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I stood there fatigued and covered in sweat; a 14 hour day wasn’t looking good on me. What took me to that place? Children truly make the world a brighter place no matter where you go, and I do believe for a service trip of any kind they make the ‘work’ part of things all the more bearable or better. Not bearable or better because work is a difficult task, but bearable to work while facing sights our eyes are not immune to, sights of poverty left and right. It was a hot day near Puerto Plata, Dominican Republic and I recall walking along a mountaintop village. I noticed a whole chicken sitting in, and hanging over a white bucket. It was placed near the direct sunlight without shade or any sort of shelter from the sun. It rather concerned me that was going to be a family’s supper that evening. As I went throughout that busy day and got back to my resort room, I took a soft baby wipe to my face and the result was black. These types of things truly make you imagine what you would do yourself if you lived in these conditions. And the team of the service trip had a purpose, as any service trip. There’s always a purpose whether it be to establish a mobile medical unit, bring medical supplies and school supplies, address accessibility concerns (which are some of the things our team did) – there’s always a point of action or ‘purpose’ to these trips. I walked along the beach, jumped into an icy tub and enjoyed some delectable treats from a pool side ice-cream hut. I did most things that one would do on an all-inclusive resort. But I also visited a village school house, went to a Dominican church service, helped out in a busy, overcrowded Dominican medical clinic, etc. And to me, all these things trump any vacation luxuries one can get up to. I had a cousin that did a service trip in an Amish community; which when you think about it, the families of a Pennsylvania Amish community would live much better than those impoverished in a Dominican village. Service trips will deliver the opportunity to meet people in all (different) circumstances, but most of all they will teach you, and quite possibly teach you about yourself. Someone took a picture of me standing in shorts and a blue tank top in the center of that mountaintop Dominican village. I am holding a boy toddler in the photo and there’s dirt and dust around us as dusk is nearing. It’s a picture that has stuck with me in my mind many years later, and perhaps because that moment and trip were the beginning chapter of my dedication to children. And twelve years later I have helped numerous children, and it’s quite delightful to look back and wonder if it all started with that boy. I wrapped him in my arms and I think it is quite possible my heart grew a very special place for children that day, and since I’ve devoted much of my life to the service of children. Funny how you don’t discover these things until many years later. We don’t always need sunshine and pools, sometimes we just need a good hard slap of culture shock and life lessons.