I'm Ethan, about to go into my 4th year of my double major in Math and Physics (and minor in Philosophy) at U of T. As you can probably tell by what I study, I'm a massive nerd, and my hobbies of solving the Rubik's cube and magic the gathering probably don't help with that.
Ever since giving my life to Christ in my senior year of high school, God has been growing my trust and knowledge in him, and helping me take bigger and bigger steps of faith. This summer, I had an amazing opportunity to go on a missions trip to Vietnam with Power to Change (P2C).
Some of my favorite memories of this summer (and maybe even my life!) were made on this trip. Of course, playing volleyball on the beach with local friends and teammates was a great experience, as well as spending tons of quality time with our "fam" on the team. But I'd say my favourite experience was just continually seeing how God was working in the lives of the local friends we made as well as our own!
Seeing prayers constantly getting answered, crazy coincidences and situations aligning, and the growth of our team and my own knowledge and love for God was without a doubt the my best experience this summer!
How has following Jesus impacted your goals and plans this summer?
Coming up to this summer, finding a job and career direction overall was a massive stressor for me. There were nights where I would lay awake at night worrying about what I would be doing this summer, as I viewed getting a summer internship as something mandatory to secure a job.
At the same time, I had been itching to go on a mission trip for the last two years, and this year my parents finally gave me permission to do so. I felt like God was guiding me to this, yet because of the logistics of my internship program, I would have to choose either one or another. Either I don't go on a mission trip, or I have to drop out of the internship program and likely not secure any position this summer.
After lots of talking to people (and to God), I felt that it truly was God's desire that I go on this trip, and that gave me confidence to place my summer (and future career aspirations) into God's hands. I trusted that God would provide somehow, and continually prayed for guidance and clarity.
One week before the trip, I heard back from a internship that I had applied to halfheartedly, thinking that I would never get in. Every single other summer internship application I had done in the past 2 years, including this summer, had all been rejected. This internship with the Hong Kong Government was also extremely competitive, so I had no hope in getting in. Yet God, by his grace and providence, allowed me to be accepted to this amazing internship!
I had prayed consistently the last two years asking God for guidance and clarity about my future - what he wanted me to do. I continued to do so throughout the trip, and when I returned home and began my internship, everything clicked together.
Before the trip, one of my supporters who is a principle of a Christian school in Thailand offered me a position as a teacher if I got my teaching degree. My roommate on the trip was in an integrated teacher's program at York. The internship confirmed that I didn't want to work in the industry. So it felt very clear that God wanted me to pursue teaching, and now I'm applying to teaching programs!
God has impacted not only my summer goals, but my life goals these few months. It truly has shown me how important it is to surrender your life and desires to God, and to take steps of faith towards him!
Why is engaging in missions important to you?
There are many good reasons why you should engage in missions: It puts you in situations where you have to trust God and grows your faith, there are so many people who have yet to hear the gospel and God wants US to go out and share with them, and it helps you see how fortunate we are to be able to worship God so freely.
However, the biggest reason why I'd say you should engage in missions, especially a missions trip, is because it teaches you how you should be living daily. We often think of missions as something far away, a big change to your day to day life. But near the end of the trip in Vietnam, many of us realized that everything we were doing here we could do on our campuses. Inviting people to get coffee and sharing about our faith, purposely going to and exploring different social circles to build connections (to spread God's love), and praying continually over our local friends and team members.
That's not to say that mission trips aren't useful or shouldn't be done, but quite the opposite! Without going on this trip, I wouldn't have realized how much more I could be doing - how I could be living missionally - in my day to day life. We all should be missionaries, if not to other countries then to our friends, families, fellow students, coworkers!
One of the major lessons we learned in Vietnam was that living missionally is more than just evangelism or explicitly sharing your faith. In fact, evangelism is only a part of witnessing, and witnessing is only a part of living missionally.
For example, we committed to loving our team and doing our best to resolve any conflicts as soon as they came up through the duration of this trip, as that is a important way to witness God's love to people. Are we doing the same in our day to day lives outside of the trip? We constantly acted generously and lovingly to our local friends, giving them our time, energy, and money to show them God's love for them. Are we doing the same thing to our friends at home?
Going on a trip where you are forced to live missionally is the best way to see the areas in your daily life where you aren't doing so! That's why missions is so important to me. It not only taught me how to draw closer to God and live a life glorifying to him, but gave me a bunch of practice and revealed the areas in my life I had yet to hand over to God!
Can you share about the spiritual climate and outreach strategy during your time on your missions trip?
It is legal to be a Christian in Vietnam, but the government is extremely strict about it. Religious activities can only be performed within designated church spaces (i.e. no baptisms on the beach) and when the government recognizes you as a Christian, you and the next 3 generations of your family are now allowed to work government positions.
Furthermore, while there is a small Christian presence in Vietnam, a majority of the country (90%+) is unreached! Buddhism is the predominant religion in Vietnam, and most people we met practiced Buddhism.
Our team was blessed with the opportunity to enroll in the local university. That gave us access to all the university students and areas within the school. We met countless friends in the canteen, study spots, and even volleyball courts!
While we ran a couple of events, our main strategy was to go out in pairs and try to make friends. Then we would continue to build into those relationships and pray that God opens the conversation to be spiritual, or even to share the gospel!
Near the end of the trip, we did our best to connect all of our local friends with some local Christians, whether by inviting them to a goodbye party at a local church, or by asking our local church friends to exchange contacts with them under the guise of "passing on a goodbye gift"
How would you encourage someone looking to get involved or engaged missionally? Any specific resources, tools, or communities to connect with?
I'd encourage them to pray about it and bring their specific situation to spiritual leaders. Whether it's a pastor at their church, or a staff at a fellowship, or even Khevna at the Missions Hub, I think this is one of the best ways to get clarity in the discernment process. Of course, pray continually and examine your heart, are you genuinely seeking and desiring what God wants for your life?
For those in Canada, Power to Change is a great community, especially for mission trips. They really take care of you and teach you many things. Missions Hub, as the name suggests, is also very good for giving you an awareness of what is happening in the mission fields across the world.
Finally, don't let any doubts about your own ability stop you from pursuing Missions. The Bible demonstrates over and over again how God choose those who are weak to do his will. Moses and Gideon were two characters who had many (possibly quite legitimate) doubts about their own ability, yet God used them to accomplish great things.
For a bit of a personal note on that, I entered this trip feeling super prepared - I was the Outreach coordinator in my 2nd year, and was going to be the KSL in my 4th year. I pridefully thought that I would ace anything missions related. Yet in those first few weeks, I probably struggled more than anyone else, my own pride and selfishness making it difficult for me to humbly trust God. To press the point, we had a FIRST YEAR who came on the trip, had no experience doing evangelism or outreach at all, yet she trusted God and relied on his strength, and He helped her have many fruitful conversations and build meaningful connections while I was struggling with shame and discouragement from failing at meeting my own arbitrary standard for myself.
So if you feel like you aren't as qualified or don't have as much experience as some other person in evangelism, that might be all the more reason to go!
