GraceStudents small group volunteer Katie Adams has always wanted to experience new places, and she’s always wanted to share hope. This summer she fulfills both desires by leaving the States and working with some of the most destitute and displaced people in the world: the citizens of Haiti.

Katie, who just graduated from UCF with a degree in journalism, is spending her summer working with the Christian organization Thirst No More. She’ll be assisting on construction projects, doing minor medical work and caring for orphans of the Haiti earthquake.

She’d felt pretty strongly about helping in Haiti since the natural disaster last January, but this year, the timing was right for a trip. The media has moved on to other places and tragedies, but Haiti still has a great need. Katie will live in Port-au-Prince for three months, leading teams for a week at a time in helping build resources for earthquake victims.

“Our goal is building a permanent facility with a dentist office, medical clinic and clean restrooms,” Katie says, “and I’m going to do everything I can to help make that happen while spreading the good news of God’s love to a nation in desperate need of some good news.”

Katie is following Christ’s call to serve, but she’s also seeking a greater personal dependence on God through her experience:

“There are people who know what it is to need God. They need him for the strength to wake up every morning. They need him to sustain them when they have no food that day. They need him for their water. They need him for their reason to live. I want to find those people. I want to encourage them and love them and help if I can. And I want to learn how to need God from them. I desperately want to be reminded how much I depend on him.”

Katie is missional and motivated, and she’s something else: an amazing writer. You can read more of Katie’s thoughts on her blog.