Mission Trip Q/A's

Here is an email that was sent to all the missioners from Gail Pazdur at church. I hope it blesses you.



1. What was the biggest highlight of your trip?



All the answered prayer!





2. What was the hardest thing you faced on your trip?



The orphanage, looking into the eyes of Chenendu, and his soul spoke of hopelessness.





3. What did that hard experience teach you?



How important kids need to be loved, and held, and played with, etc..





4. What things surprised you the most?



Nigerians eat rotten meat because they don't rely on refrigeration.





5. Do you feel like you were prepared for your trip?



Yeah--I used a travel checklist and checked it twice. I think half of my personals-type of stuff was stolen: lotion, deoderant, and a few minor things. I was able to borrow and buy replacements later.






6. If you could do it all over again, what would you change?



I would try and talk to more people.





7. Do you have any regrets?



I think I could have been more bold with my faith.





8. What was the food like?



Really bad tasting (chicken, rice, spaghetti, fish, etc), except for the fruit (pineapples, mangos, watermellon, etc)





9. Where did you sleep?



In a mosquito net, in a room on a Catholic retreat center.





10.Tell me about the people you met and ministered to.



There was a guy that approached me in the first church we visited, Holy Ghost Tabernacle. He seemed to want to soak in everything I was saying. So I kept preaching from what God put in my heart to say to him. I remember saying that I have nothing to give except what God overflows through me to others. He seemed to be wide-eyed and want to hear more.

Two security guards at the Owerri airport to get into the waiting area for the plane, asked me for a bribe before they gave me back my carry-on luggage. I explained to them that I was a missionary that lives on faith, so all I have to give is faith from the almighty God which is worth more then pure gold. They did a "thumbs up" to me and seem to enjoy my preaching and let me proceed to the other side. They gave me my bag and didn't even check it or anything.





11.Did you connect with anyone that you might keep in touch with?



The librarian, Nelly, I gave her my email address in case she needs me to figure something out with the library software.





12.Did you get a chance to share your faith?



Yeah many times, because people were so amazed to see white people, probably because there is no tourism so no white people go through the area. I tried to tell people that I was a missionary, and right away people would want to know more. I ran into a person named Peter in the marketplace, I told him a little bit about what I was there for, and he said he was going to start going to church.





13.Does your view of the world and your life look any differently now?



Yeah, coming back to work I deal with a lot of angry people, and I feel less empathetic to the American grumblings that my clients have now. I'm still responsible and will do anything, but the client's anger has less impact on my emotions seemingly.





14.Do you see Jesus any differently now?



Not sure.





15.Did you see anything gross?



Millipedes, centipedes, spiders, all mega sizes; a snake getting killed by a flip-flop, rotting meat in the market, with a decapitated cow heads.





16.Did you get sick?



little bit stomach upset, but I stayed medicated the whole time and felt fine.





17.What was the scariest thing you experienced?



Probably the no speed limit and the particular time instead of crashing head on with a motorcycle, he swerved out of our way of our van at the last second. My heart dropped into my stomach when that happened. Also, there was a traffic jam and a military guy shot off his AK-47 a few feet away from our van, our window was open so everybody jumped out of they're socks.

Probably the scariest group experience was when we were stuck in the worse traffic jam I ever saw in my life. We ended up having a car accident because somebody tried to cut us off, but our driver was quicker. The person that hit us got out of his car and started hitting the side of our van with the palm of his hand as hard as he could. Then he proceeded around to the front of the cars, and our driver got out of the car and left the door open. They were yelling at each other, and some locals came out of the woodwork and stopped them from fist-fighting. Our group gathered in prayer in the van. I was very nervous at first but knew that God is completely in control and knew many many people were praying for us at home and instant peace came over me in the craziness of that situation!





18.What was the weirdest thing you ate?



Rotten meat in spaghetti sauce with fish bones in it.





19.What was the church you worked with like?



They were all the same, just bouncing off the walls in worship.





20.How was their form of worship different from ours?



God has given them much strength, so I saw how to worship God and dance with all my strength.





21.Did you get a chance to meet anyone's practical needs?



I don't think so, except everything we brought in the trunks. When I left, I left some nice "preachin clothes" with Pastor Ike.





22.Was there ever a time that you really felt like God was directing you?



Yeah, the craziest thing that happened, and I never do this by the way, but it actually seemingly worked.

First of all, I read the Confessions of Augustine last year. And the the college happens to be named after St. Augustine. One of the things Augustine did once was when his Bible fell open to a perfect verse for his situation and he considered it God's answer for him.

