The House of Hope and Direction of a Life Changing Event 1

The House of Hope and Direction of a Life Changing Event
Ian Augustin
ORG 300 – Applying Leadership Principles
Colorado State University – Global Campus
PROF. Hassan Mazaheri
January 12, 2016

THE HOUSE OF HOPE AND DIRECTION OF A LIFE CHANGING EVENT 2 The House of Hope and Direction of a Life Changing Event
The time that I have applied leadership and an immense amount of communication is when my family and I head down to Mexico on a missions trip. Once a year we pack our bags and head across borders driving a total of 16 hours, going into the heart of Mexico we drive through Chihuahua City arriving at a little town called Anahuac. Inside Anahuac is an orphanage called “Casa de la Esperanza,” it is filled with laughter and a second chance for kids who never got the attention and love they deserved. This orphanage has roughly 40-70 kids a year ranging in size, age, and backgrounds you would never wish on anyone. Hearing some of these children’s stories and where they came from would never reflect on who they were on the inside, all these kids want is love and friendship and they would quickly give it back. The very first time we arrived at Casa a lot was going through my mind, since this was a new experience that was out of my comfort zone. I felt times like these really help expand and push limits of leadership and communication that benefit and support a community in need. Casa is truly an amazing place that focuses their vision not on themselves but on the neighboring community, they supply and conduct food drives, medical exams and taking care of whatever else needs to be done in the town of Anahuac. After hearing what was expected of us in this trip I knew I was going to thrive and truly help make a difference.
Casa takes in these children and raise them as God’s servants, their vision for each child that comes through their door is to always love them and have them turn around and show that to others. Everyone in our group was ready to show their own purpose for coming down to Casa. Our main goal was to be a team and to work off of everyone’s strengths, this was leadership at its
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best taking rapid shape. No one felt out of place as we would start out the first day getting acclimated with everything Casa had to offer. We would always joke saying that Casa was the Cadillac of orphanages. You arrive through a gated community on a lot of 400 acres, once you pull up to the main building it was surrounded by flowers, plants and vegetables. Across the way was where all the mission teams would stay. From the main building it had offices, a nursery, a medical room, a dining hall and the children’s dorms. They also raised their own livestock and had a well that was pumped hourly for fresh water. After the first day of playing with all the kids on their playground and soccer field, it was time to start working. I relied on our team to ask as many questions as possible so no one would feel out of place.
The very next day after leading our team through discussion groups, meetings and a quick prayer session we finally had teams split into four groups. Group one was for construction, group two was food prep, group three was child care, and group four was community work. We formed our groups by putting people we knew worked well together. Every day each group would be adjusted accordingly and continued working away. For the construction group Casa had plans adding onto the main building so that they could house and take in more kids. Food prep seemed like the busiest job since there were so many hungry mouths to feed. The child care group was taking care of the infants and special needs children. And the group I was in was working in helped support and grow the town of Anahuac. Casa was well known throughout this community due to how much they give and help impact people who were in need. They have donated an ambulance to the town’s hospital, given over 500 pairs of glasses and other medical
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supplies, They added the towns first street light and our work for the week was handing out food for all the families in need. The true strength and leadership this took helped broaden my horizons seeing how grateful people really were of Casa’s generosity. Our team helped add onto Casa’s name and other groups that have previously done missions work as well. To date they have helped distribute over 80 tons of food, with each bag weighing 20 pounds filled with potatoes, rice, beans and a bible. After returning home every night playing with the kids was a great way to unwind and take in what was accomplished that day, and the lives that were changed.
On our final day instead of working in the community we all got to spend and plan a day with the children. I decided to let the kids decide on what we wanted to do as a group, after this week I realized the best way to lead was to listen. Anyone can talk and speak their mind but a true leader listens to the rest of the group. So we all decided on taking the kids to the movie theaters to go see “night at the museum,” even though it was in Spanish and couldn’t understand a word, getting to hear all the kids laugh and experience their first movie theater was a very blessing event to me, that I still hold close to my heart. We ended the trip on a high note and left with the joy of tears saying goodbye to those kids and the work that was done unselfishly.
The refection ride home helped everyone become better leaders, and listeners. Communication takes effort on everyone’s behalf, but it is effort well spent. Without everyone leading and communicating it made the trip more pleasant, productive and helps build stronger relationships throughout. I got to hear about what everyone else had accomplished while they
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were down there, from taking care of the kids, the construction going on, and prepping all the food for 100+ mouths. The stories passed around throughout the van showed how the key to good management was the key to a rewarding and new experienced trip.