Mission Trips

St. Luke's has a long history with one particular type of Outreach ministry: mission trips.   These trips, for both our adults and our youth, typically consist of a one-week working visit to some place where the need is great.   While we have gone to several different locations in the past, in recent years we have focused on trips of two types: an international trip to Belize, and (since Hurricane Katrina) a domestic trip to the Mississippi Gulf Coast.  

Mission team members spend several months prior to their trips raising funds to cover the cost of the materials they will use or to support the organization they will be working with.   Once the team is on-site, the focus is on building relationships as much as on building structures.   Team members invariably report that they have received as much as they have given as they worked with the people they met.

In February, 2007 St. Luke's for the first time sent two mission teams to Belize, to work at Holy Cross Anglican Primary School .   This school, which had opened only six months before, serves close to 200 children who would not otherwise be able to attend any school at all.   The St. Luke's teams helped finish a classroom, a cantina, and other infrastructure for the school, as well as with staff development. They also had the opportunity to meet, teach, love, and be loved by the children.  

We will be sending two mission teams back to Holy Cross Anglican School in February 2008. The school always needs supplies, and once again the team members will be taking 20+ suitcases of these supplies with them. If you would like to contribute any items on the school's wish list, you can purchase them when it's convenient (or when they're on sale!). We will announce in January when you can leave the supplies you bought off at St. Luke's.

The mission trips to the Mississippi Gulf Coast arose from the devastation caused by Hurricane Katrina.   They also illustrate the difference that one dedicated person can make. The answer to the question "Why Mississippi, rather than Louisiana or Alabama?" is simply one of personal connection: the initial trip was conceived, organized, and made to happen by a member of St. Luke's who was originally from Mississippi.   While in Mississippi, the teams work through and live in Camp Coast Care , a joint ministry of the Lutheran and Episcopal churches.