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Mission Trip

Gal 6:9 reads
And let us not grow weary of doing good, for in due season we will reap, if we do not give up.

This verse sums up a lot of things about this mission trip.

Going into the mission trip, we were already told Japan was what we called "hard ground". It was difficult to get people to listen to the Gospel, and even harder to share it fully.

Our pastor shared that if we were to share the Gospel once, collectively, as a team, he would consider the trip a success.

We did more than that.

It started slow and seemingly unproductive. Many of the things we prepared were rejected. A lot of plans were scrapped and we pulled out last minute stuff.

Our first event was a kids' programme, aiming to reach out to the children in the pre-fab housings. Needless to say, we didn't get to do much. We played with the kids a bit, laughed a lot, but in the end, there was no Gospel.

Then stop and reconsider.

What exactly is missions?

The original mission was given by Christ in Matthew 28.

"Therefore go and make disciples of all nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit, and teaching them to obey everything I have commanded you. And surely I am with you always, to the very end of the age."

3 commands - to make disciples of all nations, to baptize them in the name of the Father, Son and Holy Spirit, and to teach them to obey Jesus's teaching.

Innately it implies that we have to tell them the full message of Christ, from Creation to Judgement.

However, what is often forgotten is the "how" of telling them this message. This is something we learnt over in Japan. Nobody is going to sit down with you to talk about the Gospel. Relationships need to be built, people need to "get interested". You may be able to share the Gospel in 3 minutes - but nobody's going to give you 3 minutes if they don't have a "good reason" to hear the Gospel.

To be continued.
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