LAKE STEVENS — At age 13, Sarah Graef went on a two-week mission trip, intending simply to help spread the gospel in the slums of Lima, Peru.
She came home with a mission for her life.
Now almost 15 and a sophomore at Lake Stevens High School, Sarah’s goal is to help others in need.
“We have so much in this country,” she said. “It’s disturbing to me now that there are people who don’t give back to their communities.”
On Saturday, Sarah and about 600 others, mostly teenagers, gave back through an event called CityServe, sponsored by Youth for Christ of Snohomish County.
The teens performed a variety of community service projects assigned by social service agencies and nonprofit organizations at nearly 60 sites throughout the county. They assisted elderly clients of Catholic Community Services, worked at a Housing Hope construction site, cleaned city parks and painted signs at schools.
“It’s the least we can do, to get out there, show God’s love and give a few hours of our time,” Sarah said.
Sarah and others from her Lakeside Community Fellowship youth group worked in the rain and weeded and tore old tree stumps from the grounds at the Life Changes Ministry homeless women’s shelter in Monroe.
“It was a lot of hard work and we got really muddy, but it was fun,” she said. “We didn’t have a chance to see the reactions of the women at the shelter, but we hope our work makes them feel better.”
Last year for CityServe, Sarah participated at a similar grounds clean-up at a women’s shelter in Everett where the payoff included the smiles on residents’ faces.
That reaction is a big motivation, Sarah said, and she’s already planning to be a part of CityServe next year.
The daughter of Beth and Dave Graef, Sarah plays the piano, likes to figure skate, studies French, participates in the DECA business education club at school and is a good friend to her brother, Jared, 10.
At church, she helps with child care, is a vacation Bible school leader, a peer preacher in her Sunday school class and a volunteer barista at the church’s in-house coffee stand.
Sarah’s youth group recently participated in a 30-hour fast to raise awareness about worldwide hunger and to raise money for World Vision, a Seattle-based Christian relief organization.
Erin George, Sarah’s youth pastor, said Sarah is always the first to sign up for service projects.
“Sarah’s amazing. She has such a servant’s heart and wants so much to give to others,” George said. “This speaks highly of the way she’s been raised.”
Sarah agrees that her parents are fine role models.
“And they’re always there for me, even when I make mistakes,” Sarah said.
Her folks, her faith and her mission trip to Peru have set the path Sarah said she plans to follow the rest of her life.
She and her friends Breanna Rinear and Eliza Roberts raised their own support to participate in the trip to Lima with Global Expeditions. They prepared pantomimed plays that told the gospel of Jesus.
On the outskirts of the city, the poverty was shocking to the girls.
“People lived in cardboard boxes and little shacks stacked on top of each other,” Sarah said. “I had more stuff in my bedroom than those families will have in their lifetimes. And I was wearing more money than they make in a year.”
Initially, Sarah said she was overcome with guilt. Then she resolved to change her life.
“With everything we saw, I didn’t think I could go back to the way I was living,” she said. “Now I appreciate everything I have, I limit myself and I save to give to others.”
After high school, Sarah plans to study marketing, open a cozy coffee shop and employ others so she can continue to take on community service projects and participate in short-term missions throughout the world.
“It’s a practical idea, but it includes the dream of helping people,” she said.
Reporter Gale Fiege: 425-339-3427 or gfiege@heraldnet.com.
How to help
For more information about donating to or volunteering for CityServe, go to www.yfcsnocounty.com.
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