Understanding the true meaning of a Mission Trip

How a Philippines mission trip blessed our students.

Our mission trip took us all the way to the Philippines where we were tasked with serving the Aeta people of the Zamabales province in San Marcelino. Being my first mission trip I was suuuuper keen the entire time leading up to the trip! From the fundraising efforts to the small meetings and briefings for our team, the excitement of it seemed to grow every day.

The Philippines has always been high on my bucket list of places to go and so I figured this would be the perfect opportunity to experience what the world has to offer. More so, what inspired me to join the team was the concept of service. Service in the local community is a passion of mine, but service that expands beyond that was not as familiar to me. Giving it a good go to inspire others in the place of our mission and hopefully gaining some perspective along the way were my two greatest goals upon joining.

The trip was everything I could’ve hoped for and more. I found that prior to the trip I would become too busy focusing on the change that we were going to make in the community and the blessing they’d receive. I felt that we were going to make a change and while I’m sure the team did, I believe the biggest impact was on us. The humility and kindness of the people was unlike anything I’ve experienced before. I truly believe their attitudes alone were more of a blessing than any work I could have done in my time there. Although many in the community were not Christians, it was truly amazing to see the likeness they have to Jesus and his character.

Hands down the best part of the trip was the food!!

I should probably talk about the project, but I seriously can not go on without acknowledging our cooks Angie and Barbie who cooked our every meal without flaw. I mean these two made me want to eat veges and that’s saying a lot from me! The food was absolutely incredible and I’m hoping that whatever it was we were eating is served in Heaven!!!

I learned many things over the trip. Things that challenged my way of thinking and others that strengthened my connection with God. The most important lesson I learned was to be content. During the trip I also challenged myself with reading The Desire of Ages and it describes Jesus’ childhood and youth as that of a lower class level, however He was always content with what He had and put the needs of those around Him before His own welfare at all opportunities. This mission trip has opened my eyes to this lesson.

100% yes, I would do it all over again if I could! 200% yes, I would do another mission trip to the Philippines!

– Dathan Tuaoi, Avondale Student