Most teenagers spend their summers lazing around the neighborhood, hanging with friends, maybe working a part-time job.
Not Lauren Kerr.
She hasn’t stuck close to home for many of the summers since she was 14.
Instead, she has used her summers off from school helping people in impoverished places like Peru and the Dominican Republic.
This summer, the 18-year-old 2009 Lake Orion High School graduate is heading to Africa.
‘I feel living in America, we’re so much better off,? Kerr said about the people she’s helped abroad. ‘They really have no hope where they are.?
Kerr will be going to Uganda to help the child soldiers, or the ‘Invisible Children,? kids who were coerced into a militaristic life during that nation’s civil war, which has gone on for two decades.
‘We want to show them that they’re loved even though they may have done something they weren’t supposed to do,? Kerr said.
She will also be putting on a Vacation Bible School and talking about abstinence in an area where AIDS is a large problem.
She will spend most of her time in Uganda’s capital city of Kampala and Gulu, a small village.
Over the years, Kerr, who is a member of the River of Faith Church in Waterford, has gone on the trips with different missionary organizations. She set up her current trip to Uganda through Teen Mania Ministries out of Texas.
But helping out doesn’t come without a price.
For the mission trip to Africa, Kerr had to raise around $5,000, get a series of shots and take malaria pills.
Kerr has done everything from writing letters of support, selling candy bars and having pop can drives to pay for her missionary trips. She also works a part-time job at the Great Lakes Athletic Club in Lake Orion.
But she always gets the trips paid for herself, she said.
They also keep Kerr away from her family for much of the summer. She left July 10 and won’t return until mid-August. Kerr said it makes her parents nervous.
‘It’s a long time to be gone,? she said.
But the experience of helping people in such a significant way makes it all worthwhile.
On her first missionary trip to the Dominican Republic when she was 14, Kerr mixed concrete and helped build a driveway for a family.
‘They were so grateful afterward,? she said.
Kerr has also helped build churches and done laundry in the Amazon River, all while performing the most basic function of a missionary, spreading the word of God.
The people have been great everywhere she’s been, Kerr said.
‘They’re very open and welcoming people,? she said. ‘They want to grow together as a community.?
Kerr’s most eye-opening experience was last summer in Peru when she watched a sick, 23-year-old man die in a hut with his family around him.
‘It makes you realize how short life is and how important it is to put it toward a good cause,? she said.
In the fall, Kerr will attend Huntington University in Indiana, where she will major in missionary work and minor in Spanish.
One day, she hopes to start an orphanage in one of the places she’s visited.
‘Some of the kids? parents just leave them on the side of the road. I’ve seen so many of them. It’s heartbreaking,? Kerr said.