post- post, class date: 11/16/11; written date: 11/17/11

During high school, there were two consecutive summers that I traveled to Lakeland with my youth group for a missions trip. These trips are what really opened my eyes and established my belief that missions are just as vital here, in our own backyards, as they are over seas. Stemming from that experience of being in run-down neighborhoods, and seeing that we have a handful of neighborhoods like that surrounding this very campus, I think it'd be a neat idea to go through these neighborhoods and clean up- all the while getting to talk with the inhabitants just to learn about them and their lives, love them with our listening, see if there is any way that we can also love them with our giving, etc. I think it's a great plan to start by cleaning up the trash to help the environment, but if we could get the people that live there involved as well, it would make that much more of a difference- for the planet, bit by bit, but also for each soul involved.