Fourth in a series

Overseas mission work by Achiever

Twelve-year-old Michael Arb of Fenton already has taken part in two overseas mission trips. Those trips--plus lots of local community service--earned him special recognition earlier this year.

The 7th grader at Life Christian School was named a 2004 Gateway Young Achiever of the Year. He was one of two to win for their outstanding community service work. The award includes a $1,000 savings bond.

Young Saint Louis.com has covered the Young Achiever program for three years. We announce the year's winners each May. We follow with profiles of elementary and middle school winners.

(For more about the Achiever program, log on to www.youngachiever.us. Our earlier stories this year were in May, June, July and August)

In both 2002 and this year, Michael and his family spent two weeks working at an orphanage in Thailand. The orphanage is run by missionaries from St. Louis.

Michael said, "In 2002, we built a soccer field and also played games and gave gifts to kids in nearby hill tribe villages." He added, "I also taught Sunday School there."

Then, in April, the family went back for another two-week mission trip. Michael said, "This time, we built a basketball court at the same orphanage." Again, there were gifts to give and Sunday School to teach.

In the basketball construction, his job was to take freshly-made concrete in a wheelbarrow to where the court was being poured. There was no modern machinery to use.

The sand, rock, cement and water were hand-mixed and then taken, one wheelbarrow at a time, to the construction site. "I did that for three days," Michael said. "I got a couple blisters and it was very hot. It was summer there," he added.

But, of the mission trips, he said, "I had a great time. Half the fun was the chance to spend time with the kids in the orphanage."

When the Arbs were in Thailand this year, they were there for celebration of the Thai New Year, including a week-long water festival. With Michael were his parents, Robert and Cynthia, and an older brother, Caleb, 14.

Michael said, "One of the things they do is fill big containers with water and put in blocks of ice. Then, they throw ice water on everyone. You're soaked almost the whole week."

Last month, missionary Debbie Wheeler and her daughter, Taryn, were in St. Louis and lunched with the Arbs. They were in this country to enroll Taryn at college in Minnesota.

Another part of Michael's overseas mission work is actually done from St. Louis.

He participates in a program called Compassion Kids. That's sort of pen-pal organization where kids here communicate with poor children in foreign lands. The Americans also provide financial support so the kids can get a Christian education in their homeland.

The Arbs help support four kids, one each in Haiti, Guatemala, Rwanda and Indonesia.

Michael also does community outreach work in St. Louis.

His father is on the board of the Mission Gate Prison Ministry. That group works with prison inmates and their families. The ministry aids kids when a parent is in prison. Also, the ministry works with the prisoners so they won't revert to crime when they get out.

Michael said, "I've been doing that for four years. We help with a Christmas party and then deliver food and gifts to other disadvantaged kids."

To be named a Gateway Young Achiever, the kids have to be good students and be well-rounded in the home life.

Michael is a straight-A student and sings in his Life Christian School choir. "I had a solo, 'I Believe I Can Fly,' in the spring concert," he said.

He hopes to make the junior varsity teams in both soccer and basketball his year.

To be able to play those sports helped him get along with the Thai mission kids.

He said he doesn't speak Thai but some orphans understand some English because the missionary leaders are American. And sports are a universal language for kids everywhere.

He said the Thai food was very different than American food. "You have to get used to having rice for breakfast, lunch and dinner," he said.

He said he drew the line on eating bugs. Thai markets include "a whole row of different kinds of bugs," he said.

Michael plans to continue his community outreach efforts. He's already planning a trip to Chicago to help feed the homeless.