Short-Term Trip=Long-Term Impacts
Introduction
Below is a blog from One Mission Society (OMS) written by OMS USA Communications 2023 summer journalism intern Hannah, whom I worked with and love. She participated in a short-term trip to Colombia with other summer interns and wrote about her experience. I shortened her post for this page.
The best part about Hannah's story is that she's now raising support to serve in Colombia full time!
My Eyes Have Seen: Witnessing God at Work in Medellín, Colombia (by Hannah Kemper)
As part of the internship with OMS, 5 interns spent 10 days in Medellín, Colombia, learning about and serving with the ministries and missionaries partnering with OMS.
God used the trip to bless me in unbelievable ways and point my feet in the direction he wants me to take in the future.
The people on my team; those we met at IGLEICO (an OMS-founded denomination); Óscar and Rodolfo, who were our translators for the week; OMS missionaries John and Holly Brower; the OMS Embarkers; the translators at English camp … all blessed me so much. While I was there to serve and bless them, their kindness for others and heart for the Lord blessed me.
Prayer and Changed Plans
During the trip, we witnessed the power of God organizing every minute detail behind the scenes. Our visit to a prison with Prison Fellowship demonstrated this. Details for our visit were not going as planned; we were going, then something came up and we couldn’t. Then, we were going again. That morning, one of the Prison Fellowship workers who was supposed to help drive us got into an accident, one of the translator's names was not on the list, so we had to wait outside of the prison.
As we waited, we prayed.
While we prayed, a man approached us, saying I needed to pray with him so he could become a Christian. I was completely shocked and didn’t know what to do at first, so Heather (an OMS missionary and leader of this team) told me to just pray while Óscar translated. After we finished praying, the man looked at me with teary eyes and said he knew he was saved.
Later, he told us God had told him that morning to “let go” and pray with someone in a white shirt, which I was wearing that day ... even though I intended to wear green.
God Uses Our Gifts
On Tuesday, we visited IGLEICO to hear about their ministry. Afterwards, they asked us to make a video to invite their 688 churches to celebrate their 80th anniversary. We talked about the vision for the video, and I got to write the script. The team, including the translators, was in the video.
Friday and Saturday, we organized and ran an English camp as a thank you for the work the translators in Medellín do for OMS and other ministries.
Using games such as Jenga and telephone and teaching sessions, we worked with translators to improve their already advanced English.
I got to teach a session about prayer using the attributes, characteristics, and names of God. During this time, many people confirmed that God could use my passions and skills both in ministry and on the mission field.
English Camp on Friday and Saturday sparked my desire to teach even more.
God is doing great things in Colombia and all around the world of OMS. It was such a blessing to witness and participate in God’s work. Please pray for the missionaries and OMS national coworkers in Colombia as they serve him. Ask God to encourage and grow the churches. Finally, ask the Lord for more laborers as the harvest is plentiful but the laborers are few.
By Hannah Kemper, Summer 2023 OMS Communications Intern
To read the full blog post, visit: https://onemissionsociety.org/detail-page/my-eyes-have-seen.
