We praise God for all he did this past summer through our Summer Mission Trips! (SMT’s for short) We sent 9 teams to Cambodia, China, Honduras, Kyrgyzstan, Taiwan, and Thailand… approximately 200 of our members gave up their vacations to heed Jesus’ command to go to all nations, and experienced a piece of God’s heart for the world in the process.
Below are some sharings and thoughts written by our Summer Mission Team members.
Cambodia
From Erickson Chow:
What do you get when you get 3 churches and 36 people? You get one team.
That is what happened during our trip to Cambodia as we were the second team sent off this year from Gracepoint Fellowship Church. Going into the trip, many of us did not know what to expect. There were four of us from SF Campus – a handful from Berkeley which many were part of the College groups (Kairos, Koinonia, and A2F), Praxis, Element, and some from Waypoint Community Church in Davis. So many of us did not know each other and met for the first time through this trip. However, that did not stop us from doing God’s work.
I have a many memorable experiences coming out of the trip. Throughout the mission trip, we held chapel times, visited different villages, an orphanage, performed skits, each one of us even had a chance to lead praise at one point, led college fellowship time, and we even ran Life Univ. (from grades preschool to high school) on our own while a few of us gave a teachers’ retreat. One memorable time was at the orphanage, it was so amazing how high each and every one of the children’s spirits were and I was just amazed to see how the little we did brought so much joy to them. I saw them folding paper airplanes and after folding them, all of them joyfully ran around throwing their airplanes. Seeing their response to us and seeing them sing and dance along to our Joyland songs really touched me. I remember filming one of the praise sets where the primary team led “Your Love Is Deep” and just watching the children do the motions and sing with all their heart the powerful words of “Your Love Is Deep, Your Love Is High, Your Love Is Long, Your Love Is Wide – Who shall separate us? Nothing Can Separate us from your love” really touched my heart. Indeed, God’s love is deep, wide, high, long and nothing can separate us, or separate these children from His love.
As our DT passage our final week was on Luke 15, it really was a timely passage for us as we saw how God does not quit in finding any of his lost people. He sent 36 of us to Cambodia to try to look for one lost person and he will not stop as there are plenty more missionaries coming in and out of Cambodia. This was an experience I will never forget and I’m so thankful that I had the chance to go. I was so blessed by my experience there, not only with the people of Cambodia, but through working as one with the many brothers and sisters of Gracepoint and Waypoint church to show just a small picture of God’s love them.
Honduras
From Gordon Lai:
In 2007, I had the opportunity to head to Honduras as part of the BMDMI (Baptist Medical Dental Missions International) team. I remember being impacted so much by the trip, by the people I met that on the plane ride home, I was sitting in my airline chair looking outside at the lush Honduran scenery and I prayed to God, “God please give me another opportunity to come back to this country, to love these people again.” Fast forward a year, and I found myself once again being given the opportunity to go back to that country but this time not by myself but along with 9 other brothers and sisters from Gracepoint Fellowship church as well as one sister from Waypoint church. Personally, one of the most rewarding experiences for me on this past trip was seeing how this one week mission trip had such a deep impact on each of the brothers and sisters who went, many of them expressing the desire to want to come back next year and to love these people again.
From Ellen Kwon:
This past July I had the privilege, along with 10 other Gracepoint Fellowship sisters and brothers and 1 sister from Waypoint church, to go to Honduras for 1 week. We formed a medical mission team along with 22 others (mostly from Mississippi). Our mission was to open a medical clinic in one of the villages there to help the people and more importantly to help start a church in the village. The village we visited was call Dolores. In Spanish, “Dolores” means pain or sadness. Indeed, this name aptly described the situation there. The place was so afflicted by poverty. I have been to other countries and have seen poverty, but it was my first time seeing it so close and personal. I was once again reminded of how the greatest victims of poverty are the children. Over the course of the week,I saw many young children walking around in bare feet, too poor to afford shoes, and it broke my heart each time.
Seeing their dire situation made me all the more thankful to serve these people. At least for three short days, we were able to provide relief and hope to the people. Most importantly, we brought God’s Word into the village and, incredibly, there were 500 salvation decision that were made. Seeing this helped me realize that the help we provided as a medical clinic is only temporary, but the impact of the Gospel and God’s word lasts forever and gives hope that transcends a person’s physical and social afflictions. I am glad that we were able to offer something that is truly everlasting. In Honduras, I saw how even though the Gospel does not get rid of poverty, it gives hope and joy and peace that will never perish even in the midst of hardship and difficult times. I really had such a meaningful time there and learned a great deal. Honduras is indeed such a beautiful place and I hope to go again soon.
You can also view a video slideshow of the Honduras trip here.
