I have always been a member of the church, but I was never was quite involved in the works of the church until a few years back. Before I started getting into missions and programs, I did not realize the effects that it would have on people I came in contact nor did I know the effect it would later have on me. In the past year I was involved in two Missions one far and one very close to home.

Throughout my winter breaks, I was at Mission Arlington spreading God’s love. In Arlington I helped with moving food and donations for local soup kitchens and food lockers and such. I also helped with a program for kids called Rainbow Express. I saw many little kids and teens come to Christ from very bad situations at home and made me really cherish the loving parents that I have at home. Mission Arlington definitely had a great effect on me, seeing the smiling faces on people who I helped even though they  literally had nothing to be smiling about. Mission Arlington definitely put things into perspective for me.

About mid-summer I went to Seattle with my church. There we helped with cleaning up the city and parks and helped out with local churches. seattle had almost the same effect on me, except the people there seemed to think that they deserved help and were pretty demeaning to the whole scheme of things. this made me realize that help isn't always going to be cherished.

I have helped in many other programs that are local, like for example “Healthy Kids,” was a program that I gave most of my summer to. Healthy Kids gives kids a healthy meal during the summer everyday. This helps with poor families who can't afford a healthy meal for their kids.

These experiences have definitely changed me as a person by bringing me closer to Christ and has given me a want to provoke change in others. I definitely believe that I have effected the way people see christians and have provoked change in their heart throughout my missions and programs both local and far away. I hope this makes me a great candidate for your scholarship.