Project 1 (Revised Draft)

Austin Balon

Mat Wenzel

ENC 2135

5 July 2017

The Helping Hand

Friends have always been an important aspect of my life. I can remember even as a child playing tackle football in my front yard with my friends. It got very competitive, but in the end we all had our laughs, our high fives, and spent a lot of the time encouraging each other. Although there was never a game without some trash talk. Since I’ve grown older, along with my friends, there are even more things to do. However, last summer a very close group of friends and I had the opportunity to experience a very impactful mission trip. Not quite knowing what to expect we all packed up and headed toward Kentucky. This trip would involve us all staying in tents and cooking at a campground and worksite for a week. However, this was not a typical camping trip. We were on a mission team that would be providing help to construct a home for a family that was in desperate need of helping hands. Not having any prior experience on constructing a home I was a little apprehensive about my skill level. However, we decided to tackle this mission to the best of our abilities. Even though I went on this mission to be a helping hand I was also impacted through the experience. It helped me realize the importance of humility, friendship, and memories.

On the second to last day of the trip we had all received shirts that were given to us by the company we had went through to organize this mission. While taking a look at the deep blue and green shirts I noticed there was an image printed on the back that really stuck out to me. This image involved to hands ,beside a bowl of water, that were washing someone’s feet. It had came upon me that this image resembled the exact meaning of why I was there. This meaning being to provide a helping hand no matter what the need may be. However, this was not the only impact this image had. It had also resembled the humility each of us had displayed by going on this trip. We had all taken a week out of our busy summer to help a family build a new home and we all wanted to go on this trip without any hesitation. The humility displayed was very rewarding as I saw the family become so grateful as the house became closer to being complete. This happiness they displayed had meant even more due to the sadness they had recently had in their lives. They had recently lost their granddaughter, who had been living with them. Her death was to believed to be caused by mold that was growing in their former trailer home. This was a reason they needed to construct a new home. Being able to help them in that time was certainly a great opportunity and with every smile that came across the families face I could not help, but feel pure joy.

Before the trip had begun we had all been a pretty close-knit group of friends. We had done things together before, but we’ve never done anything like this. Throughout the week we had many laughs, but also had a couple serious talks about things we have never all really talked about before. I was very moved by some of the stories some of my friends had spoken on because of the emotion they had expressed. This showed the trust we all had between each other had been growing. During this trip we made many good memories with each other. These memories could be a constant reminder of how important my friends are to me. I thought it to be truly amazing that through this experience of helping others we were all able to connect and become closer. This had made me wish the trip would have not come to an end. As more adventures go on in my life I can only hope I get an experience as good as this one.

Thinking back to this trip, it was great to have memories with some of my closest friends and build a strong connection through that experience. The memories created on this trip have helped me gain an appreciation for friendship, but also an appreciation for helping those around me. There are so many opportunities each and every day to help someone and the memories I have from this trip definitely encourage me to do whatever I can to provide a helping hand to someone. The experience has instilled a strong passion in me to help others through ways that my abilities allow. The trip also gave me a passion to experience things in life with friends and share the memories rather than just having them to myself. Even though the experience has already passed the memories are what keeps the experience so important to me. Now whenever I go through my closet and see the shirt with the logo of a hand washing someone’s foot I am reminded of the joy that comes from helping another.

On the last day of the trip, we originally had planned to go white water rafting. However, one night we got together and decided to take that extra day to do what we could to help get the house closer to being finished. Also with the cash refunded from the white water rafting company we decided to give it to the family so that they could purchase items for their new home. That last day we worked as hard and fast as we could to get as much done as possible. Although, we did not end up finishing the whole home, as it would have been really difficult to do within a week. Even though we were all pretty excited to get home to our own beds we were sad to be leaving the family. We all promised to stay in touch with the family and when the family finally finished the house we all got to see the pictures of it. It was inspiring seeing the finished product of the house and made me happy that I had the opportunity to help this family.