After hours of traveling, they finally arrived to their destination, Haiti. The sight is heart breaking, with impoverished children huddled around a dim light with only the comfort of song and prayer to get them through the week. This is just one of the life-changing memories experienced by senior Jenny Bowden.

This past summer, two seniors donated their time traveling overseas for mission trips. Bowden and senior Justin Jang traveled to spend many hours playing with orphans in third-world countries, raising funds for their causes and attempting to change the lives and environments of the people they connected with.

Bowden is no rookie when it comes to mission trips. Bowden has gone to Haiti multiple times, including this past summer, to spend six days with the local orphaned children. In these orphanages, there are 10 children to every one woman caretaker. According to Bowden, her experiences have been humbling and inspiring.

“Most of the children just want to be held,” Bowden said. “They don’t receive much one-on-one attention. Regardless of how impoverished they were, all the children were still so joyful.”

Jang went on a ten-day mission trip this past summer to Nairobi, Kenya. Jang said that the trip helped him connect and empathize with others.

“We have such easy lives here,” Jang said. “You can’t really understand that until you see it for yourself.”

Although mission trips are very rewarding, according to Bowden, they do have their risks.

“When we were being bussed over to the orphanage, a Haitian man started handing us handmade bracelets through the windows of the bus,” Bowden said. “We all thought he was just being kind. Then he started yelling and cursing at us because he expected to get paid. We immediately returned them and shut all the windows. It was definitely an experience I won’t forget.”

However, Bowden and Jang both said it’s worth the risk.

“God doesn’t call us to be in our comfort zones,” Bowden said. “If something were to go wrong, I would be okay with that. Besides, dying on a mission trip sounds like a pretty cool way to go.”

As far as the future goes, Bowden and Jang said they will definitely be going on more mission trips. In fact, these trips have even influenced their future career plans.

“I plan on majoring in elementary education and becoming a special education teacher as well as a missionary,” Bowden said.

Jang said he would use the money he makes in medicine for a higher cause.

“The dream would be becoming a doctor, making big bucks, and going back to these third-world countries to help out,” Jang said.

Jang’s interest in helping others extends to his involvement in Liberty North Korea, an organization that educates people about North Korea and helps refugees escape. Jang is currently in the process of raising funds to do just that.

“Being Korean, I care a lot about the tragedies of North Korea,” Jang said. “They don’t let a lot of people in and there’s always a chance that they could kidnap you and kill you, so its not very safe. But I’m very passionate about it, so ideally that is where I would like to do further missionary work.”

Bowden said the opportunity to help will always be something she takes advantage of in the future.

“God calls us to be his hands and feet,” Bowden said. “We go on these trips to spread God’s word, show the love and really create relationships with the people we meet.”