Reflection: Jennifer Sum-STM

My first impression of the missions trip was that it would be lots of fun playing with the kids, singing, dancing, and teach—all of which I love to do. Also, I was expecting for this trip to have an impact on my spiritual life. Before coming to Taiwan, my spiritual life was okay. Not bad, but not great either. After being in the camp for a week, it definitely had an impact on my life, and it was not easy at all.

When I decided to go on this trip, I thought that my mandarin would be sufficient. However, it was a lot worse than I imagined. With communication a huge factor, the missions trip became extremely difficult. Also, before the trip, I felt that this past year God has been pushing me out of my comfort zone and pushing me to do things I normally won’t do. For example, I became worship coordinator of my church/fellowship. I have stage fright so it was scary. Also, I didn’t want to go on the missions trip because I do not like traveling, especially away from my family. However, I felt that God was telling me to go since my summer was wide open.

Overall, the missions trip was not what I expected. It put a lot of stress on me and it was very very hard communicating with the students. Also, I got group 10, the highest group-the oldest kids. That made it harder. In addition, my TA was very shy and not very authoritative. I felt that God put all these difficulties in front of me in order to give me a transformation and for the kids as well, and it did. I ended up loving my kids and they loved me as well. They were so nice to write me notes and cards and so many people were there for me when I needed help and so many people prayed for me and gave me so much encouragement. I was very surprised to find that everyone around me was so encouraging. People I barely knew came up to me to talk to me, to pray with me, and would even give me little notes and gifts. I felt so much love from everyone. It even felt that instead of me trying to transform the kids, everyone was transforming me. I grew a lot during this missions trip and I felt that God used the kids and the workers to help me experience God’s love. I feel a lot stronger now and I hope to learn more Chinese in the future so that I can come back!

For more reflections from other participants of AEF 2011, head on over to http://aefmissions.wordpress.com/

Reflections from the Davis team will be uploaded here as they are uploaded to the Canaan site :)

Also some AEF slang:

STM: Short-term Missionary

TA: Teacher's assistant (Interpreter)