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Twenty-one Pinecrest Academy senior boys helped build three homes for families in Nicaragua during the Catholic school's recent senior mission.

One of the hallmarks of a Pinecrest Academy education is service to brothers and sisters in need, both at home and abroad.  In an effort to fulfill this goal with “feet on the ground,” it has become tradition for the senior class to embark on a mission trip together at the end of each school year.

Nicaragua, Central America’s untapped beauty was the site of this year’s Pinecrest Academy’s senior class mission trip.  Despite an unstable government, tropical heat and poverty that is unsurpassed, the students managed to accomplish some life-altering activities for the residents of this third world country. 

Upon arrival in Managua, the students were greeted by oppressive heat and a culture that was vastly different from their US surroundings.  The two-hour ride to Chinadenga on a rickety old school bus through urban and rural neighborhoods immediately introduced the students to the challenges they would endure over the ensuing days.

Twenty-one boys, including four former graduates, and twenty girls, along with parents, a priest, and consecrated women, set out to transform society with the words of Mother Teresa, “We can do no great things, only small things with great love.”  These words would resonate frequently amongst the group as the boys built three houses for families that were living under lean-to’s with banana leaf roofs and dirt floors, while the girls worked with impoverished and abused young girls from a severely underfunded orphanage. 

Twenty Pinecrest Academy senior girls spent time with orphaned girls during a recent Senior Mission Trip to Nicaragua.

Despite the language barrier, students were able to nurture the children with focused love, fresh clothes, games, shopping and dancing.  The student missionaries watched with great satisfaction as their work repainting the entire interior of the orphanage gave a fresh cheerful appearance to the home where the children spend endless hours in community without the consistency of a family.

As the Pinecrest seniors departed in monsoon rains and flooding, one could not help but to feel a little broken hearted about the thousands that they could not help during this mission.  Despite longing for the creature comforts of home, a shower, and a warm bed, they couldn’t escape the reality that in Chinandega many families were enduring wet and dirty conditions with little food or hope. 

There was comfort, though, in the blessings they were able to bring to three families who were now moderately comfortable in a 120-square-foot wooden shack, which was a foot-and-a-half off the damp ground, and smiling orphans with more joy in their hearts despite difficult circumstances.

Pinecrest Academy is is private Catholic School located in neighboring Forsyth County.  For more information, please visit www.pinecrestacademy.org. 

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