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The News & Record is spotlighting young people in our area reaching out through missions trips to help others. Here's how one group made a difference.

The first week of summer for these young missionaries included feeding street children and helping update the aging Maime Baird Kindergarten for the poor in Cortazar, Mexico. Living with host families, they got up each morning for hands-on projects, and then visited the local United Methodist missionary church to work on crafts with children attending Vacation Bible School. Their observations:

I stayed with a host family that had two young boys, ages 4 and 8. It was a two-story concrete slab house with three bedrooms, one and a half baths, a living room, kitchen and no air conditioning. There was not a door on the bathroom. We had one window in the room we stayed in, and it had bars on it.

The first floor of the house had a little shop in it where they sold chicken and steak. More than once, there was meat on the shop table, lying in the heat for long periods of time, with flies all over it.

The people were very nice. They were very accepting of us, and they said we were family.

I worked with concrete all day. We mixed it from scratch by putting all the ingredients in a pile and turning it over with shovels multiple times. The local people brought the sand into the first floor of the school in a truck and shoveled the sand onto the ground. It was our job to get the sand to the second floor, bucket by bucket, using a pulley system with rope. All of the jobs were done in a primitive kind of way.

The church had cinder-block walls with a tin roof and a concrete floor. We sat in fold-out chairs. It did have power. They had a piano, bass guitar, regular guitar and a drum set. We did not pass by a decent-looking house all the way to church. All we passed were rundown shacks with tarp ceilings/roofs and dirt floors, one room and maybe about four people living in it. That was poor.

This trip made me appreciate where I live and what I have. We talk about people being poor but you really don't understand until you actually see it and are a part of it.

-Adam Staley, 2008 graduate, Southeast Guilford High School

When you hear the word "Mexico," the first thing that comes to mind is probably something about the border. I just returned from a 10-day mission trip to Cortazar, Mexico, and I am here to tell you that Mexico is not how you think it is!

The house that I stayed at was much better than I expected - it had running water and cable TV. The town we stayed at was nice. There were other towns in which the houses were made out of plastic piled together and a tarp for a roof. I was shocked to see how strong their faith was because if I lived in poverty like that I would find it hard to believe in God.

We only did small tasks like painting and putting cement on walls but the welcome we received was amazing. The people are very friendly, and we were able to communicate with a mix of broken Spanish and sign language.

Even though I was there for a short time, I felt so welcomed by the family we lived with. My faith has grown by seeing that such a big group of people has gotten together during the midst of trying times and still praised God. This trip has changed me for the better. Never again will I ever partake in jokes about Mexicans jumping the border.

If I lived like some of those people, I would want to come to America, too. People just want to make a better living for themselves and their families and I can only respect them for that.

-Lauren Shepard, 16, senior, Southeast Guilford High School

This was my first mission trip and it was an awesome experience. Adam (Staley) and I lived in a home with a wonderful family. They had two children, Danny and Paco.

While we were in Cortazar we worked on finishing the school. I helped paint the school. This experience was very touching. I learned a lot and it opened my eyes to a different world. I plan to continue to keep helping people and going on future mission trips.

-Patrick Grimm, 17, senior, Southeast Guilford High School

This was my first mission trip out of the United States. The people in Cortazar were very welcoming. The work that we had to do was painting and cementing a classroom. I chose the painting. And most of the guys chose the cement work.

The host family that I stayed with was great. I came to love them so much. There were about 10 family members staying in the house besides Lauren and me. But their house was not what I expected. It was much nicer. I would love to go back down there for a mission trip in the future.

-Shannon Shepard, 17, 2008 graduate, Southeast Guilford High School