Lizzie - Essay 1

  My long-term vision is helping poor, hungry, abused kids all over the world and spreading God's love to them. I did not have this vision until 7th grade, when I went on a missionary trip which changed my whole perspective on children. I was also inspired by my all-time favorite movie, 'Like Stars on Earth'. I want to major in child/counseling psychology or English when I go to college, and join a global missionary organization.

  I've never liked kids much, until the missionary trip to UK. My parents had signed me up, and I wasn't expecting anything, just planning to lay back and let the others do the work. I was very selfish. But when I met the kids in Southampton, I felt awful. Part of it was from listening to their suffering, and part of it was because I had realized what a greedy, ungrateful person I was. My parents are both Christians, they never fought in front of me or my brother. I couldn't imagine how hard it would have been for those kids, with such horrible parents.

  It was very hard at first, becoming friends with the kids. Some of them would open up easily, and some of them wouldn't. A couple of boys were very aggressive and gave us a hard time. Those boys, we later heard, had parents who were abusive, drug addicts or alcoholics. They were treated badly at home, and the anger would build up inside them, I could feel it. I kept trying, being as nice as I could and talking to them.

  For a long, long time we prayed for the kids, and a lot of them reached out to us. For the first time in my life, I realized how much I wanted to help these kids. I could see how they were not loved, neglected, see the sadness in their faces. On my way back to Korea, I wondered how these kids were living so much in need and I wasn't even aware of it. I prayed to God and I decided to help these children when I grow up.

  I have lived a very happy life, not even comparable to the kids in Southampton. And yet I have never thanked God enough for that. Now that I know that there are so many children who are in need, I choose not to ignore it and reach out to them. This has become more of a testimony than an essay on my vision, but if I had not been on the missionary trip to UK, then I wouldn't have had this vision, or anything at all. I want to spread God's word and love to those who really need it.