JASON SPEAKS

A team of four from the First Baptist Church of Bryan, Texas helped the Central Baptist in Kharkov, Ukraine share God’s love and truth through a computer outreach in May 2008…hear about it from Jason, one of the team members:

I had been on missions trips in the past, but I found out early on that this was no ordinary trip!  Our plan was to teach computers as an outreach event in Ukraine, and our eDOT leaders knew what we were up against. They had prepared a thorough, online training to help us with adjustments to the culture, team building and testimony preparation. There was also a curriculum to be learned and high expectations for the quality of the presentations that we were to make.  The eDOT group works hard to deliver meaningful training along with sharing God’s plan of salvation.

Whenever you organize a mission trip, there will be hurdles to overcome.  I have come to realize this is how God shows his power to us.  In our particular case we had many obstacles to overcome.   Our team was small—six adults; but the day before we left, two of our team members had to cancel due to serious health concerns with their father. One night during the outreach all of the electricity went out at the church. God showed his power by enabling us to complete our entire class on the batteries of the laptops.

We taught two 3-hour lessons each day; the lessons seemed to be very basic however, they were right on target for the level that our students needed.   As the week went on, the computer lessons became more involved and the Bible lessons became more focused until on Thursday we asked if anyone would like to pray for forgiveness and ask Jesus into their lives.  Several of our students reacted very emotionally and shared their faith with us as we had opportunity to talk with them during breaks and after class.

On Sunday, after our first week of classes, we had a graduation during the regular church service.  To my surprise almost all of the students showed up and they each wanted to share with the church about their experiences!  One couple shared that they had made a decision to follow Christ and one repented of her sin and asked for forgiveness.

While the mission trip was one of the most difficult jobs I’ve ever done, I wouldn’t trade one moment of the experience.  The pastor of Central Baptist Church invited us to come back again next year.  He shared how grateful they were to find a way to bring people into the church and show them God’s love.  I’m considering making the trip—but if I can’t go, can you go in my place?