The week before I came on this missions trip I was very depressed and not looking forward to going on this trip. My thinking was, “Well it’s Pennsylvania its probably just going to be like our home town.” Well I was very mistaken. Tom informed us of major heroine problems within the city. Our whole missions group went to an outreach in a Park and I had gotten to talk to two girls named Tosha and Danielle. They started talking about how they have boyfriends that smoke and they have probation officers and citations they have to pay. I couldn’t believe the things they were telling me. I had later asked them do you attend any church. They answered in a way that completely took me back. They told me they weren’t allowed in their church because they didn’t have their parents with them. I was completely astonished and God put this burden on my heart for these girls. The things we take for granted and we don’t see the things others go through and what they have to rise above on a day to day basis. Plus for them not to have the role models they need for parents or the proper love and support from their peers just hurts me inside to know. I have become so grateful for my parents and my good role models and for my leaders who have been put into my life to lead me in the right direction to God. I love and appreciate them even more from just talking to these two amazing girls who even though I don’t know I have a love for them that no one can take away. Tom, our missions leader, later said after I had said this that those girls did go to church today and we were the church.
-Hannah Morrison