JONESBORO — For the past three years, the students of the Blessed John Newman University Parish in Jonesboro have gone on mission trips. Their first year took them to the Bay St. Louis, Miss., to help out after Hurricane Katrina. The second year took the students to St. Louis, where they helped the Vincentian Service Corps. This year the students decided to stay a little closer to home. They traveled May 12 to Amity (Clark County) where they helped out at the Arkansas Sheriffs’ Youth Ranches for three days.
The Arkansas Sheriffs’ Youth Ranches, directed by Deacon Mike Cumnock, is a long-term housing program for abused and neglected children. According to their Web site, the ranch was started in 1976 by the state’s 75 county sheriffs who were determined to help troubled children before they became adult criminals.
As part of their mission work, the 11 students from Arkansas State University helped to landscape the flower beds around the lodge where they stayed. Some of the students also went up to the house where some of the children live to weed the yard. Unfortunately because of a rainstorm that was all the students were able to do. They also spent some time with the girls that live at the Lake DeGray campus. The students learned about how the girls came to the ranch and what their plans were for the future.
The students not only worked but also spent time playing.
“Mission trips are just as much about having fun as the work we do for others,” chaplain Father Matt Garrison said. He said it is also about bonding with fellow parishioners.
For two of the students, this was their last mission trip as college students. Michael Busick of Pocahontas, said, “It (the trip) was a great way to end four years of college. Being able to help others and knowing that my life (problems are) small compared to some.”
Gina Billeaudeau, also of Pocahontas, said, “It was a great last mission trip. I’ll never forget it.”
As the students were getting ready to head home at the end of the trip, campus ministry director Mary Ruth Staudt said God had a reason for everything and maybe he realized the students needed a small vacation and gave them that as a part of their mission trip.
