You never know exactly how you will have an impact on people. For me, the Northern Ireland trip was nothing I expected, but remarkably familiar. The church we worked in reminded me some of the church I grew up in – just a small neighborhood church reaching out to the kids in the community. The kids were also coming from similar backgrounds – low-income, single-parent homes. These were kids who need someone to show they care.
Most of the week we spent relationship building through both working in the schools and leading Kids’ Club. There were many days where as a team we felt like we weren’t making much headway with the kids, and at times it was discouraging. But then there would be this one child – you might see their eyes light up as you talked about how much God loved them or maybe they would randomly come up and hug you – and you would realize that this was why you were here. It is all about being Jesus to them.
This was exactly what our team leaders James and Rachel had emphasized since the very beginning of our trip planning. Our purpose was to love on the people in Northern Ireland. This attitude carried on throughout our group even after Kids’ Club was long over. On Saturday, the church had planned a coastal excursion for our group and hired a coach. Throughout the course of the day we really connected with our bus driver, including him in all we were doing. His preschooler son ended up joining us by the end of the day. Imagine all of our surprise the next morning when he showed up at church with his two children, driving almost thirty minutes to come. It just reminded me how much we impact people through our daily lives. We may not verbally be sharing the gospel with everyone everyday, but through our actions we can be constantly sharing God’s grace.
~ Kellie Dundon
New Hope International Ministries 