Have you ever Gone to a third world country?  Well I did when I was thirteen, I went to Guatemala on a mission trip.  It was a trip that took a lot of hard work, especially for me since I was the youngest.  I had to work like the adults during the house building and fund raising. This story will just cover a little bit of what went on to get there and what we did. Also, what is most important, overcoming the obstacles that any third world mission would bring up. Seeing the people living there, working hard, showing a new kind of care for all the people that live there, building friendships, and understanding the meaning of what you are doing for them is the goal of a true mission trip.   
To do anything or go anywhere you have to pay for it, and in our case we had to raise a lot of money. For our group we had to raise about 25,000 to 30,000 dollars for travel, food, lodging, and other things we did.  Probably our biggest fundraisers we held were our pork burger sales. We made about 3,000 dollars to 4,000 dollars each time we did them.  We also did a lot of other things, such as discount cards and pork loin and rib sales.  We also did church wide tithes, from which we received all of the proceeds.  A large percent of the money we made was for plane tickets.  During pork burger sales I was not just the kid that ran drinks from the cooler, I was the kid who worked as fast as the adults cooking burgers, splitting, seasoning, grilling, and saucing. 
After you get the money to go you have to get to where you are going. In our case that was  Guatemala. To get there we took a flight from Indianapolis to Houston, another from Houston to Guatemala, then reverse two flights, back four  in all.  To and from Indianapolis we rode in a charter bus: in Guatemala we drove what was called a chicken bus - a crazy charter bus is the best way to put it into words.  One big thing I want you all to know is that getting there is not just transportation: it was also the team building and being brave going through all of this. Bonding with one another and understanding how our world really is the most important part thing of getting there.
For any mission trip you should expect some work, and here is a little of the work we did.  The house we built was a small, three room shack around sixteen to twenty-two feet.  It had a concrete floor, wood walls with no drywall, a tin roof, and a front porch. Overall it took a little over three days:  we also built extra things, like a chicken coop and a stool out of leftover wood from the house. The work we did was put up walls, measure and shovel cement, and cut boards.
Yes, this story is very brief, but I can not say how important it is for a person to go on a mission trip and overcome the obstacles that any mission trip brings. At first they do not have to be big and international: they can be local. For me doing things here in my own back yard is a lot harder to do than thousands of miles away.  This is something you should never do alone: people can never walk alone in a mission. In words of wisdom from Helen Keller, “Alone we can do so little; together we can do so much”. This is something I want all to know when you do things all by yourself, not much if anything gets accomplished. I or my group could not have done this without the support of each other or the people who helped us get there.