Lynzee Berreth of Red Deer just returned from the trip of a lifetime.

As the finance and fundraising coordinator for Home of Hope, Berreth had always wanted to make a difference in the lives of others.

“Even before I started working, I sponsored and just loved everything that we were doing,” she said.

Berreth left for Africa April 30th to help with the feeding program done through Home of Hope and returned back to Red Deer May 14th.

“Home of Hope feeds over 4,000 kids every week.”

While on the trip, Berreth had the privilege of cooking the food, serving it to the kids and washing the dishes.

“To us you don’t realize how much effort goes in. You just think, ‘Oh cool, a plate of food, they’re getting food, they’re getting fed every week’, but to be able to fully participate from beginning to end and just see the impact that it’s making in these kids’ lives — it touched my heart and I cried just being able to be part of that,” she said.

A team of people from Home of Hope travelled to Africa, taking part in five feeding programs, feeding close to 600 kids.

“A lot of these kids will actually walk hours to be at this feeding program, because for most of them it’s the only meal that they get in the week,” said Berreth.

Berreth took part in the feeding programs in Rwanda and Kenya specifically, but there are a few programs in Congo as well.

“One of the main things I wanted to see was the feeding program and just see the impact that it’s making,” she said, adding that nothing touches your heart as much as seeing it first-hand.

“We take for granted something as simple as food here, but over there they’ll go weeks without eating, but they get one plate of heaping amounts of food and the smile and glow in their eyes just makes everything better,” said Berreth.

While on the trip, the team from Home of Hope also led kids ministries and different songs and games. They also went orphaneering and went to the different homes around the area to pray for the families, giving them toys and gifts.

“We took family photos and took a polaroid camera and the reaction of the moms was amazing. They were crying because they’ve never actually seen what they look like because they don’t have mirrors in their house. This mom was like ‘I never knew how beautiful I was.’”

She added that she would love to be able to go on these types of trips for the rest of her life.