“The 1989 trip to Haiti was my first experience with a short-term mission trip and my church’s first experience with a short-term mission trip. It was both exciting and very scary at the same time. Not everyone in the church approved, and some of the leaders at that time were very much against the whole concept of mission trips, since they thought the money would be better spent on local needs and people instead of “foreign” people. In that sense we truly were pioneers for our church, St. Luke Lutheran, and that is perhaps one of the proudest things I take away from the experience - that we helped pioneer a movement that eventually led to the formation of MOST! . . . I will never forget that trip to Haiti and what it did for me inside of my soul to call something out of me that I didn’t think I was capable of doing or experiencing. It stretched me in many ways and I probably wouldn’t be a pastor today had God not given me this opportunity to step out in faith and serve Him and the people in Haiti! My advice to you is simply this - when Jesus says “Follow Me!” just follow Him!”  - Rev. Lloyd Stuhr (Pastor at First Lutheran Church, Nebraska)

“None of us realized what an impact it would have on Saint Luke and all of us.” After the first team in 1989, I went on 10 other teams to China, Nicaragua, Panama, etc. Reflecting on the trip 25 years later, “A person has to look at their own life and see the impact they can have on others, and the positive impact that it will have on your own life.”    - Arnie Firnhaber (Accountant at University of Michigan - passed away in 2017)

“On that first team we were all in shock because the people were so very poor . . . It was going from one extreme (USA) to another (Haiti).” I went on six more teams to Haiti and brought students from Valparaiso, since I was an alumnus. “When people talk about poverty, I’ve seen what it is like in other parts of the world.”   - Tom Fenske (Retired Engineer)