Another Child Foundation has announced that Kairi Hollingsworth is the first-ever recipient of the ACF Mission Trip Scholarship.

“I was shocked,” Kairi said. “When I heard I was a finalist I was excited, but I was scared to get my hopes up. I told myself I would be happy for whoever God chose for this opportunity, and that if it was meant for me, I would receive it.”

Kairi, 17-years-old, from Crossville, Tennessee, said she was sitting at a morning devotional at church when she received the e-mail from Another Child Foundation announcing she was the winner. 

“They were singing me happy birthday (when ACF) had reached out,” she said. “I was so excited to be able to take a step further in my pursuit of God’s ministry in my life and be able to tell Him that I am ready for whatever He has planned for me. That I am a willing servant!”

Kairi has been on two youth group mission trips in the past two years and said they both opened her eyes to the millions of different ways that she could serve and love on others.

“What I mainly took from those trips was how loving and serving others allows God to open my heart and see things in ways I never have before,” she said. “We may have physically and spiritually been supposed to have served the other people on that trip, but they forever made an impact on me.”

Kairi will be able to use the scholarship towards an ACF Mission Trip in 2024, and she has chosen to go to Romania. 

“It is an amazing opportunity to go and love on another church family where God has so many amazing children who we get to share an amazing week of fellowship, serving, prayer, and worship together. I am so excited to see what He has in store not only for me, but the rest of the team as well!”