St. Thomas Mission Trip

This past week, I had the opportunity to travel to the U.S. Virgin Islands with a team from the University of Pittsburgh to do hurricane relief work. My dad and his coworker, Kelly, led a group of nine student athletes from Pitt, and I was lucky enough to be able to join them. The group consisted of four softball players, four track athletes, and one baseball player.

The U.S. Virgin Islands were ravished by two Category 5 hurricanes in September and October of 2017. Our goal on the trip was to be able to help rebuild and do some much needed cleanup on the island of St. Thomas. Many homeowners do not have the means to do the damage control that is needed on their properties, so we wanted to help ease the stress of this burden.

The group worked with St. Thomas Reformed Church, a church in Charlotte Amalie, the capital of the U.S. Virgin Islands on the island of St. Thomas. We stayed in a retreat center built by the church that hosts mission groups throughout the year. St. Thomas Reformed Church works with a program called My Brother's Workshop, a nonprofit that provides mentoring, counseling, paid job training, education, and job placement to at-risk youth. The night that we arrived, we were able to join the celebration of the ten year anniversary of MBW. At the celebration, Father Greg Boyle of Homeboy Industries spoke about his work, and singer-songwriter Ken Medema performed. It was an exciting, moving event.

Each of the next three days we spent the mornings and early afternoons working on a member of the church's home that was harmed by the hurricanes. Fred, an older man who served in the U.S. Army, was in Puerto Rico when the storms hit, and came back to a home that had been beaten up and covered by the overgrown landscape. We cleared the overgrown yard from all sides of his home, chopping down trees, pulling up roots, and raking the grass and debris. We also power washed and scraped all of the walls and window covers and repainted everything. By the time we were done, the house looked completely different, and Fred was very grateful for the work that we did. One of the days we were also able to help another family from the church whose home was completely destroyed in the hurricanes. In order to begin the reconstruction process, the yard needed to be cleared from the trees, shrubs, and other plants that had grown up around the remains of the home.

In the afternoons, we volunteered at an after school program for at-risk youth in the community. We helped with homework, played dodge ball, and enjoyed another performance by Ken Medema. One night, we wrapped gifts that had been donated to the children, and the next day were able to watch the kids open them at their Christmas party.

In addition to the work that we were able to do, we also enjoyed the beautiful beaches that the islands had to offer and invested in the local economy. After three hard days of work, we took the ferry to St. John, another island in the U.S. Virgin Islands. We went on a tour and stopped at Maho Bay. There we rented snorkels, paddle boarded, and swam with the turtles. The morning we left, we were also given the opportunity to try flyboarding, where we were propelled in the air by water jets attached to our feet.

The whole trip was an amazing experience, where I was able to serve the people of the U.S. Virgin Islands, make new relationships, and grow in my faith. Check out the video I made to see for yourself what we were able to do!

Much love,

Hannah