Sierra! We need you, come over here!” a couple of my friends called erratically. I rose once again from my post among the children surrounding me and responded to the cry for help as I had done consistently for three days of this mission trip.

As I approached the scene, I saw my friends clumsily squatting in front of a few small Guatemalan girls who were looking at them quizzically.

“We want to teach them some songs, but we can’t say the words in Spanish,” one of my friends said.

“What songs did you have in mind?” I asked.

I embarked on my journey to Guatemala last summer, determined to work hard with my friends to build a school for a small village.

I hoped for a leadership position on the team, given my experience with the people of Guatemala, but I never would have guessed how much of a leader I would really become on this two-week venture.

Rather than spending my time lifting rocks and passing them down an assembly line as I had expected, I spent it running from person to person to help with translations.

It was on this trip that I learned what it really meant to lead by serving. I was looked to for guidance and helped the team learn what they needed to be able to speak to the villagers.

I learned many things about leadership, but more than anything, I discovered the power of people who care. Over the duration of the two weeks I saw people who cared enough to use their Spanish to English cheat-sheets to study and quiz one another over breakfast.

Translation after translation, the work that had seemed to be nothing but class work to earn high school credit in foreign language transformed into a way to show the villagers that we cared about what they had to say.

“Eyes and ears and mouth,” I sang for the thousandth time, now surrounded by every child in the village. I had discovered that this crowd was one that would not be satisfied until every one of them could successfully list all of the body parts in English.

As I paused to take a breath, the children continued to sing, “and nose. Head, shoulders, knees and,” as all the children reached to touch their toes, I smiled when I heard the youngest of them proudly shout from the back of the crowd, “knees and nose!” Knees and nose!”

It was on this trip that I learned that a true leader is defined by the attitude of their followers and through their hard work. My hastily scribbled notes and Spanish knowledge was turned into a beautiful manifestation of love and hard work.

By Sierra Fender