I went on my first mission trip when I was 14, the summer between my freshman and sophomore years. We went to Sneedeville, Tenn., tore down a barn, salvaged the wood and gave it to a local gentleman who was going to build a small store to sell his homemade pottery. It took us nearly the entire week to get the barn down; and as we watched it fall, there was such a sense of accomplishment. The man who was receiving the wood invited us to his house on our final evening and gave us each a mug he had made to say thank you. My world forever has been changed. Suddenly, this country was incredibly small, my friends were incredibly close, and a town that most never have heard of was incredibly large in my life story.

Mission trips were vital to me every summer after. We convinced our youth director in Frakes, Ky., to adopt a dog we found on the side of the road. It was only after we were home, the litter of puppies was born (we didn’t know she was pregnant!) and her health issues become apparent did my youth leader vow never to bring home another stray no matter how many tears we shed trying to convince her. (This is a lesson I learned well and never will let my kids convince me to bring in a stray off the side of the road). I cried about two years ago when I heard the dog, Angel, had passed away.

There was the year in Rappahannock, Va., when we cut down trees all week to prep for the building of a community center and my mom was a chaperone. I was not happy. However, I discovered by the end of the week that my mom actually was kind of cool, and she earned her nickname “Chain Saw Mama.”

Acts 20:35 says, “In all things I have shown you that by working hard in this way we must help the weak and remember the words of the Lord Jesus, how He Himself said, ‘It is more blessed to give than to receive.'” Within our local community, our state, our country and our world, where God sends us is where we will go.

The youth on the mission trips I lead now are not allowed to bring phones, use video games or watch TV. They don’t have the comfort of climbing into their beds at the end of a grueling day, and long and steamy showers are not to be had on these trips. Still, year after year, they come back.

We have had overflowing port-a-potties, relentless mosquitoes and air mattresses with holes. We’ve also had laughter until our sides ache, amazing bonds between the team members, and incredible satisfaction through helping others. There was the youth who saw his first lightning bug in Louisiana, the youth who started the tortilla club to avoid washing dishes all week (he ate every meal from a tortilla), and the youth who jumped out of the van when we got home from Jordan Valley, Ore., and exclaimed, “I just had the best week of my whole life!” Our goal is to help others, but what we as leaders and the youth as team members get out of the trips is so much more than we ever could give.

Removing someone from his or her comfort zone brings about a sense of vulnerability and opens one up to receiving the gifts God is giving us through helping others. The friendships we make among the team members and with the homeowners are unlike any other. Friends from high school have teased me that I became a youth leader because I didn’t want to stop going on mission trips. I actually had a very spiritual moment when I realized God’s plans for me were to become a youth leader and not the third grade teacher I always had planned to be. Mission trips are definitely a perk, but this year we have 19 young adults going to Costa Rica. The majority have been supported by others for many years to get to this point.

Those who support our youth—the congregation, the parents and the peers—truly are changing lives. The gratitude I have for my congregation from when I was 14 is something its members never will know. They changed my life. You are changing lives. We are teaching our youth to be givers and stewards of good will. We are teaching them to give selflessly of themselves. The rewards they are receiving now are small compared to how it will shape them as they mature. We are enabling them to be the hands and feet of Christ in every community they serve, in their local communities, in their states, in the United States and around the world.