Jan 5, 2014 2 min read

We have frequently noted and commended the sense of duty and service that leads Waynesburg University faculty and staff to embark on mission trips when classes are not in session.

And they’re at it again. This month, 61 students are scattering to the Missions Academy in the Bahamas, a nutritional center in Guatemala, Trans World Radio on the Caribbean island of Bonaire and various non-profit organizations in Greene County, to help out the less fortunate.

In the Bahamas, 16 students and their trip leader, Dr. Terri Small, a professor of nursing at Waynesburg University, will assist with operations of a health clinic for Haitian refugees have little or no access to health care. As Small said prior to the trip, “We look forward to assisting Mission Academy Ministries as they provide much-needed services to communities that would otherwise have no access to health care.”

The Guatemalan trip includes 20 students who will serve at a nutritional center in Patzun. Students will spend time with the residents as well as assist with the replacement of a driveway. Pat Bristor, Waynesburg’s associate dean of students and one of the team leaders, pointed out that nine of the 20 students making the trip are traveling to the Central American nation for a second or third time.

“Waynesburg students are very passionate about the Guatemala trip and the people of Guatemala,” she said.

While we admire their commitment to aiding those in need, we also confess to a twinge of envy. While we will be in the sub-zero deep freeze Tuesday, it is forecast to be a comfortable 75 degrees in the Bahamas, and about 70 in Guatemala.