MK040 Sermons
Missions Sunday (Audio)
- Was a church we talk about our purpose being to love God fully and to love others deeply. And so as in our student ministry and flip side with our middle schoolers and in C3 with our high schoolers, really all that we do there is to help students learn to do those things. And so one of the things that we find is super helpful is helping them to learn how to serve others, to have ministry trips and things that help them to really to fulfill the great commission that Jesus gave us in Matthew 28, to go and make disciples of all nations. And so we try to provide opportunities for them, both here locally where they live and do life as well as around the area, around the country, and even in a new part of the world for them. And so we got to take a trip to Haiti and one of the things that we really value in going outside of the country is that gives them an opportunity to learn and to understand another culture. And sometimes we think of trips as us going to do something for someone else. And we like to look at it a little differently. In Romans chapter one, in verses 11, 12, Paul was talking to the Romans and his desire to come and see them and he said, I long to see you that you and I may be mutually encouraged by each other's faith. And that's really what we see happen is you'll hear them share on these trips and what they experience. And we really focus not just on going and doing the task, somewhere, although we do tasks while we're there, but we really go with the focus on building relationships. And we find that that's really where the greatest value and what we can do and bring and the way that God uses that in our lives. And Paul also shared in First Thessalonians, as he was writing to them, he said, because we loved you, we were delighted to share with you not only the gospel of God, but our lives as well. And so for these students, that's something they got to really do for a week, is not just to go and share the gospel or not just go and do some things for the church and the people in Haiti, but to go and share their lives with them. And I think you'll hear that. And so we love to stretch them out of their comfort zone a little bit because that's when we often grow the most. When you heard Caleb share that, when he gets pulled into something new and God shows him some things about himself. And just learning that, you know, there's a lot that's different in another country, but there's also a lot that's the same. And so, you know, those are kind of the reasons that we do these types of trips for students. And we think that they're a valuable part of building their faith. But often, as they shared with me, and as you'll hear, they have their own reasons for wanting to go on a trip like this. And that's okay and God uses all those things. So this is part of the team that went with us. And if you want to hear from more of the team, you'll have to come back again for second service, or you can listen online to what they share. But once you guys go ahead and just introduce yourselves, give us your name. The main ministry that we did while we were there was a VBS for the church that we were partnering there with in Karfu. And so what was your role in the VBS? And then tell us why you went on this trip or what you were hoping to get out of. What was your kind of motivation behind it? So I guess I'll start. My name is Drew Walsh. I did the games-- or helped with the games portion of the VBS. One of the things that-- one of the reasons why I wanted to go was first it was my first out of the country experience. I've never left the USA. So it was pretty interesting for me to do that. And then I just kind of wanted to let God open my eyes to what the rest of the world-- or some of what the rest of the world goes through on a everyday basis. My name is Zach Smith, and I did crafts in the VBS. One of the main reasons I went on the trip, I went-- I also didn't go out of the country. I went to experience another culture. And maybe through that, seeing the different culture, I could see how God was working down there. And through that, maybe God could do something in my life. Just show me some things that I need to work on and stuff like that. I'm Emily White, and I was also a part of the games group. And the main reason I wanted to go on the trip was because I wanted to experience a world outside of my own. And to have God show me how other people live, and to show me that I have to be more loving to everyone. My name is Michael Martin, and I was on the worship team. And I guess the reason I wanted to go on the trip was just because I've never been out of the country. I want to experience a different culture. And I don't know. It just seemed really exciting and exotic, so. My name's Melody Dobb, and I worked with the craft team of the VBS. And I really love meeting people and learning about their lives and their culture. So I was just excited to get to Haiti and meet people and see how they live. Hi, my name is Amanda Aink, and I was a part of the teaching group. And I wanted to go on this trip to try to re-energize my relationship with Christ, so that I could do this by seeing his work through a total different environment than what I'm used to. So on the trip, like I said, our main ministry opportunity was leading this VBS with the church there in Haiti. And we also-- we would do that in the mornings. We also got to do some things called prayer walks, where you walk through the community, and the goal is just to really build a relationship that people get to know them. The organization Heart United with Haiti has a presence there. And so we just got to help build that for them and in the community. And we also got to play some soccer and interact with people that way. We got to go to an orphanage for a day and just have some fun with the kids that were there. And so we had a lot of different