In the past, missionaries have been sent far and wide to spread their faith. But over the years, missions have transformed into a means for mobilizing many more people who want to help those who are less fortunate at home and abroad. For those who are involved with a local church or religious organization, a mission trip can be a way to share their faith while lending a helping hand. For others, the trips can be an outlet to share their talents in a way that benefits others. Regardless of the motivation, a mission trip is the ultimate experience for spreading the desire to do good, empowering service, and changing lives. These Berks residents are on a mission to prove that no matter your beliefs or skill set, everyone can do something to help those in need. 

Photo courtesy of Carrie Kizuka Photography, llc

Carrie Kizuka

Sinking Spring 

One call started it all  

Professional photographer Carrie Kizuka’s life changed when her friend Jane returned from a mission trip to a Haitian orphanage. Child Hope International is a Christian organization that provides orphaned, abandoned, and at-risk children in Haiti with the physical, educational, spiritual and personal care they need through programs and ministries.  The program aims to place children back into their homes so that they can teach other children the life and entrepreneurial skills they need to live on their own. 

“I was touched by the stories Jane had shared. When she told me that she was organizing a trip for early 2014 I jumped at the chance to join her,” Carrie explains. “I knew how much the Haitian people were negatively impacted by the tsunami in 2010 and I felt like this would be a great opportunity to not only give back to people in need, but also to educate myself on issues of global importance.” Before the earthquake there were an estimated 380,000 orphans in Haiti, and officials believe that number doubled after the quake. Carrie traveled with Jane and 11 other women from across the country to Haiti, where each woman used her unique talent to give back to the orphanage. 

Giving to those who give back

During her eight-day visit, Carrie donated her time and talents by helping to paint murals around the orphanage and distribute food through the community feeding program. She also tutored students in geometry, trigonometry and pre-calculus. However, her work did not stop with the children at Child Hope. Carrie also wanted to give back to those who were dedicating their lives to keep the organization going. She donated professional photo sessions to two missionary families who had moved to Haiti years before and had since adopted Haitian children. 

The first family she photographed included a single mother working as a teacher and her son, who happened to be wheelchair-bound. “They were two of the most positive, loving people I have ever met in my life,” Carrie says of the family. The other was a married couple who moved to the country to do mission work and adopted a daughter. “These families probably would not have been able to afford professional photo shoots, and honestly, that was probably far from being a priority in their lives at the moment,” Carrie says of her subjects. “I thought it would be a nice gift to their families and a small token of my appreciation for the kindness and dedication they have shown to their communities.” 

A valuable souvenir 

Each day while the children were in school, Carrie explored Haiti and the programs currently available to people in need. She toured a dilapidated maternity hospital and a tent city, and she had a chance to visit an after-school program that emphasized sports and art, a church service, and a park that had been created to help the local people. “Everywhere I went I was continually surprised by the Haitian spirit. Everywhere I went people were smiling, singing and playing. Seeing people who were content with so few material items in their lives really made me view my life through a different lens.” 

Carried explained that while she would like to go back to Haiti, her experience there created in her a desire to help at home. “I gained a new perspective from that trip and a new desire to help those in need in my own community.” She knows that there is much work to be done locally and has set her sights on finding a way to help those in need, wherever she is needed.

Mark Potts

Reading

The Spark

Reading native Mark Potts’ passion for helping others started at a very young age at church camp, and he has been sharing that passion through his church far and wide ever since. He has participated in dozens of mission trips with several local churches in more than 30 years of service to those in need. As a boy, Mark and his family were members of Reading Urban Ministries, but even after he and his family moved to Calvary UMC in Mohnton, he continued to represent his original church, which eventually went on to start Opportunity House. 

As Mark grew older, he followed his passion outside of the church. He expanded his charitable resume working as a volunteer with Big Brothers Big Sisters of Berks County and the Lions Club, and he also pursued a career path that allowed him to help others. He manned an ambulance for the PA Turnpike Commission for more than 30 years, continuing to work there today. He was also involved with the US Coast Guard Auxiliary for more than a decade. But it was his home at Calvary UMC that ignited his passion for mission work.  

