by Katie Blaschko

Lord, where can we serve you? The answer to this question took the Holy Rosary/St. Joseph’s youth group of North Mankato/Mankato across the country to San Diego, CA for a week this summer.

"Overall this trip just made me assess my life," said Katie Bloodgood, one of the 15 senior high students. She went onto explain how it made her see how much is taken for granted and how helping others just makes the helper feel better. While in San Diego, the Minnesota group worked through the nationwide mission service, Youth Works which assists local ministries.

One Mankato student admitted to an eye-opening experience. "I couldn’t go two blocks without having 15 people ask me for money. I found this very difficult because I couldn’t help them all," recalled Blake Koch.

The Mankato youth group joined with groups from Colorado and California to serve seven local charities. Split into teams, some of the volunteers packed food baskets for hungry families while others made and delivered meals for homebound AIDS patients. Another group visited with the residents of a local senior center.

Before we started our day’s work, we would get up early in the morning and drive to the local YMCA to take our showers, explained the youth leader, Beth Benzkofer. We had to drive to the YMCA because we stayed in an old church without showering facilities.

"It changed our lives as teens in a Midwest town by learning about the ways and lives of others," remarked Corynn Koch.

Some hard working volunteers got down and dirty doing vigorous work through the local Lutheran Social Services. Other volunteers prepared and served lunch to the men at the men’s center. The last two groups worked with kids at a Head Start Center and at a women’s and children’s center.

"I learned a lot about my faith. The kids taught me as well as me teaching them," reflected Emily Wallin. Although the young people were split up for working, at the end of the day they met back at the church where they were staying. During that time the focus was on praise and worship, devotions and a time to share stories about what had happened during the day.

A.J. Bittner noted that this mission trip gave him a greater "longing to find what God has in store for me and to follow His will."

These experiences gave us the opportunity to see our ‘neighbors’ and selves through the eyes of Christ who was the true servant of all. It was more than the places we worked in and the people we served that impressed me. The lessons I brought home were experiencing true service and sacrifice.

The two Catholic parishes in the Mankato area jointly hired a youth minister last year to provide faith and fellowship opportunities for their young people.