experiences while we were there. And so I want you just to hear a few of what their favorites were. And I thought it was funny you saw in the pictures, we went to some amazingly beautiful places on our free day on Friday. And not one of the students said that was their favorite part. So Michael, why don't you start? What was your favorite experience? I really liked leading the worship at the VBS, because I do that here at church with our kids. So just seeing the connection between, you know, we worship the same guy, we worship in the same way. So just seeing the connection between us, all those questions was really cool. Yeah, different languages, but we're singing to the same guy, and that's pretty cool experience as well. Mel, how about you? What was your favorite experience of the trip? Okay, so I could not just pick one favorite experience from the trip, but one of my favorites was our very first prayer walk we did. We went with Estrid, who was one of our one female translator, and the first, just as we stepped into the community, there was a lady, a much older lady standing at the door of her house, and she just was super excited to meet us. And really interested in talking to us, and she, her name was Louisa, she invited us into her home, which really just consisted of two beds and a very small table with a few pots on it, but she quickly, you know, tidied up for us and had us sit down on the beds in a stool or two that she pulled around, and she promptly left to go find her grandchildren, because it was very important to her that we meet the rest of her family that lives in her home, so she sort of just left us there and went, I don't think she wasn't successful in finding them, though, so she came back and sat down with us, and we were able just to talk about her life and some of the struggles that she has, and we were able to pray with her with the translator, and she just, it was a very humbling experience because she kept saying how honored she was, and how she never thought in her whole life she would have us, people like us in her home, and I think people like us know what that means, but she was just very honored to have us and kept saying things like if she had coffee, which she did not, and was younger, she would surely have made coffee for us, which, again, was very humbling, so as we were talking though her grandchildren did kind of trickle in, and then we had the experience of all of us praying in what we call Haitian style, which really was just we formed a circle, held hands, and everybody prayed all at once, and all of them in Creole and us in English, and so that was a very moving, touching experience, but also I just had to say there, when we were doing the VBS and handing out the flip flops, there was one little girl who was kind of standing off to the side and didn't actually get her flip flops on the first round, so I helped her go over to get her flip flops, and when she got them she just turned and gave me a kiss on the cheek, and so that also was a highlight. - Well, you drew was something that really stood out for you and the experiences you had there. - Well, for me, it had to have been to the team time, 'cause we just, as a group, we were able to bond, reflect on the day, and just discuss on how the VBS was going, and I thought that was really cool to see other people's thoughts on how the days were going, and how the week was going in their eyes. - Yeah, it really gave us a good chance to not only share what God was doing in our lives, but to hear from everyone else how God was working and things that they saw that day, so yeah, those are awesome times every night sharing those things together. So we're there, and we have a lot of time that we're experiencing the Haitian culture, we're interacting and building relationships with them, and I feel like often we come back learning more than maybe we offered to them, but what was something that you guys learned from either the Haitians that you had a chance to build a relationship with, or just from the Haitian culture in general? Zach, why don't you go ahead and start? - I learned a lot from the Haitian culture, but mostly I learned their optimism, and they're just passionate for Christ. I really saw this at the church service that we went to the first morning. Our church is much different than there's, it's much more, I don't know, it has a lot more energy, and it's a lot more, and it's a lot more energy, and-- - They do more dancing, just say it, they dance a lot, all right? (laughing) - So that just really showed me that maybe I need to be more passionate about Christ and everything, and that's just something that I really took away from the trip overall. - Amanda, how about you, what'd you-- - I learned from the Haitians to trust others a lot more. I tend to be pretty skeptical of people and their motives and stuff, so I went on a prayer walk with Mel, and we met that Louisa lady, and when we got there, we came inside to her house and stuff, and then she left and went to look for her kids, which was totally different, 'cause she just left us in her house by herself, and I don't know any American that would ever leave complete strangers in their house, so it was a little different that she trusted us that much to just leave us there. - Michael, how about you? - I think I learned from interacting with the kids that communication isn't just speaking. It's really actually pretty easy to communicate with someone by just, you know, just paying attention to them and interacting with them, especially with the kids, because we get a lot to say a few words in Korea, so we couldn't really understand each other very well, but it was easy to show God's love by just letting them sit in your lap and play with your hair and thumb wrestle with them, so. - Yeah, they did a really great job. We had six translators with us all the time, but for a group of 