Have you ever heard of Eutaw? No, that is not a typo. I am talking about Eutaw, Alabama of course. This is where I was from June 9th-15th with Relevant Church of Ybor City, Floridafor a mission trip. This was my first mission trip with the church while this was the church’s fourth mission trip to Eutaw.
Over the past few weeks I’ve been writing about how I am trying to make Clarity Finances more of an Evolved Enterprise by studying the works of Yanik Silver. For this week’s blog post however I wanted to switch things up a little and show how I am going about trying to make my business more evolved.
In the various posts, I’ve written about ways in which a business can stand out and differentiate itself from the rest. One way that I want Clarity Finances to stand out is by giving back to the world and to my immediate local community. I’ve been on a number of mission trips throughout my life that have taken me all over the world to places like Honduras, Russia and Guatemala. I was stateside for this mission trip, which was just a 10-hour road trip from my home in Tampa, Florida.
Seven of us from Relevant Church of Ybor City, Florida disembarked for our journey on June 9th. Over the course of one week we worked throughout the town of Eutaw, Alabama. According to an article from AL.com, Alabama is the 6th poorest state in the nation and the town of Eutaw is not exempt from the struggle with poverty. Despite being one of the wealthiest nations on Earth, the US has plenty of cities and towns struggling with poverty. Feelings of surprise, shock and disappointment all may come to mind when hearing things like this, but what can the average person do to make a difference?
We may feel powerless and lost when it comes to making societal change, but to quote the British author George Eliot, “Great things are not done by impulse, but by a series of small things brought together.” I alone cannot change the course of poverty in this country, but along with six other people from my church, we tried to contribute something positive while at the same time learning more about the culture of the area and other ways we can help in the future.
So what did we do while we were on this mission trip? We worked with many students from the local elementary and middle schools. We did small things like playing dodgeball and kickball with the kids but there were also speakers there to talk about things like a career in surveying. There were also free dental exams offered for the kids by Dr. Wyatt, a member of a team from another church. Hoss cooked up some delicious food during our stay as well. Rumor has it that he used to be a professional football player, but I don’t know his real name. He definitely works with a football ministry and he played at Alabama (Roll Tide!)
I also want to mention, I’ve been on other mission trips before and I always notice if the trip runs smoothly or chaotically. This one was delightfully well run. Yay! There are a lot of logistics involved in mission trips and they are not easy things to coordinate. Please pray for the amazing Mickey who makes that happen for SCORE International’s trips. He brings years of event planning experience with him and that is a huge blessing!
For my next mission trips, I plan to return to Eutaw, Alabama next summer and I am considering going with a team to Jamaica in January that does home building and repair. Any contractors want to join me in Jamaica? If you feel called, please contact me!