Mission Trip to Southeast Asia

I had the privilege of being a member on a mission team the first week of August this year. That team was made up of John Mark Jarret, Lauren Higgins, Shelby Quarles, Hannah Quarles, and myself. We went on a mission trip to Southeast Asia. Our work while we were there wasn’t manual labor like some mission trips are; we just shared the Gospel with unbelievers and encouraged believers. We literally just went around to different people’s houses and sat down with them to share with them. The believers there in Southeast Asia were amazing. Being around them was honestly probably one of my favorite things about the trip. One of our translators was named Gusti.

He said something one day to me that stuck out a lot. He said something like, “When everything is easy in your life, you don’t think about Heaven or God.” That is so true I thought. It’s easy to be like the world when you are living a comfortable life. The believers there in Southeast Asia are living such uncomfortable lives, and I think that’s what it takes to make a difference. Being a believer in Southeast Asia brings a load of persecution. Sometimes they even get kicked out of their own home and their families don’t want anything to do with them. Despite all this, the Christians I met while I was there were some of the strongest believers that I’ve ever been around. They were grounded in God’s Word, they fully believed and trusted in the power of prayer, and most importantly they didn’t just talk about Jesus, but they actually lived their life for Jesus. A guy named Moose was a local pastor of a church and a father of a local orphanage, and he goes out and shares the Gospel daily. The fruit that I saw while I was there was overwhelming. The believers and missionaries there in Southeast Asia are sowing so much seed, and it was evident of their hard work. It’s all because they are doers of the Word and not just hearers or talkers, and they honestly love the Lord more than themselves. They look forward to Heaven so much because of how hard everything is in their life, and that convicts me cause in America my life is super easy honestly compared to theirs. Too many people in the world are stuck in a pattern or a routine, but life is too short to be in a routine. The first day we got there, we sat down with one of the missionaries that was leading us and we had a devotion to start the week. The verse that stuck out to me was John 12:25. “He that loveth his life shall lose it; and he that hateth his life in this world shall keep it unto life eternal.” I honestly was glad that we started the week like this because I needed a heart check. Here I was on a mission trip on the other side of the world while all along I was not as close to God as I should have been to be apart of the team. The way this verse speaks to me, it’s saying there are two different people. The first part refers to a person who loves the world or loves his or her life more than Jesus, and the second part refers to a person who loves Jesus more than his or her on life and someone who takes up their cross daily to follow Jesus. What I failed at for a while was being honest with myself. I did it without even realizing it, but I just talked myself up that I was a good Christian guy and that I was doing “good.” But when I finally got honest with myself, I realized that I love my life more than I love Jesus. But getting back to the mission trip, we went through that week doing some awesome things like visiting local schools, a local orphanage, and different homes in different villages. Going to the schools was really cool to me. The first school we went to, it was a tourism school where the students learn how to work in restaurants, hotels, and they have nursing classes as well. We let some students show us around, and I was even able to share my testimony with a class. Credit goes to Gusti for pushing me out of my comfort zone to do that. While they were showing us around, we got to learn some cool things like how to make a swan, a turtle, and a dog with a bath towel. We also got to do some yoga and play on some instruments.

The Southeast Asia mission trip was awesome, but words will never do it justice about how I grew from this trip. In closing, do you love your life and this world more than Jesus or do you love Jesus more? If you love your life more but you know you want that to change, then talk to God about that. Ask God to change your heart’s desires and ask Him to help you love Him more than anything and anyone else in your life because the truth is you can’t change yourself. Or at least, I know I can’t change myself. If God doesn’t continue to change me, then I won’t change because I can’t do it on my own. You will either decide to wake up everyday and follow Jesus or you will decide not to. Get honest with yourself and decide if you really want Jesus or not because it’s time to start doing something instead of just talking about it. Then live your life accordingly. If you want to follow Jesus, wake up everyday and get in God’s Word and talk to God about life all day and just follow Him one day at a time.