CONWAY — Catholic college students at the University of Central Arkansas in Conway went to Jamaica this spring break not to work on their tans, but to serve the poor.
Accompanied by campus ministry director Deacon Richard Papini and Anna Walthall, 24 students spent one week in March on a mission trip in the Diocese of Montego Bay, Jamaica, which is only 1.5 percent Catholic and is riddled with poverty. The students were split in to three groups that went into the towns of Grange Hill, Alva, Brownstown and Discovery Bay and participated in a variety of service work in the communities they lived in for the week.
In Grange Hill, six students added onto an existing youth center that the community will use as a church until a new one is built. They also visited with several members of the local church and gave talks after Mass.
“Christ was everywhere in Jamaica,” said William Burmester, a freshman and a member of St. Joseph Church in Conway. “The Jamaicans live with such humility and love. They treat their visitors with so much respect. They give everything that they have and do not complain. Christ was in every face that smiled when they saw us.”
Austin Franke, a sophomore and member of Christ the King Parish in Little Rock, had similar feelings about his experience in Grange Hill.
“It was amazing how the love Christ was so present in the locals, even though they had close to nothing material-wise,” he said. “Their love was stronger than ever. The locals didn’t care about their possessions. All they cared about was their community and their faith.”
The second group that went to Brownstown and Discovery Bay conducted Life in the Spirit seminars, gave chastity talks, led praise and worship services and visited with disabled children.
“There were several times during the trip when I felt the Holy Spirit come over me and work through me. Trips such as this one keep my desire for Christ burning and make me want to keep doing God’s work,” said Meghan Dayer, a sophomore and member of St. Joseph Church in Conway.
This was a common sentiment from the trip, an overwhelming sense of Christ’s love and a growth in faith.
Courtney Bentley, a sophomore and member of St. John the Baptist Church in Hot Springs, experienced this growth as well.
“I got to share God’s word with the people and share with them what being a Catholic is all about,” she said. “Before going on this trip, I would have never seen myself giving talks to people about God’s unconditional love and mercy, but when we arrived in Jamaica, I felt like it was my second home.”
The third group traveled to Alva, a small community in the mountains of Jamaica. Throughout the week, these students made Communion calls, visited the sick and elderly in the village, visited schools and visited disabled children at Murry Mount.
Alvaro Vindell, an international student from Nicaragua and a senior at UCA, said, “This mission trip has made a great difference in my life. It made me grow in faith and as a person. It made me learn that we have to be humble and simple people.”
Natalie Trower, a freshman from St. John Church in Russellville, experienced a similar growth in her Catholic faith.
“I have become a much stronger Catholic Christian since coming to Jamaica,” she said. “I have gained the courage to pray over people and to be a true witness of the faith.”
Mission Jamaica has been held for the past seven years and traditionally has been attended by students from Franciscan University in Steubenville.
