In the big & small, in the good & bad, rejoice.

* This post will be anonymous*

Hi, I am currently a university student and I will be finishing up undergrad for chemical engineering this year. I am currently a part of the college group at my home church that I have grown up at. Today, I will be sharing some of the joys/challenges from my recent missions trip!

In Matthew 28:18-20, often called the Great Commission, Christ tells us to ‘Go therefore and make disciples of all nations’. Going outside of your own home church is just one way to live out this commission and share about the good news of Christ Jesus. I was able to do just that this past July and I just wanted to share a little bit about my mission trip!

Every summer, different teams made up of many churches are sent to different communities across the state to share the gospel of Jesus. This has been going on for a couple years now but because of COVID, there was no 2020 trip. This year they decided to have it, sending smaller and only a couple teams. This year was a little different than previous years: this community we went to was one of the places hit harder with COVID cases. To be sensitive to what the people there had gone through as we are “visitors”, we just focused on building up the church and its members and did not get the chance to share with non-Christians the gospel. For this church, it was one of their first main larger events that they have had in a while and the church had not been in person and inside since the start of the pandemic. Throughout the week that we were there, we did a VBS for the kids and Bible study for the adults.

Before and during the trip, there were so many uncontrollable uncertainties but God is always good, worthy of our trust, and always at work. You just have to take notice. This trip definitely challenged me to just rely on God and just pray for His grace and here are three out of the many things that I saw in how God is good and is working! I just hope you can be encouraged and see a glimpse of who God is:

1. I was definitely far from prepared for this trip. My lessons were half prepped, I hoped we had all the craft materials, and I didn't pack for the trip until the night before. There were just a lot of uncertainties of how many kids we would have and how much space or rooms were available. When we got there, we found out that the date of our VBS was announced for the wrong week and many families would be out of town. We really did not know what to expect and were really had no control over anything. In moments like these, we were just reminded that we just needed to pray and trust God (‘Trust God’ was our theme for VBS, a topic that we as a team needed to live out). We ended up with 9 kids in VBS, even though we had expected a little more, a smaller group allowed us to spend more time individually. Also, even though they were all kids a part of that church, we just prayed that just the small amount of time we had with them would make some impact on their lives. I would say overall, through the uncertainties, the VBS went pretty well even though we had to adjust but everyone was ready to be flexible.

2. It’s always cool to see God’s timing of how He works. He placed people when I needed them to just give me that small encouragement. While I was on this trip, my grandpa had passed away and he was not a Christian. It was something hard for me to process but still through it, God is still always good and steadfast. Life is short. This is why I urge you, if you are reading this, to really think about life. Is there something that comes after you die? What are you living for right now? On this day my grandpa passed, our lesson was on how God provides and in response, we should always be giving thanks. It was a tough thing for me to say to the kids when I was just processing life after death for those who do not believe, like my grandpa. During our craft, a fourth grader asked for more paper slips to write more thanksgivings, which I didn’t think much of at first. But when I talked to her after VBS, she shared about how her aunt passed recently and even just stories where I can tell that her life was just already hard, at such a young age. I just find it amazing that God put that conversation in which I can just relate with her in that moment. Little did she know that she was an encouragement to me, being able to give thanks while to someone else looking at her life, may see more of the hardships than joy.

3. UNITY. To see the church united and just fellow Christians enjoying each other's company and serving one another, is definitely a sight to see. Especially when everyone is away from worldly distractions and has the same desire to love God (Matthew 22:36-40), you can see how people just continue to outdo one another in serving one another (Romans 12:10). This is just a glimpse of how the perfect church of Christ should and will be like. It isn’t “normal” to not see conflict and division in our world and this is something that we can look forward to when Christ comes back and builds his church!

This trip definitely challenged me in ways that I never would have thought. Just even our main theme of “Trust God” was something I had time to think and meditate on. Trusting God means constant prayer and thanksgiving. I enjoy being in control and can get caught up in that. But I am able to just learn that God is already in control and sometimes all I can even do is pray.

It says in Matthew 5:14-16: “You are the light of the world. A city set on a hill cannot be hidden. Nor do people light a lamp and put it under a basket, but on a stand, and it gives light to all in the house. In the same way, let your light shine before others, so that they may see your good works and give glory to your Father who is in heaven.”

I want to challenge you with this. If you are a Christian, how are you sharing this good news that you have? You don’t have to go on a planned mission trip, but how are you being a witness to your neighbors, classmates, coworkers, or family?! As Christians, this is something that you were called to do, no matter what gifts you have. So GO! If you are not a Christian, I want you to see for yourself this relationship you can have with Jesus. See who God is and I pray that you will want to get to know this awesome God who created and loves you!

Secondly, I want to challenge you to see what God is doing and how He is shaping your life, no matter how big or small, or in the good or bad. Sometimes when life gets busy, it is challenging to take a moment and stop and reflect! But it is definitely something that we should continue to do to meditate on God’s grace and goodness. Trust God, see His amazing work, and rejoice in Him alone.