International Service Project

On May 20th, I flew to the United Kingdom to serve on an International Service Project. This program is through my university, and is a project that is meant to send teams of students to various parts of the world to serve field workers in connection with our school in any way needed. My team was sent to the United Kingdom to work with students at Aston and Birmingham University. 

I was told that this would be a life-changing experience, and didn't quite believe it, but it definitely was. For three weeks, I lived in one small room with one bathroom that didn't have a door, shared with ten girls. What should have been an extremely stressful situation was actually not! We worked every day, coming home late at night exhausted and getting up early in the morning to begin again. To highlight some of our work:

-we did childcare for a four-day retreat for a church in the countryside (and I learned that I actually work very well with kids, despite my fear of dropping them).
-we helped rebuild an abandoned building that will be used to house a community center in a rough area of town.
-helped gather donations (like clothes and other baby supplies) for a non-profit women's health center called Stillwaters, as well as spreading the word of this organization to various doctor's offices.
-made friends with several students from Aston and Birmingham Uni, and through them were able to reach out and serve these students through free food and revision events.

...plus a lot more, but those are just some highlights! I'm very glad to have had this opportunity to go out and serve communities in an area that most people write off as easy. My team made a difference in the lives of our field workers and the people we served, and I'm very honored to have been able to participate on the International Service Project!