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All the teams and their chaperones began with a three-day orientation at the Four Square Church in Snohomish, Washington--a preparation time of worship, learning and getting acquainted that for some students was the highlight of their missions trip. Then it was off to the various destinations.
Thirteen students helped missionaries in various endeavors in Haiti. Here they experienced the presence of God in the midst of voodoo ceremonies and when trapped in a political protest for six hours.
In Hong Kong, ten students visited ministries to street people and addicts, in both first stage and second stage drug houses. They did prayer walks for others, and were prayed for in turn by the converted addicts.
The squalid reality of inner-city Los Angeles wrenched the emotions of team members who served a week in California. But there was elation too, to see God's Spirit at work through an L.A. church that reaches out to those involved in the gang lifestyle.
Twenty students felt the shock to the system of 45 degrees celsius heat, and built small houses for the families of two needy factory workers in Mexico.
MEI alumnus Doug Harder and his wife Lynn, missionaries in the Philippines, had prepared a challenging and rewarding orientation time in Manila for two teams. Nine students then travelled north to Cabanatuan City where the Harders are planting a church through a cell-church strategy. Another team of nine students served at Project Jabez, an orphanage several hours south of Manila.
The theme of Missions '97 was "Making a Difference." The MEI students hoped to make a difference, however small, in the places they visited. Significant differences also occurred in their own lives.
Among two of many similar comments they made when they returned were, "this trip opened up my eyes to see the hurt and suffering in this world" and "it encouraged me to look into fulltime missionary work."
from reports in MEI "Connections"
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