Trinity Edmiston traveled more than 6,000 miles to Bucharest, Romania, this summer, which you would think would be enough to win the Wylie Growl’s Wylie Around The World contest.
It turns out Africa is a little farther, but Trinity is getting a Mr. Burger gift card for coming in 2nd. Trinity was in Romania for a much more important reason than simply winning a contest. She was on a mission trip with her church. But while there, she took a picture in her Wylie Student Council shirt and beat out photos from Slovenia, Trinidad and the far reaches of the US to finish 2nd in our contest.
Trinity was a part of a group from Southside Baptist Church sent to minister to the Roma gypsy people in the villages around the city of Cluj. Recent Wylie graduate Madi Thompson and former Wylie student Toby Moore also went on the trip.
The group got to see many sites and minister to the Roma Gypsy villages, but Trinity’s favorite part of the trip was working with the village children.
“We got to do a VBS with the Roma kids,” she said. “We got to spend some time with them and play with them. They tried to teach us some of their games, and some of their language. I love kids, and it was really neat to teach them about God and play with them.”
Trinity said she went on the trip because she felt led to help people, but she didn’t expect how she would grow from the experience.
“We went over there to serve them and be a blessing to them,” she said. “But we came home feeling that we were the ones blessed, and we were served.”
The group also got to see some sites along the way. Trinity’s favorite was going to Hunedoara, Romania, to tour the historic Corvin Castle (aka Count Dracula’s castle).
“It was super neat,” she said. “It was kind of creepy looking, but the architecture was pretty cool. We went on a rainy day, so it was kind of gloomy.”
She also got to spend a couple of days in London where she attended church at St. Paul’s Cathedral and went to Buckingham Palace, the British Museum, Trafalgar Square, Picadilly Circus, the Tower of London, Tower Bridge and The Shard. She also got to see Kings Cross Station and Platform 9 3/4 from Harry Potter.
Trinity said the flight took about 14 hours not counting some long layovers but was well worth it. She said she learned a lot from the experience and hopes to go again some day.
She said the most important thing she learned is that people are the same no matter the country.
“It doesn’t really matter what race you are or what gender or what language you speak,” she said. “God loves everyone.”