MAN with a

By Ruler

Sometimes people have the opportunity to do something great: to go to different countries and serve people. Missions trips are ways for people to serve in other countries, share stories as well as make new friends. Missions trips also can have an impact on its travelers.

 

20-year-old Bethlehem-born Saleem went to a DTS (Disciple Training School) in Belfast, Ireland. When he first attended the DTS, he felt like he had nothing to offer. But when his DTS traveled to Burundi and Rwanda in Africa, he shared his own story with to the local people. He explained how God was working in his life. His words touched an African man who had lost his family. The words resonated so deeply in his soul. They changed him.  Instead of getting revenge on the people who killed his family, he determined that he would choose the grace of God.

 

“That night, God really spoke to me,” Saleem says. He said ‘See my son, your past is important, and you are everything to me.’ From that night on , I knew that I was really someone!”

​

This past summer, I, myself also went on a missions trip with members of my grandparent's church. We traveled for two days from Decatur, Illinois to Gamerco, New Mexico. There, we did a weekly VBS program, shared our testimonies, and celebrated the church’s associate pastor’s birthday.

 

For me, I felt like the trip was more than a trip. I felt like it was a way to get to know the other people who were with me, and bond with them. After the trip, I said “I felt like we had been called, that we were steppin’ out to do something I never would have done on my own. I actually had so much fun that I would want to do it again.” 10/31/16