Emma Saia

I am a follower of Jesus Christ and want to be a part of God bringing heavenly solutions to earthy problems. I am about to go on my 4th mission trip to the Dominican Republic and seeing the communities and families in need there gave me such a desire to make each day an opportunity to be on mission. Loving others well, being deeply relational, decreasing my wants and desires, and teaching about Jesus is the ministry I want to be a part of.

I have attended 3 mission trips through Mission of Hope to the Dominican Republic and will be going on my 4th one in May. For this next trip, I am part of the administrative team and am working to bring in recruits and guide first-timers through the trip experience. Serving different communities in need is a really big part of where I feel called and I want to prioritize that in different countries and in my own town. On these trips, we do an abundance of activities such as SMT (Strategic Ministry Time) which is going door to door within the communities and getting to know families while also telling them about Jesus. Next is Sports Day where we bring out every sporting equipment you can imagine and play for hours with the kids from the communities. We also have work days where we fix roofs, build floors, paint homes, or anything else needed. During these trips, we get extremely involved with the people from the community, build huge connections, play lots of games together, go to church together, and embed ourselves in their culture and lifestyle. Although on these trips you see real and painful suffering and tragedies God is always moving and redeeming those situations and it strengthens your trust in him!