Thank you all for your support, your prayers, and words of encouragement for this mission trip! After much processing and reflection, I'd like to give you a final update. It has been an incredibly challenging and stretching summer, and I'd just like to share with a little bit about what God has taught me and how he's grown me this summer. Below is the letter that I wrote.
This summer, I was part of a team of 29 Asian-American students and 9 staff from all over the mainland US. Within days, we became like family as we trained together, shared the gospel together, prayed together, and played together. Since Hawaii is over 50% Asian, we fit right in – in fact, if we didn't say anything, most people just assumed that we were locals. Our purpose there was twofold: first, to find our identity in Christ, and second, to launch movements on campuses.
Through several ministries, such as men's and women's time, Bible studies, and large group sharing, we learned about ourselves as Asian Americans and the ways that our culture affects our relationships with others and with God. We learned about healthy ways of dealing with conflicts and our emotions, but one of the most important lessons I learned was that the performance orientation of Asian culture had led me to believe that I had to earn God's approval by working hard at getting good grades or by serving in my fellowship. In reality, God created us to be human beings, not human doings – He loves me because of who I am, and there is absolutely nothing that I can do to make Him love me any more or any less. After years of identifying myself with my GPA, it is such a relief to know that it's not a number, but my trust in Christ that defines who I am and gives me worth.
As our second purpose was to launch movements on college campuses, we were assigned to one of three campuses: the University of Hawaii (my campus), Kapiolani Community College, and Hawaii Pacific University. We went on campus three days a week and approached people with short surveys about life experiences and thoughts on spirituality. Sometimes at UH, we held events to draw people in, such as a prayer table where passersby could write their prayer requests and a reverse confession booth (inspired by Don Miller's Blue Like Jazz) where we apologized for the ways that we've misrepresented Christianity. Overall, people were generally pretty open to talking, and they appreciated that we listened to them and that we didn't force anything on them. At KCC and HPU, where there were no ministries, God has raised leaders who had a heart for their campuses. They will begin meeting this fall and continue the work that we began there.
One of the most important things I've learned about and grown in this summer is communicating my faith in a clear and concise manner. The first week, I let my partner do all the talking because I was really uncomfortable with approaching people. Since then, I've learned that the worst thing that people can say is that they don't want to do the survey, which isn't that big of a deal. I've also learned that God is ultimately interested in my willingness to let him use me, not my words. By the end of project, I was much more confident, and I even had the chance to show the ropes to one of the locals who came outreaching with us one weekend. What had once been an annoying duty has become a joy and privilege, and I hope that sharing God's love would not be something confined to this summer and this place, but a part of my life no matter where I am.
In Christ,
Jess
PS -- If you'd like to see pictures, you can view them on facebook or here
http://picasaweb.google.com/
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