Students spend Christmas overseas
Posted by The Skyliner on January 27th, 2010Kyra Alexander
Staff Writer
Over Christmas break, most of us went home to spend the holidays with our families.
A group of students from North Greenville University sacrificed time at home with their friends and families to spend their break proclaiming Jesus Christ in other parts of our world.
One of these groups went to China. They were gone from December 18 till January 2.
Laura Wise, junior early childhood education, joined the group on this trip.
“It was weird going to China over Christmas because they do not celebrate Christmas,” Wise explained, “I totally forgot it was December 25th until we had a Christmas party that night.”
While they were there, they went to different schools teaching English to children in kindergarten through ninth grade.
“The kindergarten program was amazing,” Wise said, “They put a lot of effort and money into it for the kids so that they will stay in their school through the ninth grade.”
Wise continued, “I ended up becoming friends with a child there named Tiffany, and another girl and I went home with her and stayed with her family.”
Diane Turner, Student Activities Coordinator at North Greenville, also joined in on the mission trip to China.
“This was an amazing opportunity to visit another culture and be able to use the Christmas story to spread the love of the Father,” Turner said, “I learned more than I could ever put into words.”
Another group went out during Christmas break to Uganda. They were gone from December 9 till December 22. Along with the students, Jody Jennings, Baptist Student Union (BSU) director, went down to help.
“The major part of the trip was to encourage the church there and help it to be ongoing,” Jennings said, “We are building a partnership with the people and helped with the construction of the church building.”
The group had afternoon Bible studies and visited an orphanage. Along with Jennings were students Katie Potter, junior early childhood education, Mandy Kirkman, junior early childhood education and Jessica Berryhill, freshman psychology. They were on the Uganda trip and had some uplifting and encouraging comments about their experiences there.
“I expected to go and do ministry but in turn the people of Uganda ministered to me,” Potter said. “Praising God is not something they do week to week, but they live it out every day and that was an encouragement to me.”
Berryhill added, “I loved the fellowship and closeness of friends, showing their love for each other. I was meeting my family.”
“Those people put me to shame,” Kirkman said, “I was challenged with my prayer life and faithfulness. This was a very amazing learning experience.”
A laughing Kirkman also commented that during the duration of the trip she was proposed to twice by a “bota bota,” which is a taxi driver.
If you would like to go on a mission trip over spring, summer or winter break, get in touch with Campus Ministry to get more information.
Lift up the people of Uganda and the people of China in your prayers.
Tags: Spring 2010, Vol. 110 - Issue 1