Dear Doctor Chin and Church,

I hope that this letter finds you all well. Thank you so much for all your prayers, financial contribution, and immense support to help me with this journey. It was such an amazing experience. God was and is definitely at work with the team and myself from the very beginning of this mission trip and to the present. He brought a group of us, who barely knew each other, together and formed what I never would have fathomed to be such a tight-knit group.

Like I stated previously, God was definitely at work from the beginning. From the start at the Jackson airport I got to meet a couple of ladies from Michigan and South Dakota who were heading back from vacation. We chatted for a few minutes and they noticed that some of the team members were listening to our conversation. The team’s glances eventually led to the ladies asking where we were headed, and even though we only had about an hour wait, we still received the opportunity to tell the ladies where we were headed and why we were headed there.

Next when we arrived to Chicago, we only had 20 minutes to catch our connecting flight. Needless to say, we did not make it, and we were stuck in Chicago for 24 hours. Mr. Michael, our leader, was somewhat upset after his 4 hours of trying to get us a flight at the customer service desk, but we constantly reminded each other that there was a reason that God had anchored us in Chicago. God definitely did have a plan for us. We bonded even more over the 24 hours that we were stuck in Chicago, initiating the great relationship that we have with each other now. The second thing that God had in store for us in Chicago was that when we got into our taxi, the taxi driver was very curious of the story of how and why we were stuck in Chicago. We shared what we were going to do, and it sparked an interest in the driver. It took us approximately 30 minutes to reach the hotel, and for half of the ride we got to share the gospel with this man! Fast forward to the next morning—some of us had already grabbed an early breakfast at the hotel, and one of the girls from the team, Brittany Farley, decided to have one more waffle before we were to head out. The rest of us had gone up stairs to get ready for the day’s adventure. While eating, she noticed a young Vietnamese man coming around the corner to grab breakfast. She saw him pray over his food, and felt the urge to start a conversation with him. It turns out that this man was a Baptist preacher in Vietnam who was visiting the man who shared the gospel with him for the first time 2 years ago. He told Brittany of how he had met his wife who was the translator of the gentleman who shared the gospel with him, and that they are now happily married as one under Christ. He told Brittany to tell the team that they needed lots of prayers for the house church that him and his wife have in their home town. To end our stay at the hotel, Brittany and a couple of us got to pray with the Vietnamese man as we were about to head out for the day.

Fast forward to the international plane ride—It was an 8 1⁄2 hour ride to Germany where, of course, you don’t want to get stuck next to a gruff person on the plane. I grabbed my middle seat and sat for about 15 minutes before my first seat neighbor came and claimed his seat. We introduced ourselves to each other. His name was Mohammad. Mohammad was a middle-eastern man who was from Syria. He, like most people we encountered, was curious as to why such a young person was sitting by herself on an international flight. I shared with Mohammad about what we were doing, and he seemed very pleased! He didn’t question it like most. Most of the people ask, “Does England really need missionaries”? To which I would reply, “Yes, just as the U.S. needs missionaries, our schools need missionaries, and everywhere we go we need to be missionaries to people.” Mohammad’s response was, “I’ll pray for your trip.” His response intrigued me to say the least. I then asked him about his business meeting in the States, and this gave him an opportunity to share. He had created an orphanage called Mercy without Borders in Syria, and he was meeting with some of the investors for help. The bombings and riots had damaged their building, and it needed repairs for it to be suitable for more kids to come in. Mohammad then went on to tell me that he was in fact a Christian, and asked for the prayers of the team and myself! Once the flight took off, Mohammad kind of fell asleep for the rest of the way. The strangest thing was that when we landed he thanked me for the plane ride. I asked why, and he replied by saying that he was glad that he sat by me. He had not received a lot of sleep, and knowing that he was sitting next to a fellow Christian gave him enough peace to sleep through the flight. I know it seems small, but just something like that shows me the compassion, understanding, and the magnificent planning of the Lord’s will.

Now we are in Paris, our luggage is lost for the third day, and Mr. Michael was still bound to make us see the Eiffel tower because we were heading to London early the next morning. First we find our hotel with the hopes that the airport had delivered our luggage, but it had not arrived. We roamed around Paris for the rest of the day, and decided to go the Eiffel Tower for our last stop. It rained all day, and the team and myself calculated that we had only gotten an average of 16 hours of sleep in 72 hours of traveling. Needless to say we were tired and not that clean. I believe God used those 72 hours to help bring us even closer than Chicago made us. Nothing bonds people more than going 3 days straight with the same clothes and 2 of the days without showers, and all of this while being sleep deprived. At this point, we are inseparable. I’m so glad that God put us through that to bring us so close together. We’ll skip the touring of London for the sake of length of this letter. London was amazing to say the least. It was here though that the Lord showed us His compassion once more. He knew that we needed rest, and speaking of rest it was actually the day of rest, we received the much needed sleep and toured London for the remainder of the day. On Monday morning we would begin the trip to our final destination, Grantham, England.

