Lighthouse student changed by Africa: Part 3 in a series

He went from dirt floors and AIDS patients serving in an Africa medical mission to a marble bathrooms with golden fixtures in a five-star hotel in Belgium.

The contrast “was shocking,” said Lighthouse Christian Academy senior, Ricky Rand. Rand participated in a medical mission in the Gambia, West Africa, in March 2013 and came back transformed.

At a table filled with lollipops and soaps, he sat and filled the job of a physician's assistant, escorting people to the clinic's pharmacy to fill their prescription. Along with world-renowned heart physician Dr. Lawrence Czer in the Lighthouse Medical Mission, they saw 200 people a day, a “mind-bending” number of patients, he said.

Ricky, whose exposure to abysmal poverty previously was limited, was shaken to witness patients many of whom had never had the luxury to be attended to by a doctor ever in their lives.

“I learned a lot about humbling myself. They can't afford toothbrushes; they chew tree bark to clean their teeth,” said Ricky, this year's LCA inspirational football team captain. (Watch Ricky, #43, steal the football out of the opposing quarterback's arm to run for a touchdown here.)

“Coming back from Africa, I definitely was a completely different-thinking person," he said. Now, he helps his dad clean up the house. He picks up his trash and recycles. Mostly, he possesses a feeling in his heart that previously was maybe a bit in short supply: gratitude.

“I have so much living in Los Angeles,” he said. “I learned to not take for granted what I have here.”

Ricky wasn't put off by the life of lack in Africa. He fell in love with their rice and their warm humanity. “The people were extremely nice,” Ricky said. “If you took a flight to LAX, there wouldn't be 20 guys surrounding you asking you for your name and wanting to have a nice, decent conversation with you like they're your friends already. You don't even know those people. They see you and they just want to be friends with you.”

He also was taken by the simpleness of life in the Gambia. “It's very simple living. I like it.”

The heat, the excessive car fumes, the lack of bottled water, the cold and quick showers with rain water – they're all worth braving to be able to touch others in need.

“I don't think of it as a sacrifice,” Ricky said. “If everyone did that and wanted to help other people, then it wouldn't be considered a sacrifice. It would be a everyday thing. "It's not a sacrifice. It's more like a deed to humanity. We all live together on Earth, and they're our brothers and sisters. It's just helping a brother out.

"If only everyone didn't have the mentality of 'Those are just other people. I don't know them. They're not really people I care about.' We all need to start thinking, 'It's my job to help these people out.'"

To read part 2 of the series, click here.

To read part 1 of the series, click here.