A Lifetime of Lending a Hand

His first trip was to Grundy, VA, where he worked with the Appalachian Service Project Mission to roof a home. “I loved it and it started my love for missions,” Mark says. After his time in Virginia, Mark returned to Appalachia to lend a hand at the former Bennett Center in London, KY. 

Through his work with the Red Bird Mission at the Bennett Center, Mark found a mission even closer to his heart. On a subsequent trip south he was asked to help out at the Henderson Settlement in Frakes, KY. The settlement’s goal is to create opportunities for better lives through Christ-centered service in mission and community outreach, as well as through an agricultural program and craft and thrift stores. “I love the people and the organization,” Mark says of Henderson. During his visits he has performed construction work and repairs, served at the food bank, and worked the Fun Fair, where area locals could get information about the settlement and about getting involved.

After many years of service through Calvary UMC, Mark changed churches once more to Harmony UMC in Morgantown, although he still made one more trip to help his friends at Henderson, and he hopes to return again soon. His new community recognized his talent and desire to help others and asked him to assist in organizing and leading their youth mission trips. Since then, he has traveled to Shamokin to help a veteran and his family repair flood damage to their home and to Annapolis, MD, where he again did construction work to rehabilitate an old home. 

After all the construction hours he has logged, Mark still jokes that he was only ever a “light-duty handyman,” and the heavier building was a learning experience. “I’ve been extremely blessed to work with teens that actually had experience in building. I learned a lot from them.” 

It Runs in the Family

What makes Mark’s mission work so unique is that it is truly a family affair. His mother Grace was the Mission Coordinator for Calvary UMC in Mohnton, and it was a trip she took with her best friend Shirley to Kentucky that sparked his family’s many years of service there. While Grace became entrenched at the Red Bird Mission, Mark and his father, Charlie, worked side by side, first at the Bennett Center and then at the Henderson Settlement. 

On one special trip, three generations of Potts men – Mark, his father Charlie, and his son Jonathan – all worked on a building project at the settlement together. “A memory that I’ll never forget is seeing my father working in that food bank. Bless his heart; he worked hard. The year before that though, the three of us – my father, my son and I – worked to put up the ceiling in that same food bank. So we worked where we saw the fruits of our labors, literally and figuratively.” The Potts men continued to work together as much as possible throughout the years, lending a hand and a hammer at the Pocono Plateau UMC Camp and at Mission Central in Mechanicsburg.

Although his parents’ mission trips may be over, he and his son plan to continue to commit their time to helping others. Jonathan is an Eagle Scout and has already done some work on his own rehabbing and repairing at Harmony UMC, where his grandfather was a pastor for several decades.  “What inspires me is the need to help others,” Mark says of his and his family’s life work. “But I end up learning more. I learn the history, experience the life there, and help create a spirit of love that is badly needed. You can see it in the eyes and the smiles.”

Helping at Home

You don’t have to leave Berks County to find mission work opportunities and a chance to help. Schwarzwald Lutheran Church is giving its youth an opportunity to give back to a different local charity each day for a week this summer as its mission trip. The variety will provide the children with a diverse experience and give them the opportunity to share their love across the community. They will spend a day with these four local organizations. 

Safe Berks

Volunteers will help clean the grounds at the center and help with the children’s activities at the safe house. safeberks.org

Hope’s Table

The facilities at Northeastern Pennsylvania Synod Lutheran Center need renovations, and the church plans to help with handy work. They will also be cooking and serving a meal to the community in need. nepasynod.org

Humane Society of Berks County

The children will get to spend the day with the animals at the center in Reading, as well as help to clean the facility and provide much-needed supplies. berkshumane.org

Hope Rescue Mission

From helping in the nightly chapel to cleaning and organizing to food preparation, the young volunteers from Schwarzwald will lend a hand wherever it is needed at this local mission. hopeforreading.org

These local causes can always use additional support. With so many in need of assistance right here in Berks, you don’t have to travel far to lend a helping hand.