25 Highland Academy students and three sponsors traveled to Hawaii for a 10-day mission trip experience starting January 30 and concluding February 9, 2022. The mission trip, which followed the theme “Restoring Paradise,” was filled with many forms of community service.

Before the pandemic hit in 2020, mission trip organizers originally wanted to do a mission trip in Africa. Due to COVID-19 concerns, the mission trip was postponed until this year and organizers decided to do something locally instead. With the assistance of Praying Pelican Missions, an organization that plans short-term mission trips to serve local churches, the team was able to connect with the Lawaii Valley Church and the Kapaa Church in Hawaii.

“When you tell people you're on a mission trip to Hawaii, everybody laughs because they think that’s a vacation, not a mission trip,” said Will Labrenz, chaplain at Highland Academy and mission trip sponsor. “But the students were actually really involved in helping the local community during our time there.”

Students participated in various forms of community service, including painting walls, gardening, cleaning houses, doing door-to-door ministry, and even harvesting taro roots — a plant used to make the famous Hawaiian dish, poi. Since some of the students are part of Gymnix, Highland Academy’s gymnastic team, the group also put on a short gymnastic performance for a local elementary school.

“I think something that stood out to me the most was that, for the entirety of the trip, our main goal was to highlight the Christian character,” Highland Academy senior James Smartt said. “Even when we took a break or when we were trying to just have fun, our goal was always to spread the word of God and act the way Jesus would.”

The trip was attended by senior, juniors, sophomores and one freshman.

The theme for the mission trip was “Restoring Paradise,” as a way to acknowledge that even in the most beautiful places in the world, people still need to know of God’s love. According to Labrenz, each evening students gathered for worship and discussed the ways in which they had seen God worked throughout their day.

“[This trip] showed me that God's love doesn't have frontiers,” said Yudieth Rios, a senior at Highland Academy. Rios came up with the mission trip theme. “There is work that needs to be done everywhere, even in these beautiful places like Hawaii. Everybody needs God… to have this privilege in your hands, that God is using you, it’s just perfect and powerful.”

Highland Academy is planning to do another trip next school year and though a final decision has not yet been reached, Mission Trip Coordinator Andy Wade said they are hoping to continue with their original plan to visit Kenya.

“Service is a large part of our program here at Highland Academy,” Wade said. “Whether it’s in our communities or abroad, we feel that it is an important part in our mission to develop Christ-like characters.”