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 Brandon Freck |
Just The Beginning...
March 28 2012 / ShareHim in Honduras, Mar. 9 - Mar. 24 '12 #528by Brandon Freck
Personal Testimony of Brandon Freck.
My experience on my first mission trip was very memorable. I was surprised at how easy it was to preach a sermon! I thought I knew my theology pretty well, but it was quite an experience to see how teaching others opened another dimension to my understanding. Preaching and teaching is kind of like speaking another language—I can understand when others speak it, but to speak it myself and try to teach it is still in the stages of infancy. Very rewarding!
I began the mission trip process by hearing a sermon about mission trips. The speaker was very direct—much more than I have ever heard before. He said, "If you're hiding behind the notion that your job is your mission field, and you have not had someone baptized because of something you've said or done in the last 10 years, you're in the wrong job." This hit home for me. I began to pray that God might open up an opportunity for me. Less than one week later, I walked into church for Sabbath. My pastor, who had no idea of my secret prayer, approached me and asked me into his office. He said, "I need you to go on a mission trip for me." Astonished, I had to say "OK." Praise God!
Our site name was Rio Lindo, about 20 minutes from Pena Blanca, Honduras. There was between 35-70 people each night, with between 5-15 visitors. We found out that many people attend both the Adventist church AND a Catholic church in the same week. Our pastor led 15 churches in the area, only visiting most each week, but primarily preaching at our church each Sabbath. The people were very hungry for the WORD, which was refreshing to see, compared to many of our churches in America.
The translators for most of the sites during the campaign were grade school and high school students from the CEA (Centro Educacional Adventista) where we were staying in the boys’ dorm. This school offers a bi-lingual program to teach English to the kids from grades 1-6. Our translator was from North Carolina. Her first language was English, as her father is American and her mother is Honduran. She was very good at translating. She was not Adventist, however. Each night, on the drive home, she asked questions about the sermon that night. With a troubled upbringing, she had many untrue ideas about God that we needed and were privileged to talk to her about and correct. It seemed like daily, a light started to come on within her, and things started making sense for her. By the end of the campaign, she said she wanted to become baptized! Praise the Lord!
Another astonishing thing we found out was that our pastor had never understood the "little horn" of Daniel Chapter 7 and the 70 week prophecy of Daniel 9. We got a chance to explain it further for him on the drive home. Ironically, on the drive to the church, the night of the "little horn" presentation, we were stopped at a road block. The people that stopped us wanted money to support the new Catholic church being built nearby. He donated money to it! But I was able to hand them a flyer to attend our meetings for that week...who knows if they attended?
One old lady faithfully attended each night. We spoke with her one night and she said that she had made a deal with God. She had chronic pain throughout her body. She told God that if He removed her pain, she would attend every meeting. Well, He did! She stepped forward at the call for baptism near the end of the meetings. Praise God!
I would recommend everyone go on a mission trip like this one. It adds a jump start to your spiritual life in a way that you can't put words to. It is an investment, but a worthy one. I've made new neighbors in heaven because of this trip. Can one put a price tag on that? I plan on going on many more ShareHim campaigns in the future. Praise God! Amen.
I began the mission trip process by hearing a sermon about mission trips. The speaker was very direct—much more than I have ever heard before. He said, "If you're hiding behind the notion that your job is your mission field, and you have not had someone baptized because of something you've said or done in the last 10 years, you're in the wrong job." This hit home for me. I began to pray that God might open up an opportunity for me. Less than one week later, I walked into church for Sabbath. My pastor, who had no idea of my secret prayer, approached me and asked me into his office. He said, "I need you to go on a mission trip for me." Astonished, I had to say "OK." Praise God!
Our site name was Rio Lindo, about 20 minutes from Pena Blanca, Honduras. There was between 35-70 people each night, with between 5-15 visitors. We found out that many people attend both the Adventist church AND a Catholic church in the same week. Our pastor led 15 churches in the area, only visiting most each week, but primarily preaching at our church each Sabbath. The people were very hungry for the WORD, which was refreshing to see, compared to many of our churches in America.
The translators for most of the sites during the campaign were grade school and high school students from the CEA (Centro Educacional Adventista) where we were staying in the boys’ dorm. This school offers a bi-lingual program to teach English to the kids from grades 1-6. Our translator was from North Carolina. Her first language was English, as her father is American and her mother is Honduran. She was very good at translating. She was not Adventist, however. Each night, on the drive home, she asked questions about the sermon that night. With a troubled upbringing, she had many untrue ideas about God that we needed and were privileged to talk to her about and correct. It seemed like daily, a light started to come on within her, and things started making sense for her. By the end of the campaign, she said she wanted to become baptized! Praise the Lord!
Another astonishing thing we found out was that our pastor had never understood the "little horn" of Daniel Chapter 7 and the 70 week prophecy of Daniel 9. We got a chance to explain it further for him on the drive home. Ironically, on the drive to the church, the night of the "little horn" presentation, we were stopped at a road block. The people that stopped us wanted money to support the new Catholic church being built nearby. He donated money to it! But I was able to hand them a flyer to attend our meetings for that week...who knows if they attended?
One old lady faithfully attended each night. We spoke with her one night and she said that she had made a deal with God. She had chronic pain throughout her body. She told God that if He removed her pain, she would attend every meeting. Well, He did! She stepped forward at the call for baptism near the end of the meetings. Praise God!
I would recommend everyone go on a mission trip like this one. It adds a jump start to your spiritual life in a way that you can't put words to. It is an investment, but a worthy one. I've made new neighbors in heaven because of this trip. Can one put a price tag on that? I plan on going on many more ShareHim campaigns in the future. Praise God! Amen.