We arrived in Grantham to the welcoming faces of our hosts and beginners of the church plant, Daniel and Grace Howsen. You would have never assumed that they were complete strangers. They welcomed all the new people just as they welcomed the returning people, with great big smiles and hugs. Once outside of the station we met the Howsen’s partners with the church plant and kid’s camp, Andrew and Grace Morton. The first day of Grantham we stayed at the Howsen’s where we got settled in and had a delicious dinner. We talked about the upcoming week’s schedule, and got everything organized and ready.

Now it is Tuesday and it is the first day of Kid’s camp. We started each morning by going to the council housing (our equivalent of government housing) and cleaning around the park. Along the roads we found a few kids playing and asked if they would like to join us in the park. They grabbed their soccer balls and ran off. After about 20 minutes later a whole bunch of children and their parents were at the park. The children of the estate and some of us ‘big kids’ began to play. Girls mostly just wanted to swing and talk, while the boys got down and dirty playing soccer or building a mud castle. There were mornings where there were over 30 kids at the park playing, and then there were mornings where there were only 7. We used the days where we had fewer children to become more personal with them. During the mornings at the park we would play around and then gather them all up for juice and biscuits, and we would reenact bible stories while they ate. Each morning the bible story went along with what we would teach at the actual Kid’s camp, held in the church plant, later that day. While at the Kid’s camp I was directed to be with the youth which was 13-18 year-olds. There were only two who showed up, but they wanted to stay with their younger siblings and they joined in on the camp. We had 3 different stations at the Kid’s Camp, games to wear them down, crafts to explain the Bible stories, and a station where they were to learn the memory verse for the week. Since there were so few youth I was reassigned to help with crafts.

Several great opportunities arose with crafts. They would ask us what the crafts meant to us, and that gave us a great opportunity to share with them about what our God does for us and how much He cares for all us. I got to speak to almost all of the children, and even though some were not as open to speak to foreigners as others were, we still got to ask the children lots of questions. Most their replies ended with JESUS! We had one person on our team, Aaron Sanders, who had been all three years that the team has been going. To loosely quote Mr. Aaron Sanders, “Even though the children’s theology isn’t always correct, there is such tremendous difference between this year and three years ago. Back then the children didn’t even know the name of God or who Jesus was, and now that is their go to answer, JESUS!”

While at the Kid’s Camp some of the adults would stick around to watch their children, and this gave Mr. Michael, Mr. Daniel, and few of the other Christian adults to mingle with them. There was one man and wife who had over 9 children there. Their names were David and Sophia. As you can imagine their lives were somewhat tiresome with all of their children. I believe that David got more out of the Kid’s Camp than the children did. He sat for 4 hours straight asking Mr. Michael about who God was and the impact that He has had in Mr. Michael’s life. It was such an amazing opportunity to see someone yearning to learn so much, but also disheartening that David still has yet to accept the Lord as his Savior. Just, please pray for David and the work that the Lord is doing in him.

There is also a young man who I had the pleasure of meeting. His name is Macaulay Tennant, M.C. for short. He is a 19 year old who is a local to the council housing. He had lived there since birth. He accepted Christ last October and has been such a blessing to the Howsens, the Mortons, and everyone involved with the church plant and Kid’s Camp. He is at such a crucial age and location to be sharing the gospel with everyone at the council housing. The adults would come up to Mr. Daniel and Mr. Michael, and they would tell them how much of difference they see in M.C. During our preparation stage of this trip we were warned that the people living on the estate (council housing) were comfy where they were. They lived there their lives, achieved their “education” there, and have jobs on the estate. We were told that once you’re their it’s hard a rut to get out of. This being said, M.C. is getting out. He just received word that he was hired for his dream job to become a video game designer. I just know he is so excited for this opportunity. I pray that he is going to be a light on his estate, and that he brings praise and honor to God through everything that he does. I pray that he understands how much of an impact he has on the estate and that he utilizes that relationship to share the gospel.

I just want to end this letter with a huge THANK YOU for the prayers and support that you all have given me! It was and continues to be such an amazing experience. It would be so amazing if I could just ask one more favor of you all? Please be praying these people. If there is one important thing that I have learned from this trip it is how we need to be intentional with our prayers. I never knew how much I could love someone before meeting them, and all of that love because I had been praying personally and intentionally for them. Please pray for the Howsens and Mortons and all of the work they are doing on the estate, that the church plant keeps growing, that their passion for the people on the estate and all around never fades, and that there daily energy is sustained to be with the children. Pray for M.C. that he is bold, proclaiming the word and works of God in his life, that he sustains the passion for his neighbors and family, and for his new job. Pray for the people, both children and adults that they continue to become more inquisitive about God and the works that are being done on the estate. Most of all, pray that the Lord’s will be done. No matter how much we pray specifically for certain things, we need to remember to pray that above anything else that His will be done.

Also, please be in prayer for my team members and me. We are still in contact with some of the children through Facebook and a very long waiting period of letters. Sadly, we aren’t allowed to share the photos we have of the children because we don’t have parental consent, but I wish you could all see and meet them! Just please be in prayer for all of our contact, that we are intentional about growing our relationship with them and sharing the God’s Word with them. Once again, thank you all so much! What a blessing this trip has been for me! If you have any other questions about the trip, feel free to email or call me.

With Love,
Victoria Wardrop

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