What first prompted me to missions was a friend who mentioned this opportunity to go to New Orleans for a few days to do some construction and evangelism. This trip took place during my freshman year of college and it was my first time ever going out and intentionally sharing the gospel with anyone who would be willing to talk.
After this first trip, the Lord really began to work in my life and helped me understand his plan to redeem people from every ethnic group on the planet. Through the influence of passages like Genesis 12 and 15, Matthew 28, Psalms 67 and 96, and Revelation 5, I began to see that it's been God's plan from before time to redeem a people for Himself from different backgrounds and cultures, that His glory would be extended throughout the whole earth. God's perfect Son purchased people with his own blood from every nation, and that's something I want to be a part of. That's a purpose not just worth living your life for, but one worth losing your life for.
I've been on many mission trips:
On my India trips I helped train local pastors and lay leaders. I also helped organize a medical clinic in 2 different villages where there was no gospel presence. We provided free health care and medicine to the people, prayed with the patients, and had some of the translators share the gospel. We worked with local pastors to try to start churches in those villages.- New Orleans; 2010
- San Francisco; 2011, 2012, 2013
- India twice; 2012 and 2014
Being involved in overseas mission work has opened my eyes to the global nature of God's family, the Church. There's something special about traveling thousands of miles away, to a place that looks different, smells different, speaks a different language, and seeing how God is just as present as He is back home. It also taught me a whole lot about Christian fellowship. I came to realize on my first trip to India that although my culture, language, socioeconomic status, and upbringing were totally different from these Indian brothers and sisters, there was this instant connection. The simple fact that we shared the same in faith in Christ vastly overshadowed all of our differences. I share more in common with an Indian brother in Christ than I my neighbor who does not know Christ. These trips to India during the early years of my adult life have shaped the way I live, give, and pray. God has promised to draw people to Himself from every nation, tribe, and tongue. I want to be a part of that.
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up next: Sean Dietrich, while he never thought he'd be the one going, shares his life changing trip to Mynamar.
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