When someone talks about a mission trip, it might evoke images of a ministry being done in some distant and exotic country, not in a city two hours away.
That was the case with Marie Augustin, a sophomore nursing major who originally wanted to go on the uQuest mission trip in Brazil. When her plans fell through, Augustin decided to go to Atlanta instead, but she was not excited.
“I didn’t see the purpose of mission trip right there [in Atlanta] …,” said Augustin. “I wanted to do a mission trip abroad, not here in the United States.”
Similar feelings were shared by junior health science major Isabella Showalter, who said the Atlanta trip was her first mission trip in the United States.
Once the work started, both student’s feelings changed.
“It was a life changing experience,” Showalter said. “I did not realize all the work that had to be done right here.”
Partnering with the Atlanta Dream Center, 10 Southern students —under the supervision of uQuest Mission Coordinator Melissa Moore —participated in three main projects: iAm, Out of Darkness and Metro Kidz. These projects consisted of ministry to the homeless, sex trafficking victims and children of low-income families, respectively.
“It just opened my eyes about the many difficulties we have here in our own backyard,” Augustin said. “We sometimes just want to go outside of the country to help when there is help needed right here.”
There are about 7,000 homeless people in Atlanta, according to Atlantamission.org, and 3,189 reported cases of sex trafficking in Georgia, according to Georgia.gov.
Those on the mission trip also worked with Friends of Refugees Providing Education and Empowerment (F.R.E.E.), where they met and played with refugee children in Clarkston, Georgia.
“You hear in the news … about refugees in Burma or Syria and you think, ‘They are not really here, I can’t really get involved,” Showalter said, “but we don’t realize that many times they are just in our community.”
According to a report by the+ Coalition of Refugees Service Agencies (CRSA), Georgia welcomes 2,500 to 3,000 newly arrived refugees each year.
This spring break, uQuest will have seven mission trips abroad, plus another local one to Atlanta. The Atlanta trip will be led by senior theology major Julie MacLafferty. MacLafferty was one of the students to participate in the Atlanta mission trip last year.
“Many times, we have a very romantic, idealized view of mission, and it is super exciting experiencing other cultures,” MacLafferty said. “But consider looking for the mission right here–the mission in your backyard. God has placed you where you are for a reason, and that is your mission field.”
Image credit: Isabella Showalter