Written by: Matthew Orquia and Chloe Smith
Over Spring Break, Southern Adventist University students led a group of 34 people to the Dominican Republic to help construct a church and provide medical clinics for the community.
The trip organizers, twin brothers, Corbin Weiss, senior mathematics major, and Ashton Weiss, senior interdisciplinary studies major, embarked on the trip in hopes of sharing their love of service.
“Ashton and I grew up doing Maranatha mission trips instead of family vacations,” Corbin Weiss said. “We knew that we wanted to share the joy of service that had been so transformational to us while growing up, with our friends here at Southern.”
Of the 34 individuals on the mission trip, 25 were students at Southern. The team left for the 11-day trip on March 13. According to Weiss, the first several days consisted of building the Fuente de Salvacion Church in Santiago, while the end of the trip involved a health clinic that served community members and kids at nearby schools.
Over the course of the trip, the team was able to nearly finish all the walls of the Fuente de Salvacion Church, according to Corbin Weiss. They also served a total of 70 community members during the health clinic, as well as 200 kids at the nearby school.
John Hargy, senior biophysics major, said it was satisfying to see the walls of Fuente de Salvacion Church continue rising during the trip.
“What was so cool about this experience, was that the first Sabbath we arrived, the church was just a still frame,” Hargy said. “ … And that last Sabbath, we were able to worship again in the church, but more than just a frame, a completed church.”
According to Hargy and Shelby Brautigan, junior character animation major, they both heard from a member of Fuente de Salvacion that they had been praying for the church for fifteen years.
Priscille Mikala, junior music performance major, said the heat was one obstacle to the team laying down brick for the church walls.
“[At] some places and times of day, the sun would just be on us, and I would say that was probably the hardest thing,” Mikala said.
The group also had an excursion day where they ziplined, hiked at a canyon and visited a port city, according to Brautigan, who said the day was a highlight of her trip.
One of Mikala’s favorite aspects of the trip was worshiping together with the other travelers in the evenings.
“Every evening, someone different would share a devotional thought, and it was really interesting to hear the stories of older people that were on the trip with us that were missionaries for like 30 or 40 years,” Mikala said.
For Hargy, another highlight was bonding with the other students in the mission field.
“I had known a number of them, but just getting to spend a whole week really working alongside your peers, alongside students, you get to know people in a really good way,” Hargy said.
Emily White, senior music theory and literature major, was another student who joined in serving the Santiago community.
“Our group had the chance to show the community that there are still young people like us who are passionate about serving others and the Lord,” White said, “and I think we did a great job of doing that.”
According to Corbin Weiss, he was able to organize the trip through Maranatha, an organization that coordinates the construction of needed buildings with volunteers who wish to serve. He served as the project coordinator, making it his duty to recruit students for the trip and communicate with Maranatha staff.
“Maranatha makes it extremely straightforward to lead a mission trip,” Corbin Weiss said.
When asked about his takeaway from this mission experience, Corbin Weiss said, “Every student should take the opportunity to go on a mission trip at least once. We are all at a time in our lives where we are making decisions that will affect us for the rest of our lives. Mission trips are one of the single best ways to provide perspective.”
“It was probably one of the best trips that I’ve ever been on,” Brautigan said.
In the future, Corbin and Ashton Weiss plan to lead out in more mission trips.
“Mission work is addicting,” Corbin Weiss said, “and we are in the business of creating mission-addicts.”
