Spring break has sprung: What were the students of NGU up to?
Trinity Adams, Staff Writer
Many students’ favorite part of the spring semester is spring break. It is a much-needed week to relax, decompress and catch up on schoolwork and projects. Although spring break has come and gone, students took the time to visit family, work and explore new places.
NGU had many students take part in one of the six mission trips across the world and throughout the U.S.
Freshman Avery Murray went on her first international mission trip to Kosovo. She mentioned that this was an eye-opening experience for her due to the fact that this was her first time in a place where Christians were the minority.
She explained that the hardest part of the trip was feeling the burden and heaviness, knowing that people were blatantly practicing something they thought was saving them but wasn’t.
“The Lord used that to humble me and also show me his sovereignty over everything. It was really cool, and I made lots of fun memories and drank a lot of coffee. I‘m definitely going to go back,” Murray said.
Senior Amelia Chapman and sophomore Phillip Brooks also went on a mission trip to Puerto Rico through their church, Christ Fellowship Cherrydale. During the day, they helped the church that they partnered with with chores and helped members of the church who needed work done, like house painting. At night, they would host Bible studies out of the homes of the local church members.
“It was definitely difficult having a language barrier when I wanted to build relationships with people. The Sunday that we were there, I really wanted to connect with the people of the church and to have conversations, but I simply don’t know Spanish,” Chapman said.
Despite the difficulties of a language barrier, she explained that it was still really fulfilling to know that she was still able to help people of the church. Brooks also mentioned his difficulty with the language barrier despite being in Spanish 5 here at NGU. He was still able to build relationships with some of the students who were a part of the youth ministry at the church.
“Monday night during VBS [vacation bible school], I basically just played basketball the whole time with the older boys. That was really fun because when you are playing basketball, you don’t really need to form full conversations, you can just say random words. I asked this one kid who lived in Orlando for like 10 years to help me translate some words so I was able to talk to some of the guys we were playing with,” Brooks shared.
Although many students did not go on mission trips, some took the time to work at a job back home or go on trips with family. Freshman Ellison Cantrell went on a trip to New York with her mom and best friend.
“It was fun. We got to see ‘The Great Gatsby’ on Broadway and it was amazing. It had Diggy from ‘Liv and Maddie’ in it so I was really excited,” said Cantrell.
Freshman Haddon Owens spent his break with family at home but also went on a trip to the beach with his friends for a day. Despite the sunny weather that Tigerville experiences, it was almost the complete opposite on Sullivan’s Island.
“We had a great time, but it was really windy and cold,” Owens said.
As school swings back into full swing, many students are hard at work preparing for final projects and tests. With only five weeks until the end of the school year, some students are already dreaming of their next break, whether it’s on a trip with family or serving at a summer camp or mission trip.
