Lessons and Prayers from a Missions Trip
A small team of young adults participated in a missions trip to a city in Asia recently. Rebecca Soh shares four key thoughts that she has from the trip, and how it has also translated into prayer.
Is Jesus worth it?
Going to campus and walking up to strangers was (is?) super uncomfortable for me. In the first few days especially, I would think “I'm being so weird” every time I asked for someone’s contact after knowing them for 10 minutes. It was also uncomfortable whenever I felt the tension rise in a conversation when I shared the gospel.
In this country, following Christ can literally affect your position at work. I remember talking to a student who was deliberating for a long time about whether she wanted to be baptised because she knew her material quality of life would be much better if she did not proclaim to be Christian.
All of these experiences made me think: am I willing to put aside what is comfortable to me if Jesus calls me to? Is Jesus worth my discomfort? Is He worth looking foolish for?
And yet Jesus was the one who left the comfort of heaven and came down to this uncomfortable earth for us! Praise God that He was the one who was first willing to bear discomfort, suffering and hatred, to bring us into relationship with God.
Prayer pointer: That we would grow in seeing how Jesus is worth every discomfort. He is much better!
God alone is the Lord of Salvation
God was very generous to allow me to have many long conversations with non-Christian friends about life and faith (an answered prayer!). As we shared our worldviews, I would often talk about the many different ways that following Jesus was so good. And yet, even after meaningful discussions, we often ended the conversations at the same start point. Speaking to a gospel partner after, we reflected on how no matter what I said, I would not be able to convince people unless God opened their heart.
Before the trip, as I was reading John 12 with a friend from Pua, we reflected on how God’s glory is still shown when people reject the gospel. Thankful that we got to read that before the trip, it was helpful to remember that He does not call me to save people, only to be His vessels of love in truth, and deed. And it was a realisation that it's only when we do things for God's glory that our motivation will last.
I wondered why God calls me to partner Him in this work if He could save his people either way. A sister helpfully compared working with Jesus to kids helping their parents to cook dinner. Dinner will still make it to the table regardless of what the kids do (and honestly the parents can probably cook dinner better without the kids), but they still invite their children to join in. And as the kids do, they deepen their relationship with their parents.
I got to taste a glimpse of that when a non-Christian friend arranged to meet a sister, B (name withheld for privacy) and I at a hole-in-the-wall gelato shop far from campus. She was not replying to her messages, and so while waiting, B and I started a conversation with the girls sitting beside us. They had never heard the gospel and as B started sharing it, a girl on the opposite side of us also turned around and said something like "I want to hear it too!! Can I listen?". She asked lots of good questions and even downloaded the Bible app. It felt so perfectly arranged by God that we would end up in that random hole-in-the wall shop that afternoon, especially because the girls were only in the city for a few days! It is a privilege to be His vessel.
Prayer pointer: For God to have mercy on the lost, and for our hearts to be attuned to His leading.
We need Jesus as much as our non-Christian friends do
Talking about our worldviews sometimes felt like looking into a mirror at my own heart. The sin struggles that were easy to brush aside when busy were cast into the spotlight as I saw how these same sins of pride and self-reliance were what kept people from following Jesus. It made me see how serious sin is, and how much I too needed the gospel daily to keep me, just as much as the friends I was speaking to needed it.
As I tried to fight sin, God showed me again and again how weak I really was. There would be days where I would cycle to school feeling culture-shocked and un-enthused to meet more people who might just not be interested in the gospel. And yet God always answered my prayers to give me strength. My complain-y heart felt deeply how much I needed Jesus to help me fight what felt instinctual to me, and grow me in genuine love for Him and people made in His image.
Prayer pointer: As we see our need for Jesus, that we’d run to Him daily!
Partnership is God’s grace to us
Team meetings and conversations with the other team members were such a big blessing. On days when I was tired or discouraged, it was a comfort to read 1 Corinthians together, see God’s word speak of things that I was seeing with my eyes (e.g. people rejecting God/being closed off to Him), and then pray for these friends together.
“Iron sharpens iron, and one man sharpens another (Prov 27:17)”. I really tasted that as the team shared their struggles vulnerably, listened, challenged each others’ assumptions and pointed one another to Jesus. Seeing them also wrestle through difficult questions and persevere reminded me of the preciousness of the gospel. Joy is really multiplied through partnerships!!
Prayer pointer: For more gospel partnerships at GBC, and in the churches in Asia.
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