Kendall & Allison Cooper • Derry Members

My sister and I, along with other youth from our church, were blessed with the amazing opportunity to spend more than a week in Ireland this summer with the support of Derry Church. Going into the trip, we both admitted we were a little nervous. Not only because we had never traveled internationally before (& I was never even on a plane) but also, since COVID, our participation in the church had unfortunately decreased. Even after in-person church services resumed, we initially continued to watch church from home and became less involved in the youth group and with the congregation.

When the opportunity for the Ireland trip first came about, we were interested, but after not seeing a lot of our church friends for a while, we were nervous about how the trip would go. We worried they may have all grown stronger connections together during our absence and we were scared to venture outside our comfort zone. After some discussion, we both agreed that if we went, we would have each other and it would give us the opportunity to rekindle past friendships.

Following the Ireland trip, we have never felt more a part of our church community. This trip not only reconnected us with our church friends, but helped to reconnect us with God and the rest of Derry’s community, and even new friendships. We have been going to Derry Church since we were born, but we have never felt as connected to the congregation as we do now.

Our time in Ireland taught us the importance of coming together as a community and since then, we have been able to include it in our daily lives. In school, work, and church, we make new connections all the time and work to connect others through God’s love.

We have also started to increase our service in the church and community again. Allison works in the nursery every Sunday and has created incredibly strong connections with the kids. Kendall gets to connect with members of the congregation on Sundays through conversations with people, often about their shared love of sports, including basketball and field hockey.

Looking back on our trip, we cannot thank God and the church enough for giving us the opportunity to go to Ireland. We will never forget the wonderful memories and lessons we learned, and we will never lose the special bonds we made with everyone on the trip. Sometimes life takes us away from things that really matter, but through God, service, and our community, we can always find our way back.