Celebrating New Year’s a different way, junior Maddie Tober and sophomore Abby Bryant will spend part of their winter break in the Dominican Republic on a mission trip. In order to raise money for her trip, Tober is selling color frocket shirts for $20.

“I’m selling them through a company called Fund the Nations,” Tober said. “I email them about my trip, they design the shirt and pass it by me, I collect the money, send it to them, and then receive the shirts. So far I’ve sold over 100 shirts, and working on getting more. By selling them for $20, I am able to get a $10 profit on each shirt.”

Friends of Tober and Bryant have already bought shirts to support them on their trip.

“I bought a shirt from Maddie because I want to do all I can to support the girls as they go on their awesome trip to serve and help the awesome kids in the Dominican,” sophomore Sophie Herran said. “I’m so excited to be able to wear the shirt with pride, knowing that my friends are doing such great things all around the nations.”

Tober has high hopes of this trip because of previous experiences in Africa.

“I’m excited to go on this trip because I absolutely love missions. Summer of 2013 I went on a mission trip to Kibera, Kenya, Africa and it was one of the coolest experiences getting to share love the way Christ loves us,” Tober said. “Because of that trip, I realized how completely blessed I am in this world where we take so many things for granted. I hope by going to the Dominican Republic, I will have the same experience that I did with Africa.”

Tober experienced a culture in Africa completely different of that in America.

“In Africa, every single one of the kids we encountered were so grateful with having close to nothing, and yet here, we just wait for the newest iPhone, rely on money for happiness, and become consumed by the latest progressions of today’s world,” Tober said. “Not only am I excited to go on this trip to share the gospel there, but also to bring back home the idea of being blessed so I can assist in future blessings here, or even there.”

Bryant, on the other hand, has been on this trip multiple times already.

“This is my family’s third year to lead a mission trip to the Dominican Republic, and I cannot begin to tell you how ecstatic I am to return,” Bryant said. “The week that we spend there is really about embracing the culture around us and being reminded to love all of those that God places in our path at every moment of everyday. I am reminded year after year of the Lord’s intentionality, as well as astounded by his incredible plan.”

For Bryant, these trips have changed her life and opened her eyes to people around the world.

“The people that He has allowed me to meet there have completely transformed my heart and made me realize how wide the church and bond of His believers extends,” Bryant said. “It is easy for us as extremely privileged Americans to believe that when are given the opportunity to go places in the name of the Lord that we are somehow ‘heroes’ of the world; we must be reminded that God is omnipresent and that when we go to the ‘end of the earth,’ we are really just meeting the Lord in another location to do the work that he has had planned since before the beginning of time. That’s how I feel about the ‘service’ we do there- playing all day with some of the most joyful orphans, building bunk beds for families of seven who may only have two beds, giving simple necessities to those in need, and ultimately showing love to some of those who have never know of it, those who have never had someone who truly cared for them. Each time I return I realize that the people of the Dominican Republic end up blessing me more than I could ever bless them.”