Hello, my name is Mac Barnes. I am sixteen years old and live in Newton Massachusetts, right outside of Boston. I am currently a junior at Newton South High school and play on our varsity lacrosse team. I also play on the football team at my school and hope to make the swimming team in the winter of next year. As you can probably tell sports are a big part of my life however, they are not my whole life. I also like to listen to almost any type of music and love to tinker with engines and mechanics with my dad.

The past two years I have taking part in the Kids Alive Program in Constanza, DR with my church. Throughout both trips, I loved interacting with the locals as well as the kids and their house parents. During both times I visited Constanza I was blown away by everyone’s genuine happiness towards me as well as their peers. To see such happy people living with next to no personal belongings made me question how I could live in such a plush world, but still find myself ungrateful. As I was serving the people of Constanza, I began to realize that maybe it was the other way around. That by them being so real and open with me, I began to see how unreal and closed I was. Bottom line Kids Alive was a life changing experience. The last two trips I went for a week and that always seemed too short. It always felt like I had left projects unfinished and relationships left too distant. Because of this, I have decided to go serve in Constanza for a month this year, in the hopes of finishing those projects and growing strong relationships with the people of Constanza through God’s grace. I would love your support through any means.