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Monday, June 29, 2026
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Day Seven--Gloria
Today was our final day on the mission trip! Last night I made the grave mistake of telling Mike that he could go straight to stage 3 to wake me up, and I was awoken by a pillow to the head. We packed up our bags and threw a disturbing amount of condiments down the drain. We dropped David off at the airport, but not before he was able to share a Christian rock song in Gen Z slang. We made a stop at Shelter Island while Mike and Riley came up with a quick plan for the day ahead, and then headed to Balboa Park. I was astounded by the size of the park and we found lots to do. We visited the Botanical Building and Gardens and everyone except Riley and me was too pooped to explore it. I found an alarming amount of plants with leaves bigger than my face. We then found lunch and headed to the museum area of the park, and everyone was instantly drawn to the cannibal museum (except Riley and Kyle, who decided it was in their best interest to ride the train instead). We learned about how the label of cannibalism was often used as a justification for the abuse and colonization of many indigenous people, and also that Keith Richards snorted his father's cremated remains. Finally we returned to the van and headed to the airport.
This trip has again surprised me with how meaningful it turned out to be for me. I made many new friendships and tried to focus on this trip's theme of connection. I often struggle with conversing and connecting with strangers, but on this trip I made an active effort to seek out new friends and I believe that I have deepened my faith through that connection. It was beautiful to hear so many people's stories simply through asking questions, and I think everyone on this trip deepened their sense of curiosity. These mission trips have come to mean so much to me, and this trip especially was very meaningful. In an incredibly busy time of my life, this mission trip has taught me to slow down and live in the present moment. It was wonderful to forget about all of my worries for a week as I engaged in service and fun with my fellow mission trippers.
Day Six—Clara
We began the day with a lie-in, as we didn’t have to be at church until 11:15. We attended a service at St. Luke’s Episcopal Church. The church had just finished their vacation bible school week, which was centered around joy. In lieu of a sermon, we got into small groups and discussed what brings us joy, and what about us we feel brings God joy. The service ended with the children singing a song that the rest of us joined in on. It was the most High School Musical church service ending I’ve ever seen. After church, we headed to the San Diego County Fair, where I went on far too many spinning rides with Saleah and ate a truly horrifying amount of fried food. Even after all that, we weren’t done yet. We received an invitation from David and Liz, the parents of a St. Mary’s parishioner to swim at their yacht club. We spent lots of time in the jacuzzi solving riddles. Afterwards, we all heading to Old Venice for pizza and great conversation. We wrapped up the day with a quality crying circle which is technically not my jurisdiction because some of it happened on Monday. I found the church service very unique and inspiring. St. Luke’s is a very diverse congregation, and the service was conducted in both Swahili and English, and well as a small group circle offered in Dinka. The hymns we sung were incredibly joyous, and as someone who enjoys group worship, I found it very moving. It was also fun to hear bible passages and the Lord’s Prayer in Swahili. This was an improvement from last year, because the service was also in English, which made it much more easy to follow.
Day Five—Kyle
Day five of the mission trip started with a late breakfast because we had finished our three days of service. Breakfast consisted of eggs, bagels, and cereal. We packed our last day of lunches for the beach, and packed our bags for kayaking and the beach. After everyone was packed we loaded all of our stuff into the van and set out for a fun day at the beach! We made it to the kayaking touring store and we all found the most perfect tote bag for Riley. We all got suited into life vest and helmet for our kayaking adventure! After we were all ready we walked over to the beach to get some simple skills on kayaking after that we got into the water and onto our kayaks. I was with Caroline. We made it out onto the water but I look to the left and I see Mike and Saleah capsize into the water and I just felt really bad because the water was super cold and the sun was unfortunately not out yet and it was very cloudy but they got back into there boat and made it out into the ocean with the rest of us. We listened to our kayak instructor and started paddling to the caves. While paddling we looked to the left and saw a sandcastle looking house that was beautiful we got a little story about the house and kept paddling. We eventually made it to the cave and got the names of each cave. We saw a injured sea lion who could barely swim and I felt really bad because we couldn’t help him. We made it to this very cool cave that we could go into to but the line was pretty long so we decided to go into the back way into the cave and a massive wave came in. Caroline and I moved out of the way but Cate and Clara got flipped over so one of our instructors got out and saved them. Once everyone was saved it was time for our tour to be over so we paddled back to the beach. Once we made it to the beach we headed to the shower to the get the sand off and then headed back to the kayaking tour store to take off our our life vest and helmet we walked back to the van and ate our lunches. After all of us had lunch we walked to the beach once we made it I sprinted into the water and I would say I spent a few hours in the ocean. I think I can say that we all loved it! We tried to catch a wave with and without a boogie board and threw a water foot ball together. Once our beach time ended we hit the showers and walked to get a local ice cream shop I got hazelnut cookies and cream and it was amazing! Then Mike picked us up in the van and we went to USD. We had a few minutes to shower or do whatever you wanted but after that we had a fabulous dinner made by David he made pasta and it was delicious and amazing! He said it was one of his family recipes after that we all played cards together sadly I got last but I had never played the game before so it was fine. This day of fun brought many connections but a couple connections that I thought were special were when Caroline and I saved ourselves from the wave and we had a very fun time together on the kayak adventure. Another connection that I felt was special was when Saleah and I were out into the ocean and were just jumping over the waves and having a nice conversation. Another connection that I thought was special was when Mike and I were throwing around the football in the ocean that was probably the highlight of the day because football and the beach are two of my favorite things in the whole world! The final connection that I thought was special was when Nathaniel and I were catching waves together in the ocean and we both caught some sick waves.
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