Kincardine teen writes inspiring book about mission trip to Haiti

How do you describe the indescribable, explain what can't be explained, make people understand something so incredible?

For Jenna Franklin (above), the answer was to write a book.

The 17-year-old daughter of Tom and Christine Franklin of Kincardine, travelled on a 10-day mission trip to Haiti in May, 2017, when she was 14 years old. The group visited schools and conducted Vacation Bible School events for the children.

Of the 16 people on the trip, only four were adults including Jenna's mother.

“It was a life-changing experience,” says Jenna. “It was not what I had expected. I was amazed at how little they had, but how joyful they were all the time. It was crazy-shock. They taught me to be thankful and find joy in what I have.”

When she returned home, Jenna knew her life had been changed.

“I started looking at everything differently,” she says. “I'd hear people say their lives suck because their mom didn't buy groceries for two days, and I felt totally different about it.

“Four or five months after I got back, people were asking me about the trip and what happened. I found it hard to explain, almost impossible to describe what it felt like.

“On the first day of school, I was in class for about 10 minutes and I became so overwhelmed, I started to cry.

“There was so much I wanted to tell people. I wanted them to understand what I had experienced.”

An avid writer, she decided to write a book.

“I kept a journal every day so I worked from that and began to write,” she says. “A book is a hard thing to do. A lot of people don't get past the manuscript part. I would write and then stop, and then go back at it again. It's a long, arduous process. I've learned a lot along the way. ”

Thanks to the support of her family and friends, she finally finished the book about a year later. Then, it took another year to be edited and published through Kindle Direct Publishing with Amazon.

Finally, her non-fiction, true story, “The Undeniable Joy,” was printed and she had a copy in her hands earlier this month.

“It feels so cool to have it published,” says Jenna. “It also feels a bit weird to have something so personal out there for people to read. What feels great is that people will be able to understand what our group went through on that mission trip, and it might inspire them to do something as well to help others.”

“The Undeniable Joy” is available at $14.99 per copy, through Amazon at the following link: www.amazon.ca/Undeniable-Joy-Behind-Greatest-Mysteries

Jenna hopes there will also be copies available at Fincher's in downtown Kincardine within the month.

A Grade 12 student at Kincardine District Senior School, Jenna is planning to travel on another mission trip, to Nicaragua next March, with a youth-based program through the Friends of Orphans Canada.

“That experience could be my next book,” she says, with a laugh.

Jenna plans to study International Development, French and Global Studies, possibly at the University of Guelph.

“I'd like to become a missionary, and I'm definitely going to keep writing.”