

Highlights:

• “Traveling on the London Underground and the trains was so fun. Also, seeing all of the literary sites was a highlight.”

Main impacts:

• “Hopefully seeing the historical and literary sites while traveling around one of the world’s most beautiful cities was inspiring and educational.”

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Trip Location: Costa Rica

Trip Purpose: Service

Trip Leaders: Sophie Muir-Taylor, Sheila Nelson and Jeremy Blatchford

Main Activities:

•  “Costa Rica was packed full of adventure and environmentally enriching activities. We moved around a good

  

  amount, having bus rides through the rainforest and cloud forests. The main places we stayed were San Jose, the capital, where we did history tours, an animal refuge, and spent time at the GAP house with the student interns of Atlas. We then traveled to La Fortuna, for volcano views, zip-lining, hot springs, and lots of wildlife. We ended our ecological expedition in Monteverde, one of the most biodiversity places on the planet. There we did bird watching, night hiking, waterfall swimming, and more! We ended our time back in San Jose working on a service project!”

Main impacts: 

• “Environmental enriching experiences– the students learned about various ecological elements alongside identifying birds, phenomena, and more!”

Students who stood out:

• “Anna McCartney maintained optimism the entire trip, fully diving into every experience offered. Payton Young kept the spirits high and continually engaged with her fellow peers, leaders, and the activities set before her. She was never not excited to be a part of the trip! Asher Wood was an active learner and asked questions to gain an understanding of everything we did! Tyler Grace was the only freshman boy, but he was dedicated to learning, working hard, and stood out as a leader despite his age!”

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Trip Location: Common Heart in Charlotte

Trip Purpose: Service

Trip Leaders: Maggie Horne and Stephen Gesin

Main Activities:

• “Unloading, storing, and packaging food donations”

Highlights:

• “Teamwork, learning about needs in our community”

Main impacts:

• “Helping to meet the needs of other people”

Overall Thoughts:

• “For students in need of community service hours, Common Heart would be a great place!”

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Trip Location: Charlotte Rescue Mission

Trip Purpose: Service

Trip Leaders: Kay Brinkley and Jessica Phifer

Main Activities:

• “Preparing and serving lunch to the men in the recovery program at Charlotte Rescue Mission. We also ate lunch with the men and listened to their stories. We went bowling as a team for fellowship.”
• “Preparing and serving lunch for the men, as well as clean-up. Not only did we serve the men their lunch,  but our students led in the blessing and were able to eat lunch alongside the men and have conversations.  A few men shared their testimonies with our students as well and it had a great impact on our students. Yet it was through our students being the hands and week of Christ that impacted those men. It was a beautiful thing to watch our students serve and lead in this way.  We did go bowling on Wednesday and enjoyed also getting coffee and some treats at the Community Matters Cafe, which is a delicious and fun eatery for breakfast and lunch.  It also serves as a later opportunity of the program in which all service employees are current residents of the program and are learning tools concerning making a living and holding down a job, as well as being a part of the community as they are healing from addiction and learning how to do life sober. “

Highlights:

• “I loved how our group worked together and became friends through the experience. Our group was made up of

  

  students in 9th-12th grade, and most knew of each other, but they didn’t know each other. They seemed to grow close to one another by the end of the week. Another highlight was how well our group served. Nobody complained, nobody sat around. They all jumped at the chance to help.”

• “Watching our group bond and get to know each other, and how they grew in confidence on how they could best serve and care for the men in the program.  The highlight for me for getting to know these students better and watching them serve in a way that truly exemplified Christ. It would bring me to tears so much of the time. It was a powerful way to experience the week, for certain!”

Students Who Stood Out:

• “Colin Stenger was always the first to volunteer, did his job well and had fun doing it. Colin Peck was always invested in the men at the Rescue Mission and showed his heart as he engaged in conversations with them. Grayson Riebe often sat with the men and engaged them in conversations about Jesus.”
• “It was a small group due to restriction of how many volunteers we could have at one time and EVERY ONE of the students did an exceptional job with working hard, serving lunch to the men, listening intently to their testimonies, and eating lunch alongside them to hear their stories as we became a community for that week. I could not have been more proud of all of them! We did have three students who offered to lead the 145 men in blessing the food and praying over them. You could tell how much the men appreciated that and that they were moved by the prayers.”

Main Impacts:

• “Students were impacted by the men’s stories. They heard from people who grew up just like they did, yet they ended up addicted to drugs and/or alcohol because of bad decisions.”
• “So many of the men wanted to impart wisdom to our students and they did so in beautiful ways.  And our students encouraged the men through their conversations with hope and kindness.”

Overall Thoughts:

• “I have loved serving there through Carmel for the last 20 years.  It is always inspiring and a blessing, but there was something extra special about the visit this year. God continues to be so good!”

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Trip Location: Dominican Republic

Trip Purpose: Service

Trip Leaders: Joel McMillon, Terry Menendez, Donna Gooch and Clay Kessler

Main Activities:

• “We primarily shared God’s love with Dominican students at a Christian school by offering them the opportunity

  

  to practice their English understanding and usage through different fun and educational activities. We also did some construction projects, like painting and prepping some new construction for painting in the future.”

Highlights:

• “I think our students did a wonderful job connecting with their Dominican students throughout the week as they built rapport by being excited when they came into the classroom, being patient with their struggles with motivation and/or with vocabulary, sitting with them during breakfast and lunch, and playing with on the playground. It was a highlight for me to see how easily our students accepted the Dominican students and how adaptable they were to different personalities and challenges.”
• “I think another highlight was getting to visit the bateys (small villages) where the Dominican students lived AFTER getting to know them in the classroom as students who wear uniforms and act like “normal” kids. On Thursday, we were able to go to the batey and see just how impoverished these families are and the difficulties they face compared to our life experiences.”

