The youth department took a small group of ten young adults on a ShareHim trip to the beautiful nation of the Philippines from July 12 to 25. Each volunteer was the guest speaker for a local church’s nine-day evangelistic series, presenting eleven Christ-centered, doctrinal sermons.
Each individual partnered with a local church in Tagudin, Philippines. In addition to the evangelistic series, each of them also spent time in the community doing personal visitations to people’s homes, and extracurriculars such as leading kids’ activities, storytelling, games, and ballooning.
Trip leader Phil Hyland says that they each built strong bonds with their local church community. He says that the team really went out of their way to meet and greet everyone, learn the local language, and be immersed in the culture – which the locals appreciated. “Everyone’s church family became their family.”
Nathalie says, “I am in love with my new church family! I miss them so much.”
The group saw God’s hand all throughout their time away. Nathalie shares that “the greatest moment of the entire trip would definitely be witnessing the baptism of 59 people! I got emotional knowing I was a part of that experience.”
“This trip wasn’t about us; it was about Him and what He can do through us.”
Gustavo shares, “Having come back home after this trip, it has really inspired me to share God’s word to everyone, no matter how difficult we may think it may be. I’ve learnt so much on this trip and one of those things is that when we accept and do God’s calling, he takes care of the rest and that’s exactly what God did.”
Phil adds that he saw massive personal growth in the team members:
“We saw massive personal growth, their spiritual development, their understanding of God and key Bible teachings, their self-belief that they can actually get up and preach.”
“Everyone faced different difficulties and challenges along the way. You could see them leaning into God throughout the journey.”
Ivan also shares, “During the mission, I understood that it wasn’t about me or religion, it was about truly understanding God’s calling in my life.”
The trip was coordinated through ShareHim; ShareHim is an Adventist organisation that coordinates international evangelism campaigns where lay young people church can “go and get inspired in parts of the world where the message is spreading fast, by preaching a series of evangelistic meetings.” The organisation helps first-time speakers with ready-to-preach sermons and experienced onsite support. They believe that for this trip, only the Holy Spirit’s power and your willingness to share the gospel are needed.
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