Reflections from a Youth Volunteer

BY: AMY MILLER

Amy Miller volunteered with her youth group to go to LaCrete, Alberta to work with MDS.

What brings a group of 24 in a charter bus from the cornfields of Iowa to the bush of Alberta, Canada? MDS. That 42 hour bus ride placed us at Pine Lodge Bible Camp in LaCrete. We were to build cabins and to do trail work for the camp. Beginning Monday morning, we worked on our different tasks: whether framing walls, putting floors together, working on the front and back decks of the main lodge, or felling trees in order to make trails. We soon realized that the weather in LaCrete is a bit unpredictable with random rain showers in an otherwise sunny day and that each person needed their own personal can of bug spray to ward of the mosquitoes, but those were minor when compared with the lack of humidity (kind of). We made many quality memories during our working hours; some were just plain silly, but all were moments we will not forget for a long time. Several highlights included a couple people going wild with air nailers (no injuries were sustained), getting all seven floors built in one day, our youth pastor’s wife manning the chainsaw on the trails, playing hockey (and realizing that playing rough is essential), loading the ranger with the entire trail crew and convincing them that there was a bear in the woods, working under Harold Friesen, and lastly being fed so well and getting to try some Canadian Mennonite specialties. Yet, even more than all of those highlights were the chances that we had to use all of our different talents and gifts to serve somebody else! Just one example would be that I got to be a fourth grade leader at the day camp that was in session the week we were there. It was so neat to be able to not only get to know the campers for whom we were working, but also to see their reactions to our work. The other leaders and even parents were overjoyed to see a railing put on the front deck to keep the younger campers from taking spills. Seeing these reactions made the blisters, accidental nail gunning, mosquito bites, and bruises from hockey completely worth the 42 hour bus rides and I am definitely planning on working again with MDS at some point in my life.