Meaningful Mission

Saint Francis students experience awe and thankfulness while serving others on a mission trip to Chile.

By Reggie Hayes
Photography provided by Francisco Townsend

Saint Francis senior Paul Scheifele ought to be the official spokesman for the student mission trip to Chile. An international student from Aschaffenburg, Germany, Scheifele barely contains his excitement when talking about his experience.

“I have been to many countries, but I had never been to South America,” Scheifele said. “If you want to see a new culture, see new landscapes—every landscape you can imagine is in this country. There’s the ocean, there are dunes, mountains, everything. And the weather was superhot but, in the evening, turned cold because of the ocean. With the nature of the service part of the trip, you should 100% do it.”

The Chile trip is run by Director of Student Engagement Francisco Townsend, a native of Chile who originally spearheaded the trip through the YMCA in 2011, about five years after he had moved to the United States. His wife, Julie, was working at Saint Francis at that time. That first trip was spurred by a desire to help after an earthquake, and subsequent trips have addressed various Chilean needs.

Townsend took a group of seven students last March and plans to continue the trip twice annually—in December and March.

The trip contains five components: service, education, immersion, mission and tourism.

“The most beautiful and important part of this trip was the service part,” Scheifele said. “What stood out to me was when we helped the homeless people, gave clothes to them and food to them—together with the YMCA, which is a great organization. It was a very emotional day.”

Scheifele said he and his fellow students gained fresh perspective about the blessings of their own lives.

“It helped us understand how blessed we are and that we should be thankful every day,” Scheifele said. “And, if we have opportunities to give back, we should give back.”

The Saint Francis students also painted school classrooms and staged a children’s carnival with many games, and Saint Francis donated San Damiano crosses for the classrooms.

During the educational part of the trip, students learn about the culture and the people of Chile, followed by immersion, where they stay locally in a neighborhood home and experience what the local people do in everyday life. “If you are there well over a week, you can immerse more than in two or three days,” Townsend said.

For mission, students engage with local organizations with similar values to Saint Francis and attend a local Mass. Finally, the students are treated to some tourism through local sports or other gathering areas. Townsend said the March trip included several different cities.

Students must apply to be part of the trip and go through an interview process. “I just want to make sure people come with the right heart,” Townsend said. “We go to serve, not to be served. So, if you go with that mind and heart, then we’re good.”

“There’s no limit on age,” Townsend said. “Everybody can participate. What we do is we bring together people’s skills and talents, and we put them to work as part of a big puzzle where everybody can contribute.”

The memories of the trip are bound to have a lasting influence on those who go.

“I knew the other students before we went but it created a deeper connection between us,” Scheifele said. “We are all different people, but we lived in one house, and it was great. Now we are basically best friends. If we see each other, we give each other a hug because this experience is in us now.