16, obviously, you don't get one-on-one, and so the students did a really great job just really interacting with kids, but also the adults that we were working with in a great way, and some of them spoke English, but most of the kids did not, and so they really did a great job finding ways to interact and to communicate with them, even though there was that language barrier, so. So while we were there, obviously, like Drew was sharing, we talked a lot about what we saw God doing, so I want you guys just to share with them some of the things that maybe we got to hear while we were there, but what were some ways that you guys saw God at work while you were in Haiti? Emily, you wanna go ahead and get us started? - The main reason, or the main experience I had when I saw God work was through the kids. They changed my life. They showed me that the little things in life are the most important, just taking a picture with the main one, if I would show them the camera, their faces would light up, or just smiling at them, or when we would show up in the morning at the VBS, they would jump and scream and laugh, and just made me so happy, knowing that they got joy out of the little things, and it showed me that I need to, instead of the things and the money that we all idolized, we need to help, or we need to idolize different things. I don't know if it's obviously God, and the way he works through people here. - Zach, how about you? - One of the main things that I saw was at the VBS. We asked people in the community to come out and help with the VBS, and a bunch of people actually came out and helped with the VBS, and I thought that was awesome, that people in the community would just drop everything they had in the day, whether or not they'd work, or didn't have work, or just things to go out and do. They would come and help us with the VBS. I just saw this, I just was so overwhelmed by their willingness to serve, and just to help out. - Yeah, they really had a heart, the people of the church, really had a heart for kids, and that's something that's growing in them, and so to do that alongside with them and to see their passion for that was really, really cool. Mel, how about you? How did you see God work and why you were there? - I also would say I saw him definitely working in the church we partnered with, just in the teaching that we were able to be a part of, from the worship and the way they worship, and also the volunteers, their willingness to come each day, and as leaders, Tim, Jen, and I got to meet with them for about an hour prior to the start of VBS, and they had a chance to share kind of input into what we did the day before, what they think might be better beneficial in their culture, and then we got to share our ideas and how we do things here. So it was really a great example of two different cultures kind of working together for the same goal and their desire to teach their children, and I would also say that I saw God working through our translators on the prayer walks, just specifically I had a chance to go with two different translators, and both of their styles were very different in how we approached people and found out their needs and prayed with them, but it was just the whole week, but in those times in particular, it was a great opportunity for me to see their heart for Haiti and the people of Haiti, and their willingness to share God with the people and their openness and just their real heart of loving these people, knowing their circumstances are difficult, but just wanting to offer hope and not really being able to change the circumstances, but to just encourage them and give them hope. So our translators were great. And in the last Sunday, that was our unexpected Sunday in Haiti, just, you know, God really was moving and working in our team. Some of our team just really didn't even wanna go to church. That Sunday, they, you know, it was discouraging to be stuck there, but just walking in to church and having their church members kind of just, they just got up and ran to us and embraced us, and a few of them said they were praying, they would see us soon, and we were kind of like, don't do that, this was too soon. (laughs) But just, and just even to walk in, and we recognized right away the song, I believe it was How Great Is Our God that was playing, they were singing it in Creole, but for us to recognize it and be welcomed and the pastor that was speaking, he realized we didn't have our translators with us, so he translated most of the service so that we could understand it. It was just, you could really tell that God was using that church to minister to us and encourage and bless us. So obviously as we, you know, share our experiences, we can't share everything as much as we'd like to, you just can't do that, but if you guys had just one thing that you could share about your trip or one thing that you could tell them about Haiti, what would that be? Amanda, why don't you go ahead. - If I could tell one thing I would tell people that Haiti is a really beautiful country, most people usually think of the earthquake and poverty and trash and just a lot of people, but once you look past that stuff, you'll see like beautiful people that live there and the shacks that like make up Haiti like are in like this art form that like go up the mountain and it's like really beautiful. And all the stuff that we kind of think that are bad about Haiti kind of make it a work of art that is really beautiful. - True, how about you? - Oh, I'll have to say that in all 10 days or eight day trips, it was definitely like, I learned that, I learned like how to fully rely on God. - Emily, why don't you-- - If, sorry, if I could say one thing, it would be that Haiti is a beyond beautiful place with beyond beautiful people and I would love to go back. - Yeah, they fell in love with Haiti and much in the same way I've had and I actually