Haiti Team Interview Nine: Jessy

She might look young, and indeed she is; but at only twenty years of age, it was Jessy who had charge of the entire Walk-a-Thon fundraiser that helped launch our trip to Haiti. Quiet but level-headed, Jessy displays a maturity beyond her years, a maturity that showed most clearly in the wisdom she brings to social matters, but also in her plans for the future. In terms of employment, that future isn't completely clear to her, but I found, in talking to her, that she knew exactly where she wanted to be emotionally. She is, in fact, in that place in life where you yearn for independence and seek new experiences. There is, however, much more to Jessy than her future. Indeed, she has much to say about her past, and how that past has influenced her present. In the midst of these conversations, you begin to understand that despite Jessy's uncertainties, she has bright prospects, not least because of her natural ability to interact with and accept anyone she meets.

Jessy first heard about the Haiti trip in October or November of 2010, listening to an announcement in church. Having experienced missions trips in the past, and knowing several were interested in this trip, she decided to sign up immediately. Like many members of our team, Jessy faced unexpected challenges leading up to the trip. It was those challenges, however, that helped her to mature, and even prepare her for what she would eventually discover more clearly on the trip itself.

The closer she got to that trip, in fact, she knew that something bad would happen. She saw everyone else dealing with their own challenges, and at one point endured the most intense panic attack she had ever experienced. Jessy knew that all of this-- the team's trials and her own-- proved that we as a team were being attacked spiritually. Not wanting to be disappointed, Jessy tried not to have expectations of the trip.

Perhaps this was for the best. On reflection, she feels this was the strangest mission trip she's been apart of. In others, she said, her team had been either helping children in a vacation Bible school or building. Both kinds were very structured, and both were very unlike what she's experienced in Haiti. In fact, she had never been on a trip where team members had the time to spend with one another. She wasn't complaining, however, because she found it was an opportunity to think through the things happening at home.

The time she'd spent away from her boyfriend of two years-- Joe-- has benefited her, but it was really what was happening with family that came to the forefront in her mind. Jessy is beginning to become aware of who she is, and knows she is in a place where she wants to be more independent of her parents. Being in this time of transition in her life, she feels Haiti helped her trust God more and let go of the "what-if's" of life. At lunch one day, one of the staff said something that helped her to see that God will indeed give her a purpose in life that she will love, and she trusts that he will take care of her.

For the future, she wants to continue to pursue writing, and wants to be more intentional about growing in her faith. More specifically, she wants to see herself spiritually mature in her relations with her family and with others. In fact, she's never seen herself as a forgiving person, and never wanted to be around others who were different. She was, in fact, experiencing a tension common to many Christians-- and many people-- not knowing how a Christian could cultivate a relationship where you could relate to others who lived so differently. When she met Jordan, however, that perspective changed. She saw by his example that it was possible to be in relationship with people who lived differently. He has, to her, been an example of someone who is intentional about relationships, and she has felt that being around him has influenced her own view on interacting with others.

Still, this didn't change her relationship with others, at least not right away. After her father lectured her one night on being judgmental, the next three months saw her grow increasingly distant from her family, so distant that she stopped letting them know her feelings. Since, however, she's become less judgmental about other people's lifestyles, and Haiti has only helped to put that newness of spirit into perspective. She wondered, on the trip, how things would be when she returned home. She wanted to make these changes, these efforts at acceptance, not out of a desire to appease her family, but out of her personal need to grow past her shortcomings. It was this lesson, more than any other, that Jessy learned on her trip to Haiti; and if there was any doubt about how her family would respond to her when she got home, it was dispelled immediately when she did. She was met by them and her boyfriend at one o'clock on a Saturday morning, and the first to embrace her was her father.

In terms of her current experiences, Jessy is truly in transition: she just finished community college last semester, and she and Joe are waiting for confirmation for housing at C.S.U., Stanislaus. She wants to get out on her own, and thinks it would be beneficial to her. Her major will likely be child development with a minor in something about which she's currently unaware. All in all, Jessy may not know what the future will bring, but she certainly has the desire to become someone who will naturally care about other people, a lesson that she learned more evidently in a very unexpected place.