Foundations of service
BYU-Idaho students work with orphans, build homes in Guatemala
- posted: 16 Oct. 2007
- scrollcampus@byui.edu
Summertime, and the living is easy. At least, that’s the idea. But for four BYU-Idaho students, this summer brought hard work, stark realities and changed lives.
Kellen Hansen — along with his wife, Erin, sister Lexie and another student, Lindsay Jardine — spent two weeks in July and August working in Guatemala. They built homes for needy families and a sport court for a local school, organized firesides and Young Women activities and played with orphans.
Hansen, a senior studying biology, served a mission in the Guatemala Guatemala City Central Mission. Knowing he wanted to do something to serve the people he grew to love there, he e-mailed his mission president and learned that Jardine, a junior studying psychology, had also inquired about serving there. Jardine had organized 15 students from her high school and was looking for a humanitarian trip for the group.
“He had the place, and I had the means to help,” Jardine said.
Once in the country, the group split up and went to two different cities: Santiago Atitlan and Patzecia. “We organized their storage unit and got it all ready, so they can accept more donations and make it all more accessible. We had firesides with them and a testimony meeting. It was a really neat experience,” said Lexie, a freshman studying general education.
The orphanage where the group spent much of its time was owned by an LDS Virginia woman who has what Hansen described as an “amazing vision.”
“It started out with just a few kids,” Hansen said, “and they’re all court-ordered kids who are taken from their parents because they’re severely abused. She’s doing such amazing things for them.”
The owner’s vision includes having a place to accommodate 200 children, with a school, a place for homeless mothers and farm ground to teach the orphans to work and provide for themselves. But in order to make the dream happen, the orphanage needs volunteers and funding.
“There are [many] organizations out there to help — especially around [Rexburg]; there are people who have served in every mission in the world, so you can always find somebody who has some connection to find a need wherever you are,” Hansen said.
While the group members loved seeing changes in the people they served, they said the most significant changes happened within themselves.
“I came to love seeing the change that we were able to help make and interacting with the people who had such special spirits,” said Erin, a senior studying social work.
Lexie agreed. “It’s really motivated me to want to [change] and have confidence in the fact that we can make changes and do [positive] things wherever we are.” 