So anyhow the second day of being in the library I had a moment of discourgement where I thought there would be no way to get the library wired up with electricity to power a computer, let alone internet and networking. So I new only God could make possibilities reality, so I kind of did an "St. Augustine" and I saw Rylan's Bible in front of me, so I flung it open hoping it would land on a miracle verse. And it did believe it or not! :)






23.What was the funniest thing you experienced?


One of the culture's ongoing jokes is that you don't want to eat the "404". If I understand the joke's history, supposedly there is a road called the 404 where people drive very fast. So likewise, if you eat the 404 food, it's going to go through you very fast.


24.How did you work out any differences you had with your team?



Rylan and me have typical roommate squabbles and Duane was a helpful mediator to get ourselves out of God's way :)


25.What was it like in the evenings? What did you do?


Every once in awhile we would get an extra hour of downtime in the evenings. Ussually I would go for a walk with God around the Catholic Monastary grounds. I totally believe in Psalm 19 that God reveals himself in nature, so I was enjoying the African wild life. Everynight I would try and read my Bible in a year plan that I am following. Also, at bed time I would lay awake in amazement and thankfulness to God just for being in Africa.


26.What were your worship times with your team like?


We always prayed together everyday.


28.Did you pack enough stuff?



Yeah, some of my stuff was stolen in customs: deoderant, lotion, and a few other minor things.


30.What was the weather like?



Very hot and very humid.




32.Would you ever want to go back?


Yeah, it was worth it. It's good to be home too.


33.Do you think you would consider being a full-time missionary?


Yes, I think about frontier missions a lot, the parts left that have not had exposure to the gospel yet.


34.What was the biggest thing you saw God do?



God is the God of the floodgates of heaven. When the rain stopped and port authority was able to do inspection.


35.Do you think you'll go on a short term mission trip again?


Yeah definatelly.


36.What's going to be the toughest thing about being home now?


Studying for my final exam in college, I missed 3 weeks of class!


37.Do you think anything will change with your friends that weren't on the trip?


I don't think so, maybe that they are jealous of me ;)


38.Do you think you have changed in any way? How?


Think I am more calmer and relaxed, seeing God's sovereignty over all things helps me sleep at night. :)


39.Is there anything you smelled on your trip that you'll never forget?


Rotting cow meat in the African sun.


40.Are you tired?


Jet laggy and groggy.


41.Has this changed anything in your relationship with Jesus?


Yeah I want to be more hardcore and seeking God harder now.


42.What were some of the ways you ministered on your trip?


I would try and tell people how awesome God is that seems to be the easiest way and that's the only way I've seen God move is when people are awestruck at God. I would also ask to pray for people and then lay hands on them.


43.Did you get to share your story of how you met Jesus with anyone?


No not really, I met Jesus when I was 5 and barely remember, so I share more exciting stories with people. :)


44.Did you get any ideas of how you could minister here at home?


I noticed how much this trip really pulled together my family, friends and coworkers, and how it has built everybody's faith including mine. Just simply amazing to me.


45.Was there anything you saw that just broke your heart?


Chenendu at the Motherless Babies Home broke my heart. When I looked deep into his soul all I could see was a lack of hope and purposeless. I noticed also that he was bullied by a few of the others. The others seem to be surviving, but Chenendu just seemed like he was barely hanging on. When I was at the orphanage I always watched out for him and made sure he was with me. I wish I could adopt him.


46.Did you give anything away?



I left all my clothes and a pair of boots with friends at the college. I gave my nicer clothes to Pastor Ike, and told him, "here's some preachin clothes for ya!"



47.Is there anything you HAVE to do this week after experiencing what you did?


I have to write my thank you letters including some highlights for all the supporters. I need to make a scrap book to so I can present everything in a logical order, instead of me giving anecdotal stories here and there.


48.Was there ever a time you felt completely out of control in a situation?


No not really. There were times, like when we were swerving out of the way of oncoming cars, or when we got into an accident and I thought the drivers were going to fight each other. But I remembered that so many people were praying for me and that God is sovereign over life and death, and so I feel peace.


49.What's the number one thing you are thankful for?


My Salvation is the easy answer. The trip was very worth it. Seeing God's glory and priveleges of seeing God in action and answering prayer is just awesome.


50.Did you catch yourself praising God for stuff? Like what?


In Calabar we went to one of the slave ports and found out that John Newton pulled his boat into Calabar to buy slaves during the slave trade. I was praising God to find out where the sound of Amazing Grace hymn was born, and then later John Newton became a Christian and wrote the lyrics. The tour guide also talked about President Lincoln, so I gave him a $5 with Lincoln on it. He seemed very appreciative.