The summer months are typically a time of year when Catholic youth participate in mission trips, although COVID-19 has made that impossible for most church groups this year.  

These missions present young members of the Catholic faith an opportunity to experience what it's like to help those in need. Auxiliary Bishop Jefferey Haines of the Archdiocese of Milwaukee called such trips "enriching," not only for the young people participating but also for people like himself who act as supervisors. 

Bishop Haines recently spoke about one particular mission trip in his weekly video reflection posted on YouTube. A number of young people from parishes in West Bend, Newburn and Kewaskum all participated in the "Young Neighbors in Action" trip to Chicago.  

Auxiliary Bishop Jefferey Haines | YouTube

Haines said there were so many volunteers that they were divided into groups. Some were assigned to a senior home, others a vacation bible school, and others to work with those with special needs.

Haines' group that year was selected to work at a Catholic Worker house right in the center of the city. Their duties included painting rooms, mopping floors, yard work, cleaning out a garage and storage facility, plus restocking a food pantry.  

These laborious activities were all done in the simmering Chicago summer heat. Haines remembered that the young people in other groups that summer called their trips the experiences of a lifetime, while his group felt it was awful and wished they hadn't come.  

Haines assured his group that they went "way above the call of duty" by working extremely hard in what were difficult conditions.

"What makes it very hard is that the type of service work that you are doing, you don't see the results and you get very little affirmation," Haines told them.

Haines said the people at the Catholic Worker house were tremendously grateful. They told him that because of their service work, they were able to use that time to plan their programs for the next year, plus create a brand new one that would help hundreds of people. 

Haines said this served as a good reminder that although you may not always see the results of your hard work, God always will.