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 by Rev. Doug Kallesen Executive Director of Outreach “The team discovered that although life is so difficult in many parts of the world, it seems easy to share our faith |
Some 14 Florida-Georgia District members (13 of them from Faith-Eustis, FL) went on a mission trip to South China in June to teach English as a second language, share the gospel and support local believers. Team members ranged in age from 19-78, with the majority being college-aged young adults.
Audrey Roglitz, Rev. Eric and Kara Eichinger of the Thailand Evangelical Missionary Partnership were part of the mission team. The T.E.M.P. Committee is facilitating short-term volunteer missionaries in and throughout Florida-Georgia congregations. “The District has a partnership with LCMS World Missions,” reported Kara Eichinger, Coordinator for Short-Term Volunteer Mission Trips. “They have many resources for helping individuals or teams prepare for short-term work and helped us with some of the arrangements.” The team left Orlando International Airport on June 24 and flew to Hong Kong, then took a ferry boat to Jiangmen. They spent a week there teaching English as a second language and attended church at the government sponsored Christian Church.  Here they held English classes and taught Bible lessons. They invited people from the area to come for the classes. Many people walked an hour to be there; one person actually walked an hour there and back each day for four days in a row to meet with the team. It should be noted that an estimated 100 million people in Southern China are religious. Most of these are Buddhist. Representative religions of the area are Buddhism, Daoism, Islam and Christianity, which is less than 2 percent. The following week the team took the train north to Nanchang, where Pastor “Eich” used to live. Here gospel seeds would again be sown. This time the team had the opportunity to meet Chinese believers and discuss what life was like in a dominantly Buddhist nation. The team met at the University to do an “English Corner,” Usually held on a large square or plaza on campus, this is a designated time for people to speak and listen to one another in English only. |
“The Chinese were attracted to our team because we were native English speakers,” said Kara. “This allowed us many opportunities to share the gospel.
“The team discovered how much it takes to support long-term missionaries. It cost each team member $2,500 for only two weeks. This gave us a new perspective on how much we need to support our missionaries in the field,” Kara continued. “The team also discovered that although life is so difficult in many parts of the world, it seems easy to share our faith in those circumstances. Perhaps we are all too comfortable back home and aren’t taking advantage of all the opportunities around us in our own culture.  “Truly each person we pass is an opportunity to share. The team found a new vigor for sharing with our own people back home in the midst of such a foreign land.” The mission trip was followed up with a Celebration Sunday, July 22, at Faith. Photos, a videotape and team stories were shared with the congregation. Kara said, “We are excited to see how this changes our lives, our church and our district! Our hope is that the impact moves out from here much further than our mere return home, but that our church be ignited by seeing us changed and that they too become further motivated toward mission.” If you would like to have a mission team representative speak at your church contact Kara Eichinger at kpeichinger@asia.com. If you would like to organize or participate in a mission trip, contact Kara at the above address. Sending Members into Mission is one of the Florida-Georgia District’s four Ablaze initiatives. We aim to:
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