The Student Missionary Union’s short-term missions teams shared stories from their trips at Pix and Pizza on Feb. 4. Students worked and ministered in India, Ethiopia, Kenya and the Philippines during interterm.
Team Ethiopia participated in a sports camp in Ethiopia, doing sports outreach for kids with special needs. During his time in Ethiopia, sophomore Luke Hatakeda realized the power of serving “the least of these” as his team participated in a foot washing ceremony.
Hatakeda, a business marketing major, was one of the co-leaders for team Ethiopia. According to Hatakeda, being a disabled girl in Ethiopian culture is one of the lowest positions a person can have in society.
“Most of the girls there have been completely outcast and degraded by the community and even their own families,” he said.
Through the foot washing ceremony, the team was able to demonstrate the love of God with the children.
“We wanted to show them how precious and special they are in God’s eyes,” said Haley Whitehurst, a freshman intercultural studies major, who was also on team Ethiopia. “We were able to communicate with love, even though we had a huge language barrier. It was a huge honor.”
Eight nursing students also traveled to Kenya to do medical missions work at a local hospital and HIV/AIDS clinic.
At Pix and Pizza, team members shared stories from their experience working in the hospital. On one occasion, they met with a group of young girls to discuss sexual purity and abstinence.
“It was really awesome to minister to the girls and speak to girls my age about purity,” said co-leader Giselle Brown, a senior nursing major.
Senior Hannah Lee also spoke about how present God’s beauty was in the country.
“The same God in America that blesses us is in Kenya blessing them,” Lee said.
STORIES TO PONDER
Team Philippines served a variety of people as they worked at a medical clinic. Senior nursing major Ariel Araujo recalled the story of a 19-year-old girl that visited the clinic who was pregnant and did not know. She was devastated when she learned of her pregnancy. She had been married and had a child before, but her husband was abusive and took their child when he left her.
Married for a second time, she feared her new husband would do the same thing. The group sought to encourage her.
“It’s hard not knowing how the story ends, but we know that God loves her and it was a blessing to pray for her,” Araujo said.
Team India went to Chennai, Delhi and orphanages in northern India presenting the gospel through testimonies, magic shows and worship. Everyone on team India expressed at Pix and Pizza how greatly they were impacted by the children and people they met in India.
Brady Lee, a sophomore at Biola who traveled with team India, recounted the story of Paul V. Gutpa, a Biola alumnus the team connected with on their trip to India. Gutpa was raised in a Hindu family. At 19 years old, he heard a missionary on the street share John 3:16. That day he went home, looked it up in his Bible and accepted Christ. His parents told him to convert back to Hinduism, but he refused.
Gutpa left India to attend Biola. Upon his graduation, he went back to India to found an orphanage.
“This all happened because of a missionary on the street corner who cited John 3:16. We all know that verse. Let’s go out and share the gospel,” Lee said.
Students on every team expressed how God had changed them over the trips.
“God opened up all of our hearts to each other,” said sophomore Stefan Vandenkooy, a communication studies major and a member of team Ethiopia. “We walked out as brothers and sisters ready to love on each other as much as the kids [we were working with].”
