CHIC--An Unforgettable Experience

How many experiences can you pack in to sixty-three hours for a group of visiting high-school students? Is it possible for kids to step off a plane from the States, gain an understanding of cross-cultural mission work, and then take something significant back to share with 5000 other teenagers at CHIC? This was the expectation and hope—but we have to admit we were more than a little apprehensive, even doubtful.

What we found, however, was that God can do amazing things with willing hearts, spirits and minds. While the advance planning took time, in the end, the blessing was ours! The three students, MJ Pacheco, Rachael Lindsay, and Kerric Stevens, had been selected from more than sixty applicants. We found them flexible, engaging, and interested in all the experiences we threw at them. Their adult guides, Cue (Stephen Curtis Jn. Marie , a pastor with New Song Covenant Church in SoCal) and Karen Hallberg (from Covenant World Mission) were a great complement.

Starting at six in the morning, over two days, we showed them the beautiful area we live in, visited two villages, took a ride down the Mekong, crawled around in grain bins and explained our plans to use a food mill to bless farmers in Thailand and Laos. The students experienced life in a village and took a short course on how to plant upland rice. In between all these activities we asked them to share their stories; many on our team also related how God has undone our lives and re-ordered our priorities.

What did the take away from this experience? We have received many reports from friends who were at CHIC for the live feeds from Bangkok—and their words as they walked on stage at the end of the gathering. They said: They realized they can have a part living out their faith. That being a missionary these days can mean a variety of activities and ways of working. That while different, they share much in common with northern Thai or Lao villagers: difficulties, triumphs, fun, work and worship. Not bad. Ruthie and I can live with that.

In the end, did you hear the result of the offering the kids took for our work? It was an incredible result: More than $109,327 dollars for our ministry and that of The Abundant Life Center in Bangkok. By visiting us, these students missed some excellent messages challenging them to a radical commitment to live out their faith. But our hope is that their first-hand experience of mission work, however brief, will do the same.