A little bit about my story – apologies for the length, but hopefully worth the read.
I went on my first mission trip in the summer of 2002. St Thomas Aquinas (STA) had been running mission trips since 1993 as part of the high school youth ministry program. My daughter Hayley had just finished her freshman year and I can’t quite remember if I was pushing for her to go, she wanted to go, or some combination of the two. Either way, I volunteered to come along as a chaperone if adults were needed (thinking that there were likely more than enough adults, but also thinking – hey, I have some skills and I like high school teens). As fate would have it, there ended up being a spot for me and so in June, I got my first experience on a mission trip. Needless to say, the next summer (2003), now being a veteran, I was welcomed back and was able to add to my experience and was a little less like a deer in headlights about the trip.
Third-year (2004), things started to change. It was to be Sarah’s first year on the trip and in the time leading up to the summer, our youth minister left for another position. Again, as fate would have it, I made the mistake of offering to handle the planning and logistics for the trip. Bill Keeling, our deacon at STA, was taking care of the spiritual components (not my strength). And so now, I was in charge. Uh oh! I figured, one year, no worries; STA hires a new youth minister and I hand over the reins and I’m back to being a volunteer.
Fourth-year (2005), new youth minister and we’re running this together so he can get his feet wet and have that first-year experience under his belt. Fifth-year (2006), I’m finally back to being just a volunteer so all’s good! Then 2007 and our youth minister wants to try something new and after 14 years, we’re looking at the end of this trip. His plan was good, don’t get me wrong, but there was something special about this trip that you weren’t going to be able to find on other mission trips. And again, as fate would have it and after getting great support from a core group of adults, and the blessings of STA, we decided to continue the trip (now known as the Whitesville Mission Trip). And so that summer (Jamie’s first year on the trip), I’m back in charge and there’s no looking back.
And so now the trip starts to change, getting better and better with each year. We start to grow the size of the group; we add more families to work with; we bring on more really great adult volunteers; we improve the experience for the teens (taco-Tuesdays, bonfire evening, fellowship with New Life Church, chair prayer, themes for the week, break-out talks for the guys and girls, etc.). We add college-aged adults, both to serve as mentors to the high school teens and for them to experience the trip as adults themselves. We’ve got adults who have been making the trip for 10, 15, and over 20 years. Each summer, each week, it seems like the conclusion “best trip ever” fits, until we’ve gotten to the point where every trip is amazing in its own way. The experience of the week for everyone has now grown from being the effort of a few to one that every person (adult, college, teen, veteran or first-timer) in some way contributes to – it’s the collective effort and contribution of every person in the group that makes for the experience shared by all.
Fast forward to last summer (2019), my 18th trip – this is turning into a career for me. Again, another amazing trip. We were a group of 98, we worked with 10 families, and left as we always do sad to be leaving, glad to be getting home and start looking forward to the next summer’s trip. Early in planning for this summer’s trip, I was informed that with the current litigation environment surrounding the Catholic Church I would have to legally separate the trip from STA in order to continue. I’ll have to admit I was and continue to be disappointed with the position of the Catholic Church with regard to this trip (save that for another post), but I get it. So here’s the perfect opportunity for me to say “I’m done” and walk away; and believe me, I seriously considered it. But once again as fate would have it, I heard from several adults, college adults, AND teens, that we need to keep the trip alive. How do you say no to that? I’ve been saying for years now that this isn’t my trip, the trip belongs to all of us and that every person has a voice. Well, the voice was pretty loud, so that leads us to today.
DOT Ministries, Inc. was formed and has become the future of the mission trip. The naming of the organization holds a dual meaning. Principally it addresses the reason for the trip – to Develop Our Teens, which manifests itself in providing high school teens and college-aged adults experience in discipleship. It also recognizes my mother – Dot Gallagher – who was until her passing last year a part of every mission trip starting in 1993 (and went on almost all of them). The mission trip is meant to complement high school faith formation and plant seeds of discipleship that I expect (and I have personally seen from past high school teen participants) will bear fruit as they move along on their journey to adulthood.
This summer, we had to cancel the mission trip. It was unfortunate and disappointing, but the pandemic really left no option. So instead, the week our trip was scheduled to occur, on our Facebook page (www.facebook.com/dotministries/), we documented by day (Saturday thru Sunday) the story of the trip, so that you can see and understand better how the trip works and the experience it offers. We consolidated these daily posts into one blog post found on our website titled “A Week In Whitesville”. So please take the time to read about this trip and see it for yourself. If you are a high school teen or the parent of a high school teen, you should take a look for sure. I can promise you this trip offers much for an experience to a high school teen and is different from other mission trips involving high school teens. I can also promise you an experience unlike any you (your teen) has ever experienced.
One last thought and again apologies for the lengthy post. Each summer, we’ll spend somewhere around $50,000 to do the trip. The costs include transportation (we rented 19 minivans last summer), food, accommodations, materials to make repairs to the homes of families we work with among other expenses. Add to that now, the costs of running a non-profit organization. If you could support us either with prayer or financially (www.paypal.me/dotm2020) I would be so grateful. I can promise you that every dollar we raise helps people in need for sure and is also a great investment in the high school teens and college adults that make the trip each summer. So for that, thanks in advance.
So one last time, as fate would have it, I’ll start working on planning for the 2021 Whitesville Mission Trip. God bless!!
