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March 9, 2010

By Emily Younker The Joplin Globe Tue Mar 09, 2010, 05:17 PM CST

CARTHAGE, Mo. — Nathan Humphrey was focused on his work Tuesday as he painted the Spanish word for love — “amor” — on an inside wall of the Iglesia Principe de Paz.

“This is really living out our mission statement,” said Humphrey, a sophomore at College Heights Christian School in Joplin. “It’s doing what we say we do, not just saying things.”

Humphrey is one of a group of College Heights students volunteering this week at the Hispanic church in Carthage and elsewhere as part of the school’s Missions Week.

College Heights has had Missions Week annually for high-school students for at least the past seven years, said Sonya Wilkins, missions coordinator.

“The general message is it’s not about us,” she said. “We want to serve others because that’s what Christ did.”

‘Joy to see’

Almost 90 high-school students and sponsors are spread throughout Joplin this week working as needed at Crosslines, Spring River Christian Village, Neighborhood Life House and the Missouri Baptist Children’s Home.

Others, primarily upperclassmen, are in Mexico City working with the international organization Youth With a Mission, operating a children’s vacation Bible school and doing “street evangelism,” Wilkins said.

More than 20 students are at the Red Bird Mission Work Camp in Beverly, Ky., to repair homes and do related projects for low-income residents. A group of sophomores is at the Cookson Hills Christian Children’s Home in Kansas, Okla., where students are completing projects as well as interacting one-on-one with the children.

Freshman students are in Ozark, Ark., to work with Youth With a Mission in rural areas, helping residents with home projects and visiting preschools.

College Heights dedicates one week per year to missions because the work is so important, Wilkins said.

“It’s just a joy to see (the students) serving because the culture is teaching them to think only about themselves,” Wilkins said. “It’s a joy to see them break away from that.”

Stacey Portillo, a Spanish teacher at College Heights High School, said this year marks the first time students have gone to Iglesia Principe de Paz church in Carthage.

Their work includes painting banners, repainting the children’s room and adding sheep to a large mural in the church. The group then heads to Fairview Elementary School each day to tutor young students after school, Portillo said.

Portillo, who serves as the team leader for the Hispanic outreach, said students so far have been positive and excited to work.

“It makes you proud because they’re so self-sufficient,” she said Tuesday as she surveyed the group’s work inside the church. “They know what needs to be done and they do it, and they do it with a good attitude.”

Shelby Creson, a College Heights sophomore, spent most of Monday painting a verse from the Gospel of Matthew in Spanish over the front doors of the church. She then helped kindergartners with some computer programs during the after-school session.

“It was really fun,” she said of tutoring the young girls. “They didn’t know us, but they were really sweet.”

Creson said she appreciates that her school places such a strong emphasis on missions.

“It just means a lot to me that I can serve and help people, and hopefully show them God’s love through what I’m doing,” she said. “It just makes me feel really happy that I could help.”

Creson said she thinks she will gain a lot this week in working with the Hispanic population and learning about the culture.

“I think it will be good for later on because I hope to go on a mission trip, maybe to Mexico,” she said.

Service goes on

Missions Week is such a fundamental part of College Heights that it remains with some graduates.

Rachel Calandro, a 2009 graduate and current freshman at the University of Arkansas in Fayetteville, said she participated in four years’ worth of Missions Week during high school.

“My favorite was actually participating in local missions because it opened my eyes to all the ways you can serve around Joplin,” she said. “I learned a lot more (doing local missions) because this is stuff I can go back and keep doing. I could see the results around me.”

Calandro is majoring in international relations and Middle Eastern studies, and she hopes one day to be a missionary in India. She said she has always wanted to be a missionary, and Missions Week gave her specific ideas for helping.

“It helped me learn what was out there and how I can be serving,” she said. “I know I want to do missions, but I’m not sure exactly what I want to do.”

Humphrey, a first-year College Heights student and Missions Week participant, said he spent most of Monday measuring the church wall in Carthage to adequately space out banners and then reading with fourth-graders at Fairview.

He said he anticipates “definitely growing character” through his work this week.

“Like right now,” he said, painting smooth brush strokes on the letter “r” in “amor.” “(I’m) having to be very patient, and working with fourth-graders in the after-school program — not a picnic, either.”

Humphrey said it “blows my mind” that he has the opportunity to volunteer and serve others on a school-sponsored weeklong trip.

“Our shirts kind of say it for themselves,” said Humphrey, who wore a bright green shirt emblazoned with the message of John 13:34, loving one another. “We’re showing them what Jesus did, so it’s really an awesome opportunity.”

Middle school

College Heights sixth- through eighth-graders will spend one day this week doing their own projects, which involve work at Maranatha Bible Camp in Everton and some park cleanup.