Arizona GO Week

By Samantha DePriest

One of the most important objectives of GO Week is that our students will return to our campus different than they left. We pray that their time traveling to new places and serving others is impactful. Our hope is that hearts are softened to the needs of others around the world and eyes are opened to the beauty of God’s magnificent creation. Over the coming weeks, we will be sharing stories from each of the GO Week trips to both inspire and encourage our school community to reach beyond our walls and share God’s love.

Trinity’s Arizona GO Week team lead was Shannon Bragg. Mrs. Bragg also serves as our 11th & 12th grade Skills Development Teacher and Student Council Advisor. Mrs. Bragg shared, “Our team partnered with a church called Church on the Streets (https://cotsphoenix.org) and heard testimony’s from men who used to be in prison but were rescued thanks to this church. These men now attend weekly Bible studies and witness to those currently on the streets. These men do missions on the streets and are on fire for God. It was amazing to sit in a Bible study with them and witness alongside them. The opportunity to serve alongside this ministry showed our students the power of God. Students witnessed the way some people lived and how relationships could bridge the homeless with God’s word. Students passed out sandwiches and Bible tracks to those living on the streets”.

pictured left to right; Kara Joy Bragg, Cacie Cutright, and Mary Kathryn White handing out sandwiches in tent city.

High School Nurse Kacey White shares, “Visiting ‘tent city’ with our students was eye opening for us all. The people living on the streets were living very hard lives. It gave us the opportunity to pray with them and also share later during devotionals with our students how the decisions some of these folks made earlier in life with regards to drugs and alcohol led to situations like this. We talked about choices and consequences that can come from one single choice. Most importantly, we were able to talk about their need for Jesus and how impactful our time was there to encourage and share God’s love.”

Bible Tracks that our student handed out.
Image by: Shannon Bragg

The Arizona team was also able to explore God’s creation while out amazing destinations out west including Bell Rock and Sedona. They were even blessed to experience snow in Flagstaff and the Grand Canyon. The team also spent time at Lowell Observatory learning about astronomy. One of our students shared how in awe she was how God created each and every star and created her.

Throughout their time out West, the group ran into bad weather but Mrs Bragg shared joyfully that “God was always a few steps ahead. We had planned to go hiking and it was raining, then the rain stopped. Thank you Lord. We were at the Grand Canyon and it was quite foggy when we arrived, then the fog lifted so we were able to see into the magnificent canyon. Similar weather conditions in Sedona happened and cleared up during our time there. Our students loved exploring that area of our beautiful country and even tried new foods. They ate Cactus fries at one of the local restaurants and said they tasted like fried pickles.”

Grand Canyon in the snow
Image by: Shannon Bragg

Trinity Alumni Kara Joy Bragg (previously featured in “Inside the Pride” and on our TCSLions.org website stories section) joined the GO Week team as a chaperone. Kara Joy led daily devotions which helped foster and build relationships with our students on the trip. What a blessing it was to have her on the team. Her leadership allowed her to share her Faith in such a positive way and connect as a young adult close in age.

Trinity sophomore Mary Kathryn White shares, “Our trip to Arizona for GO week was so much fun!! Being able to go out and serve along with enjoying God’s creation was so eye opening! Ending each night with a devotional from Kara Joy was truly a great reminder of our calling to live for Christ!”

We are so grateful for opportunities like these for our students to apply what they are learning inside of our classrooms outside of school, Our staff enjoys getting to pour into our students throughout GO Week as well. We look forward to sharing more about this years GO Week trips over the coming weeks ahead.