Our students are returning home from NYC today. They have been working with our partner in the city to teach English classes to people who are from all over the world. The majority of people they have been working with are from unreached people groups. Here is their last post from Hope Thompson, an 11th grader on the trip:

 

Hey Everyone! My name’s Hope Thompson and I’m an 11th grader on the youth mission trip in New York. These past few days in New York have been amazing. We’ve had some great experiences helping with ESL classes.

On Wednesday my group went to the African Friendship Center where I helped a lady from Guinea. When she and I finished our session, she asked me if I was coming to the next ladies’ class, the Thursday night class, then she gave me a hug and repeatedly thanked me for helping her. Unfortunately, I had to tell her that I couldn’t come Thursday night. A little while later, our group helped with the African men’s session, which went extremely well. God was definitely present. He gave me the words to say and provided the men with understanding. It was a great night!

Friday morning we worked at the South Asian Center. Our first session with the ladies went exceedingly well. We discussed the story of Jesus’ baptism and the temptation of Jesus in the desert. The ladies I worked with were continually asking me questions about the story. It was a great opportunity to really explain the gospel. From what I could see, the ladies were receptive and understood what I was telling them about the story. One of the ladies was specifically interested in talking about Christianity and the story. She asked me about denominations, the Spirit, monks, sin, Jesus’ power… All her questions made for a really good conversation. God was definitely working through the entire session. I am SO glad that He provided such a great group of women for me to work with that morning.

The Friday night class was a little less intense. We had fewer women and one of them, a woman from Tibet, was having a little trouble understanding the lesson. We read a different Bible story from the morning, but it still had a fantastic message. We talked about Jesus’ obedience to his heavenly Father as a young child. He was devoted. He wanted to grow closer to His Father. For women who don’t have the best understanding of Jesus, trying to understand his devotion was not extremely easy, but it was a good message for me to hear. Jesus is the perfect example of how I should live. As a youth his main focus was to obey God—that should be MY focus as well.

This trip has been eye-opening. I’m so, so, SO glad that God gave me, of all people, the opportunity to go on such an AMAZING trip with such an AMAZING group of students and leaders to help such AMAZING people. I wish I could stay another week!

 

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