Reflections from Kirby

This year's mission trip to Wimauma, Florida was truly life changing. I can honestly say that the Beth-El Mission and the time spent with the community there forever changed my view on farmworkers; from my daily intake of fruits and vegetables to more serious issues such as immigration. As I headed down to Florida, I really had no idea how connected I would get to these people and their stories as the week progressed. I loved how involved we got with the community. On day one, we took part in a Spanish worship service with the people who attended Beth-El and then shared in a fiesta in honor of Dia de los Padres (Father's Day). On that Sunday we also got to know the children of the community as we played games, colored pictures, and talked with them during the Sunday School time. Then throughout the week, we interacted with the people of Wimauma in many different ways. Monday we Javier, our work-projects coordinator, and were assigned different tasks. Some of us, including myself, took to organizing donated items to then resell in a "store" inside of the mission. While others sorted toiletry items into personal bags that we ended up handing out throughout the week. On Tuesday we saw many faces and talked to many people during the food drive. My Spanish speaking skills got put to good use as Spanish was the first language of many people that came through that day. We also took part in the weekly youth group meeting that evening. We sang songs with the youth there and also listened to their leader, Keisha's, message for the week. Then on Wednesday, we delivered the food bank items to farmworkers on their lunch break and briefly interacted with them. Never have I felt so involved and so good about the work I was doing because we were seeing the people we were helping and knowing that we were making a difference in their lives. Also hearing first-hand stories about working in the fields from Javier and Rosalva (Beth-El's secretary) really made me realize how fortunate I am. We take for granted the fruits and vegetables in the grocery stores and restaurants, not realizing the back breaking labor a worker has put in to pick the fruit. I thoroughly enjoyed this mission experience and feel as though we really made a difference in the lives of the people with which we interacted!