What we experience in our youth shapes who we become. Going on a mission trip when you are young can have a profound impact on how you look at God, his children, and his plan for your life.
Emily Kullberg’s life was forever changed when she went on a mission trip to Peru in high school. “When I saw the lack of clean water, it wrecked me. I wanted to do something to help.” The experience influenced her career path. She is currently working on her master’s degree in civil engineering, with a focus on water resources. She hopes to someday serve as a long-term missionary and help developing countries build sustainable agriculture and clean water systems.
Emily’s passion for mission work has taken her all over the world. Her most recent trip was a 30-day tour through Togo, Africa this past summer with Pioneers Mission Movement. She traveled with seven other college students with the primary purpose of supporting the local missionaries in Togo. They spent three days at each village, teaching English and computer skills and sharing stories of what Jesus was doing in their lives.
The highlight of Emily’s trip was when her team met with a village chief, who was a new believer. He spoke openly with the group and had many questions about Christianity and the Bible. At one point the local missionary asked him, “Are you a Christian?” He responded, “Yes, but I need to know these things so I can lead my people – so that they too might believe.”
Emily noticed the original welcome crowd growing larger as the missionaries conversed with the chief. Some of the locals began to give their own testimonies of how becoming followers of Jesus had brought joy to their lives. Soon they were shouting, “We want a church here!” Emily says, “It was such a profound experience to be there in what has now become the very start of a church plant. The coolest part was that we got to see the impact that God had made through a medical missions team that visited months before. We got to see the fruit of their labor and how God used their willingness and service to transform a whole village with the gospel.”
When I asked Emily why she thinks it is important for young people to go on mission trips she said, “It is so impactful. Living in America, we only see such a small glimpse of God and his love for the entire world. Sometimes we need to get out of our own cultural context to begin to see how Christ’s love transcends everything we know and understand. It’s an amazing opportunity to get to follow God to the broken and hurting places in the world and see his love bring hope and joy.”