Ten students and two chaperones from St. Louis U. High spent spring break at Jerusalem Farm, an intentional community dedicated to serving their neighbors in the northeastern area of Kansas City.

The community lives according to four main pillars: community, service, prayer, and simplicity.

Each volunteer’s day began with 30 minutes of music to wake them up and then was followed by a morning prayer to being their day.

“One day we heard an entire Spice Girls album,” said English teacher Justin Seaton. “There are about 30 minutes of music, but by the last song, everyone must be down in the chapel for morning prayer.”

When prayer was finished, the group did chores around the garden and house until the bell rang to signal breakfast.

“After that, we dismissed for daily work, for which we split into four different work crews,” said Seaton.

The four work crews were mixed with the SLUH students and students from Cristo Rey Catholic High School in Kansas City. The crews rotated regularly to diversify the experiences that the students had and to ensure that every crew had an opportunity to work at every site.

Some of the work crews helped renovate homes that were in disrepair. “I did things like help people paint kitchens, and move in new furniture for their house,” said freshman Donovan Meecham. “I did a lot of manual labor.”

“We did a lot of things,” said sophomore Charlie Byrne. “We helped a lot of people in low income housing. I helped paint a lady’s laundry room.”

Another area of work was called the “home crew.” They were responsible for cleaning and cooking around the house while the other crews worked at other sites.

The student crews also helped a bit with the day to day responsibilities of the garden.

“We went in Spring, so we were doing a lot of prepping for the produce they are going to grow in the summer,” said Seaton.

“One day I helped dig at an orchard to help prepare the soil for the plants they were going to plant there,” said Byrne.

One more interesting aspect of Jerusalem Farm was their policy of no electronics.

“We had no electronics whatsoever,” said Byrne. “You weren’t allowed to have your phones out, you weren’t even allowed to wear a watch. An interesting thing about the farm is that they don’t want to use time to structure the day. They just want you to live in the moment and not worry about that stuff.”

For senior Tony Buttice and junior Lucas Frillman this trip marked an extraordinary third trip to Jerusalem Farm since SLUH started the Immersion Trip program three years ago.

“I wanted to go back for a few reasons. I had hoped to see the people I’d gone with the first time, and I just wanted to experience the life-changing moments of Jerusalem Farm.” said Frillman.

Frillman had seen firsthand how the farm has changed and improved over the last three years.

“The first time around, in 2017, we were laying the foundation for a new house they were building for the volunteers,” said Frillman. “A year later, the building was finished with construction, and they were laying drywall and putting in flooring. This year, the whole thing was complete.”

Over the three years Frillman and Buttice have served at Jerusalem Farm, one thing has remained constant—the love and support they have received from Jerusalem Farm.

“The people of Jerusalem Farm unconditionally support us, and I’m still staggered that they remembered me even just after my first visit,” said Frillman. “They really are my family.”