A Student Who Stood Out:

• “I was pleasantly surprised by Shane Durso. He was consistently respectful, related so easily with the Dominican students, worked hard on construction, and just proved to be a considerate and compassionate young man.”

Overall Thoughts:

• “The visit to the batey was an impactful moment for our students. They got to see how affluent their own lives actually are and hopefully learned not to take all their blessings for granted. The Dominican students were so appreciative of what little they had while we are tempted to complain at the slightest inconvenience!”
• “As far as the community, I would like to think that our time there was impactful and that the Dominican students experienced a measure of God’s love and presence, but I don’t know that for sure. I do know that one of the 11th-grade girls wrote us a very kind thank you letter and read it to us on our last day of classroom ministry.”

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Trip Location: Peru

Trip Purpose: Service

Trip Leaders: Will Robertson, Jackie Gesin and Freeman

Main activities:

• “Help with classes at SAM Academy and support them in hosting a VBS for handicapped students of a neighboring school.”

Highlights:

• “VBS, Spending time at SAM Academy, A boat ride and zoo tour, a ride in a motorcar taxi, and the delicious Peruvian cuisine!”

Students Who Stood Out:

• “Our team stepped up to break down barriers to love on and get to know students who were deaf and blind. They worked on Spanish and Sign Language so they could love on the other students they came to minister to.”

Main impacts:

• “They have a better understanding of what life is like on the mission field through getting to know the students at SAM Academy, as well as the need to serve those who are many times overlooked in the handicapped (blind, deaf, etc.)”

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Trip Location: North Carolina

Trip Purpose: Educational

Trip Leaders: Christina Gross, Dan Gwilt and Brandy Caton 

Main activities:

• “Two walking tours of Charlotte. One showed us the section called Brooklyn Neighborhood an African American

  

  community. We used an app on the phone that would put on the overlay of different areas to show us what it looked like 60 years ago.  

• In Greensboro, we visited the International Civil Rights Museum and saw the lunch counter at the Woolworth’s where 4 young black men quietly sat at the white’s only section waiting to be served. We visited Hart Square Historical sight. It is home to the US’s largest collection of restored log cabins. We toured several of the log cabins that are fully restored and filled with items from the late 1800’s. We visited Raleigh and toured the legislative building and the state capitol and took a tour around the city in a historical trolly.”

Highlights:

• “The group enjoyed our visit to Mrs Hanes Moravian’s cookie factory. They learned about Mrs Hanes and how she went from a mother raising 7 kids to having her in a cookie factory. They watched the process of the really thin cookies being rolled out, baked, and packaged. Along the tour, we sampled 6 different flavors and were able to purchase cookies to take home.”

Main impacts:

• “The students got to see and appreciate different historical sights from our state that covered different periods of history. “

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Trip Location: Lumberton

Trip Purpose: Service

Trip Leaders: Marlin Mogusu, Chris Farnsworth and Tres Long 

Main Activities:

• “Our itinerary included a variety of activities, such as installing fences for two homes, adding insulation, building

  

  a wheelchair ramp, pressure washing, and wood staining a fence, along with a few other tasks.”

Highlights:

• “Our trip was filled with meaningful activities and blessings. Highlights included installing fences for two homes, adding insulation, building a wheelchair ramp, pressure washing, and wood staining a fence. A particularly special moment was blessing two elderly ladies with a brand-new wheelchair ramp, a beautifully built fence, and a fresh coat of paint, bringing joy and comfort to their lives.”

Students Who Stood Out:

• “Jack Connell, Aaron Cochran, Alec, Oliver Zepsa, and Oliver Speirs”

Main Impacts:

• “The trip had a profound impact on both the students and the community. For the students, it was an opportunity to show and impart God’s love, build character, and realize the power of making a difference in the community—one project and one house at a time. For the community, the projects brought practical help and hope, such as the blessing of a wheelchair ramp, a new fence, and fresh paint for two elderly ladies, demonstrating care and compassion in action.”

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Trip Location: Baseball in Asheville

Trip Purpose: Service

Trip Leaders: Michael Owen and Heath McKay

Main Activities:

• “Transporting donation supplies to get it ready for distribution and doing manual labor to help clean up yards

  

  and houses of residents.”

Highlights:

• “Being able to be a part of 2 home dedications. The organization we were partnering with finished rebuilding 2 houses and we were able to be there when they gifted the keys back to the homeowner and prayed with them”

Students Who Stood Out:

• “Thomas Gaddy, Caden Tarr and Anderson Rider”

Main Impacts:

• “I believe the main impact on our students was seeing how members of the Asheville community had such unfortunate situations due to the hurricane, yet they still praised Jesus and were grateful for every little thing they had. I believe our guys left with a greater appreciation for their circumstances and learned to trust God even when we may not understand His plan for us. Our impact on the community was huge, as everyone we encountered was so thankful that we spent this week serving in Western, NC. People mentioned that just seeing us there gave them hope and encouragement that they are not forgotten and Jesus continues to provide.”

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Trip Location: DECA Competition

Trip Purpose: Educational

Trip Leaders: Ben Bash and Marsha Berry

Main Activities:

• “Competing in the North Carolina state DECA competition.”

Highlights:

• “Students earning awards and having fun cutting loose”

Students Who Stood Out:

• “There were only 6 students total on the trip – freshmen to seniors. What stood out was how they all looked out for each other. Special thanks to Sienna Jauch (our only veteran state competitor) for showing everyone else the ropes.”

Main Impacts:

• “The joy of competing”