POET Team Members Experience Life-changing Joy that Comes from Service

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In May 2019, 23 individuals left the Midwest behind and embarked on the seventh annual Mission Hope trip to Kenya, Africa. Most were first-time participants traveling several thousand miles outside their comfort zones; some were veterans returning for a second, third or even fourth stay in the place that has laid claim to their hearts; many of them were coworkers, and yet were essentially strangers to one another.

But after ten days spent working, playing, loving, laughing and experiencing every high and low together, they emerged as a family.

Every summer since 2013, POET has provided team members with the opportunity to take a service trip to Kenya through its nonprofit, Seeds of Change. This year’s project involved building a staff housing facility at Kakuswi Special School for the Deaf in the village of Tawa, the very place where Seeds of Change sprouted from an unforgettable week my family spent there in 2012.

The team went in expecting to work hard and have some fun. What they didn’t expect — something that seems to ring true each year — was that the most important structures built that week would be their relationships.

In the following pages, you’ll get to read a few of their stories — stories of love, hope, revelation, humility and heartache. You’ll see how just ten short days can impact so many individuals in so many different ways. And although no two stories are the same, you’ll likely notice that one theme is overwhelmingly prevalent in all of them: joy.

That joy is what hooks so many of us and keeps us coming back for more. It is unwavering even in the face of unthinkable hardship, overflowing from the Kenyan people and seizing the hearts of everyone they meet. It is abundant even when necessities are lacking, steadfast even in the midst of loss and abandonment and grief.

That joy is truly life-changing, and it is why we continue to do what we do through Seeds of Change. There is no greater joy than that which comes from serving others, from seeing real change grow from one simple act of kindness to transform an entire school or farm or community. We are so blessed to be a part of it.

The 2019 Mission Hope team managed to put an indescribable experience into words. Read on to get a glimpse into what they felt and how it changed them.