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Why go on a short-term mission, or on a mission team? What purpose can two weeks in another country serve? How can we give enough to make it worthwhile with no language skills and limited cross-cultural experience? Is it just a glorified holiday? Or can God work through these short experiences to impact your life and the lives of others for His Kingdom?
Hopefully the following article will give you a glimpse of God’s answers to these questions and others. Perhaps you too can step out of the boat and go on a mission trip in 2009-2010.
Philippines 2009 - Nicole Hildreth
In early January of this year I was fortunate enough to share in a wonderful and eye opening experience with four other amazing people each one bringing their own uniqueness to the group.
It was January 3rd the day we stepped off the plane in the Philippines. The first thing that hit me was the sheer amount of people around, but it wasn’t until I stepped outside into the thick diesel-clogged air that I fully realized we really are not in little old New Zealand any more.
Knowing that we were only gonna be staying in the Philippines for 3 weeks, I wanted to take in as much as I could. I wanted to grow more in my faith and to see the world through God’s eyes. This was my prayer for the trip and God did not fail to fulfil it.
During our many trips into town we would pass by people in the street crippled and begging for money. Our natural reaction, of course, is to give them money. Why not? We have so much and they have so little, it’s the Christian thing to do! But the world is not built on Christian morals. We were told that there were people using the less fortunate as a business - preying on unsuspecting tourists and the compassion of others for their income. So sadly we had to just walk pass them, and it wasn’t easy, trust me.
If there was one thing that could help give you a better picture of the Philippines it’s Malls; there were so many. Every time you turned a corner there was another one. Did you know that they have the 3rd biggest mall in the world? It’s like a small town - the sad thing is that it just highlights the rich and the poor so much. You could drive down any road and to one side of you see sky scrapers, billboards, advertising, malls etc, and then look to the other side of the road and see the complete opposite. There you see iron shacks that are falling apart and with no running water, with whole families living in cardboard boxes. The dynamic between the two was very large!
But putting all the negatives aside, I really believe God is working there and people have a heart to hear and to spread the good news. This was confirmed by our visit to some of the churches over there, they were really on fire for God. It was so good to see God’s army getting stronger and I felt so humbled to be a part of it. Their innocence and love for Christ was so infectious that it left me feeling greatly stirred up for Christ.
Since being back home my passion for the lost has multiplied and I have personally prayed two more people into God’s Kingdom and have witnessed to many more. It’s early days and I know God has so much more in store and I am looking forward to taking that journey with Him. To those out there unsure if mission work is for them and yet hungry for more of God, I recommend a short term trip as a building block for God to work in your life in new and exciting ways. It’s so true when it says the harvest is big but the workers are so few (Matt 9:37-38). I believe the harvest is already ripe, so pray for those already on the field, that they re-new their passion on a daily basis. Also continue to pray for more workers who will be ready to go out and claim back the Kingdom.
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Throughout the last month I’ve been settling into my ministries here in Chigasaki. Being a coastal city it has been easy for a surf mad Kiwi bloke to settle into. I’m so thankful to be out of the big city and inland areas. I live at the Chigasaki Church, which has a unit attached to it like many other Japanese churches. These units usually house the pastors, but in this case the pastor has his own house. The church is situated just 15 mins walk from the beach, which makes surfing for my time out easy. It is a beautiful area, which has an awesome view of Mt Fuji.
The theme of our recent OMS Russia spiritual retreat was “Being an imitator of Christ” (Ephesians 5:1). This greatly challenged us to examine our hearts and lives.
Have you ever tried to build something from scratch? Maybe you’re a professional builder and you do it all the time, or maybe you just love building and get some sort of project going once in a while. Some of us like to start new things all the time, but are not very good at finishing them. Once Andrew came across an interesting article about the Cathedral of Magdeburg and how it was built. It was the first Gothic cathedral in Germany and was the tallest for a long time. The most interesting fact is that it was constructed over a period of 300 years. You might be thinking, what has all this got to do with our ministry in Russia?
Now back in New Zealand for our year of ‘Home Mission Assignment,’ we have been travelling extensively over the last 6 months of 2007, in fact the length of New Zealand, from Dargaville in the North to Gore in the South. We spoke in many churches, in home meetings, Bible in Schools and visiting people who are part of the ministry to the Saraguro people in Ecuador. It has been a tremendous time and we haven’t finished yet. 