The members of Jump5 sat down with your Guide to Christian/Gospel Music, Kim Jones, at GMA 2005 and talked about reaching out to others and seeing just how fortunate they are.
You guys have had so much going on lately; a new CD, a video game, working with kids at different hospitals.
Brittany – It’s pretty busy but every minute of it is worthwhile.
Lesley – We enjoy it.
What has been the highlight so far for 2005?
Lesley – I think my favorite part was when we did a missions trip in Mexico. We got to go and see where some of the kids live. They call them halfway houses. It’s kind of like where they live at the house sometimes and then they’re home with their families half of the time. We got to see one where the kids live 24/7, 365 days a year – a community house. We got to see places where the people at the house would actually go out to the children’s houses and actually have to teach the parents how to love their children. That’s something that we don’t … I mean, there’s kids everywhere and for us, we’re like, there are so many kids – how do they not react to them. They said that is kind of like seeing dogs on the street here at home. They’re everywhere and they blend into the background. It was very eye opening and a great experience. They were so amused with blonde hair. They just wanted to touch it.
Brittany – We stood out very well in Mexico.
Lesley – The kids were so sweet. It’s so amazing to see how little they have but how much happiness they find in the smallest things. When you sponsor a child, like through World Vision, they send the person who sponsored them stuff like handprints and pictures that the child drew. We actually got to go see them making stuff for their sponsors. They were just having so much fun, playing with the paint and playing with beads. I think that was just very amazing.
To be so young you do so much to give back. You absolutely defy the image of self-centered teens. You’re so genuine that it’s obvious that this isn’t just about good PR. You’re really reaching out and making a difference.
Brittany – It’s not just for the kids, it’s for the parents too. We want them to know that there is a great thing that their kids can listen to.
Chris – One thing about the missions trip is that we did World Vision sponsoring before we actually went. You feel bad when you hear about it and you’re like “that’s so sad,” but you never really get the half of it until you actually go. When we went, it was like “Whoa!” I thought it was bad but once you get there it’s so much worse. So I would encourage people to go on a missions trip at least once in your life.
Lesley – I never imagined. I mean, we have houses with bathrooms inside and we have food when we go to the grocery store. That’s all natural and everybody does it. We got to visit this house and there were 25 people living in 400 square feet. There was no roof on the house and there were big chunks of walls missing. The little kids were just walking around with a bunch of stray cats. I was like “Oh my goodness!”
Chris – It was basically just a shack that they made with whatever they could find.
Lesley – We saw some made with pallets. It was amazing to see and realize how much we take for granted.
Brittany – When we got home I looked at all of my stuff and thought, “I don’t need half of the things that I have,” so I started giving stuff away.
Chris – Then we say things like “I couldn’t live without my iPod.”
And then you think back.
Lesley – Oh yeah. I think that you can give in small ways. One of my mom’s friends goes somewhere in Africa every year on a missions trip. We get stuffed animals all of the time and I keep mine in my room. This guy asked if there was anything that I’d like to give to the kids and I got all of the stuffed animals and he took them over. It’s amazing how one small stuffed animal can make a kid happy for three years! Here you just throw them on your bed. You can give in small ways and make a big difference.
Chris – One of the cool things was when we went to one of the houses there in Mexico and all of the kids wanted to give us their toys. They wanted us to have them. So we have these little figurines now.
Lesley – They have so little but they want to give you everything they have.
Brandon – I felt so bad taking them from them because they don’t have much at all and here these kids were giving us the one toy that they had and that they played with all day. But it just meant so much to them that we have it. So you felt bad by not taking it. We just take so much for granted when we have so much more than people in other countries.