got the chance to go back, Jen and I did and that's a blessing to us and I know, God has a special place in their heart for the country of Haiti. So why don't we, as we wrap up you guys, why don't you just go down the line and just share real quickly what you saw God, how God kind of worked in you through this experience, what your kind of your big takeaway was from what you experienced during that week plus in Haiti. Yeah, go ahead. - He gave me a lot of energy to play with the kids every day that we had the VBS and it kind of just made me realize like what, with me relying at him what he can do in my life with the kids that we were doing, like we were doing the VBS with there and for all you that don't know, I'm a camp counselor at Woodcrest. So I can take what I learned at Haiti to Woodcrest and apply it there. - God really showed me through this trip that he used the Haitians in their strengths to show me my weaknesses because in America, like we don't always put all our faith in God, we try to do things all by ourselves and the Haitians don't always do that. They're more reliant on God because they almost have to be almost, you know? So it just really showed me that in my life I need to have more faith in God and rely on him and not try to struggle through it on my own that he's there for me. - Kind of going off of him, one of the songs throughout the week that we sang was "Have Faith" and us missing our plane, the eighth day, I guess, I think it was kind of him saying you're not done here, like, have faith, like, practice what you preach, like, we all had to have faith and it kind of just hit me that if we have faith in God, everything will be okay. - I guess what I learned is that I need to trust in God's plane even when I don't like it, especially having to do with like the last, the last part of our trip, what we were stuck in Haiti. I was really, I was pretty frustrated. I just wanted to be at home. And I think God kind of showed me a lot of, it's kind of nudged me, especially on the Sunday that Mel was talking about. The service went to, there was like a cool rap group, that was nice, but there's also like this preacher who could speak perfect English and could translate the message for us. And I didn't really want to go to church because I didn't think I was going to get anything out of it because, you know, it was all in trouble. I didn't, I didn't think I was going to enjoy it, but that was really helpful, so. - All right, I really, God used this experience just to help me learn more about trusting him, especially when things are hard or you don't really understand what he is doing or you might want to question what he's doing. So it just really helped me just learn more about what trust looks like. And also, for me, being with the people in Haiti gave me a living picture of what joy in all circumstances really looks like. - I learned from God through the strip to show kindness to everyone because while we were down there, even just like having some of the kids just like send your lap or tell the girls oobell, which means you're beautiful and they start like blushing in there. All happy that we said that. But it would just like little things like that would just brighten their day and like coming back to America, maybe like throwing a compliment to someone or just saying hi could brighten their day as well. - It was really interesting as we kind of debriefed a little bit more preparing for this. It was really interesting that we had some really amazing experiences all throughout the week. And if we would have come home on time, that would have been significant. But there was something, and almost every one of them said it, there was something about having to stay there for a couple of extra days, missing our plane and not knowing exactly when we were getting home, just kind of living in this unknown that really helped to submit a lot of things in their minds and reinforce some of the things like Emily was saying that we had been teaching and we've been trying to help them to understand and really give us a chance to exercise that faith as well. And so it was, it's really interesting to look back. I don't know if we'll know ever anymore why that happened, but it really seemed that God used that to help us finish learning the things that he wanted us to learn why we were there. So thank you guys so much for sharing. You can go ahead and take your seats and I would encourage you, we had them all wear their green shirts today and there's others here that were on the trip that, yeah, you can just leave the mic there, it's fine. (audience applauding) There's others here and so I encourage you, just grab somebody in a green shirt and ask them the questions maybe that you have that they didn't answer quite yet and see what else they got to learn and experience. Also, I don't know as you listen to the things that were shared this morning as you think about this whole idea of ministering in a different place. I know before we left I had several people ask me, what are we gonna do a trip with the adults so I can go on a trip like this and I don't know when that will be. But I did wanna just say you don't have to wait for us to schedule a trip for you to go. Crystal Funk and her husband Ron are here this morning. They run, hearts united with Haiti. And if you feel a tug in your heart, you feel like God wants you to maybe step out of your comfort zone and try something different, experience something new, feel free to talk to her this morning and you can go on a trip just as an individual. They put individuals together in trips and so you could go next summer if you wanted. And so she's here to take advantage of talking to her and she has a great heart, love doing ministry with her, heart for passion for the people of Haiti and for doing ministry relationally, which I really, really appreciate. And so take advantage of that.