SYRACUSE - It is a day when all seems right with the world. The rain has left northern Indiana, at least on this Tuesday afternoon. The sunshine splashing off the aluminum bleachers at Wawasee's softball diamond on this 70-plus degree day is so bright it forces you to squint to see the world around you.

For something as important as this, Wawasee softball coach Bo O'Dell said over the phone a few days back, show up at practice anytime between 3:15 and 5:30, and I'll let the two players out to talk to you. He holds true to his word, as two girls climb up into the bleachers to chat while their teammates hack away at O'Dell's pitches in batting practice. In O'Dell's mind, Amy Gingerich and Andrea Gingerich help make the world a right place.

They are sisters. Amy is 18 and a senior at Wawasee. Andrea - pronounced Ondrea - is 16 and a sophomore. Both have long, dark hair. Both wear gray T-shirts and shorts. Amy is a catcher, while Andrea is a pitcher/reserve outfielder. Both smile often and have much to say. And this summer, both will live in Africa.

Amy and Andrea are two of 80 or so people who attend a small Mennonite church called the Milford Chapel. They are flying to Africa for God.

They live on a farm near Milford. Father Phil is a full-time dairy farmer, while mother Jane is a registered nurse who is not practicing right now because she wanted to be home with her children. The sisters have two younger brothers, 13-year-old Eric and 9-year-old Scott.

The mission trip to Africa is not a one- or two-week jaunt. They leave June 19. They return in mid-August, just in time for school.

Actually, Amy returns Aug. 11. Andrea returns Aug. 16. That's because the sisters are taking trips to different places. Amy is going to Uganda. Andrea is going to Mozambique.

"All summer," Andrea says. "Away from everyone," Amy says.

They could have gone to Africa together, like they did last summer when they took a mission trip to Haiti. This time, they did not want to.

Think back to when you were 16 years old and what you were doing. Think about living in Africa for nearly two months not only without your family, but without people you know. Teens from nearly every Protestant denomination from any one of the 50 states will be on Amy's and Andrea's mission teams. All told, 46 teams - each with 30 teens - are going to Africa. Amy and Andrea will not know anyone else at first.

But then Andrea tells you her favorite Bible verse, and you understand why she can make it without her big sister. "It's 1 Timothy 4:12," she says. "It says 'Don't let anybody look down on you because you're young, but set an example for the believers in your speech, your conduct, your love, faith and purity."

They could have gone to Africa together. But going together was the easy way, the safe way.

"The program, Teen Missions, prefers family doesn't go together," Amy explains, "because it's harder to grow in your faith, harder to become your own person when you're with your sibling."

At 18, Amy has seen more places than many people will see in their lifetime. She went to New Zealand and Australia in 1996, then Haiti, now Africa. All mission trips, all work for God. Amy is 18 but carries herself as if she's 28. She went on her first mission trip in 1996 when she was struggling with her life and searching for a way to draw closer to God.

She ranks the mission trips as the top things she's done in her life.

"Just seeing the joy on people's faces is a neat feeling," she says. "Every kid should be able to go on something like this, because you grow up so much. When you come back - you don't notice it when you're gone, because you're with everybody else, growing together - but when you come home, your parents will tell you, 'You've matured so much.'

"Your faith grows deeper."

Neither she nor Andrea knows much about Africa - yet. They do not know what they will eat.

But they do know what they will do there.

Amy is on an evangelistic team. She and fellow teens will travel around Uganda, ministering to people through testimony, songs and drama skits.

Andrea is on a work team. She and others will help build a hospital. They will minister on weekends, traveling to churches.

To prepare for Africa, Amy and Andrea will fly to Florida. Amy has been to Florida once. Andrea has never been to Florida. The one time Amy went she didn't see Epcot Center, didn't see Disney World and most definitely was not a Spring Breaker having a good time. What she did was live in a tent on Merritt Island and get up at 5 every morning to run an obstacle course and swat mosquitoes and take baths by using water from buckets.

She and Andrea and the 46 mission teams of teens going to Africa will do the same this time. They will leave for Africa from Florida as soon as their two-week boot camp ends.

"It's to train you and all," Amy says. "You're upset you have to be there to go through it, but once it's over with, it's like, 'Wow.' Just being at boot camp, you learn so much."

The boot camp figures to help Andrea more than Amy. Amy will live in churches and schools in Uganda. Andrea will not. Andrea will live the same way she lived in Florida. In tents. Taking baths by using water from buckets. It will be winter in Africa, but at least the winters are mild, usually 60-degree days. Andrea's camp will be in an open plains area called the Savannah, so she doubts she will have little use for a hair dryer, because how many plug-in outlets do you find in the Savannah, anyway?

"Want to come along?" she asks, her smile showing off her braces.

Another problem with living in tents in the Savannah in Mozambique: no mail. You ask Andrea the thing she will miss most. This is it.

"That will be the worst thing for me," she says. "We won't get any mail for over a month. It takes two or three months to get mail to Mozambique, but I'll be in South Africa for like a week. All my mail will go there. When I get there, I'll have hopefully a lot."

Amy will get mail, so that's not the problem. That is, she quips, "as long as people send me mail." Her problem? "Missing spending time with my family and boyfriend," she says.

Like boot camp in Florida readies them for Africa, classes that last five days prepare them to come home. Amy calls it "debriefing." She will be debriefed in Germany and Andrea in South Africa.

"When you're over there, you're with a team," Amy says. "You become a family. It's hard to just go home and get back to living a normal life back here again. The classes prepare you for that."

Should there be political unrest, Teen Missions pulls the teams and sends them elsewhere.

To make the trips happen, Andrea needs to raise $3,600 and Amy $3,400. They held a haystack supper in Milford last Saturday. Says Amy: "A haystack supper is a bunch of food piled on top of each other. You start with crackers. You have crackers, lettuce, rice, meat and then peppers, tomatoes, chips and cheese. Then you have toppings like salsa and sour cream or whatever."

Three hundred people attended the supper and contributed $2,400. "That haystack supper," Amy says, "was awesome. It was a really good turnout."

Each still needs around $800. Amy is hosting a chicken barbecue at the end of this month, which she figures should come close to finishing off what she needs. Andrea plans to talk to a church and hopes to drum up an idea for a fund raiser.

"We feel bad, wandering around asking, 'Will you give us money?'" Amy says. "Our community has really helped a lot. It's neat to see how much they care."

Caring. That's exactly how - and why - Amy and Andrea are into mission work.

O'Dell finds a moment between hitters to walk over to the screen behind home plate. The sisters leave to take batting practice. Andrea pitches balls from the side to her sister, who hits them into a net in front of her.

O'Dell is asked about the sisters. He considers them players, yes.

He also calls them his friends.

"They're not doing this just to see the world," he says. "They're focused and committed for the right reasons. It's nice to see kids who don't get wrapped up in everything around them that's materialistic." [[In-content Ad]]