New Mexico

Every year during spring break the high school youth group from my church heads off for a week of service and for the last five years I have had the great privilege to go with them. This year we went to a Navajo Indian reservation in New Mexico with 25 kids and 10 adults. It was a truly amazing week. One of the things I like best about it is I have to completely unplug from the grid. No Internet access for a full week is a great way to focus on the things that are truly important.

This year we ran into a long list of problems (engine blowing out in the box truck south of Barstow, temperatures in the 20s at night, one kid getting bit in the face by a pit bull, a sandstorm destroying our tents, etc.) It was very gratifying to see this group of young people respond to these problems with an amazing attitude and great flexibility. These problems could have beaten them down, but instead it brought the group closer together and they stayed focused on the reason they came - to serve other people.

We divided up into four work teams and my team went to the home of an older gentleman whose hot water heater burst on the same day he was at the hospital watching his wife of 35 years pass away. He didn't have the money to replace the floor so we did it for him. What a great sight it was to see a team of young people work so hard for this man they had never met before last week. One of the family members asked us where we were from, and when we told her she said, "Wow - I didn't expect you to be from Orange County. That's not the image I have of that place".

That's because she never met our youth group. They are an amazing group of young people and it was an honor to spend the week with them.