Trevecca Nazarene University sent a team of 12 students and sponsors to provide missions work in Nicaragua May 4-13, 2009.

Trevecca Administrator Jennifer Neely served as one of the sponsors. The words below are hers.

With the TAG missions trip program, I have traveled to beautiful places, worked with many lovely and dear people and have seen some amazing things. It’s one of my most favorite activities to take part in as an administrator at Trevecca. There is something extra sweet about serving our students as they are serving others. Also, I love to watch them gain a new perspective on the world and the church. We all come back changed and forever connected.

This particular trip to Nicaragua was kind of like going home for me. For every trip I have been a part of over the years as an administrator here at Trevecca, I have come home saying that this was the greatest trip ever and that particular location is my new favorite place on the planet. This trip was no different, but yet it was so unique and so special. I have never felt more useful and drawn to a set of people than in Nicaragua. I have never seen the Lord move so mighty among a people. I have never seen that many people come to be saved. I have never felt the Lord prompting me to pray so specifically than on this trip. I had a dramatically powerful although private encounter with the Lord on this trip and I am blessed to share it.

Our team worked with missionaries David and Shelley Webb and Nikki Bodenstab as well as the local Nicaraguan church leaders. The Nicaraguans treated us as honored guests. This was something I was not expecting nor deserving. They asked me to pray for them and be a part of special planning meetings about the church we were helping to plant. They watched over us and took us in as family and along the way I fell in love with Nicaragua. I left knowing that a little bit of my heart now resides in Nicaragua.

This was by far the hardest TAG trip I have ever been on—emotionally and physically. But it is by far my most rewarding one. When we loaded our vans to leave Trevecca’s campus, I told our drivers to take a good look at us, because we would never be the same and that is true. I am forever changed by these 10 days. The students are forever changed and the people we encountered along our journey will never be the same.

For more information about Trevecca Around the Globe (TAG), visit www.trevecca.edu/ministry/TAG.