I want to give all praise to God for giving me the opportunity to participate in this year’s short-term medical mission in Brazil to share God’s love and grace and to provide much needed basic medical and dental care to the locals.  I was deeply moved and wanted to join the effort of spreading the Gospel.  I immediately realized that it is not possible for me to go on this two-week mission trip.  While financial considerations indicate that I should not go, the Holy Spirit continues to touch my heart to look past the financial impact; thus I kept this mission trip in my prayers.

When we have the heart to serve God, Satan will attack with all kinds of difficult situations hoping that we will stumble and fail under pressure.  Owning my own business going on a mission trip would stump my income greatly and with major problems with one of my customers, my father preparing for surgery, having to travel to Taiwan right before the mission trip, I thought there was no way I would be able to go. Satan’s attack continued, shifting from work and financial to physical attacks to prevent me from going to the mission trip.  I sprained my ankle badly.  I didn’t know how I can go to this mission trip when I can’t even walk.  But our all powerful and loving God miraculously healed me so that I can limp to Church the next day and received the prayers and blessings from church members prior to departure.  God’s grace allowed me to heal quickly even during the mission trip so that I did not become a burden to the mission team.

During the mission trip, I met and shared with many team members from other churches.  I found out I was not the only one with hardships; many other brothers and sisters in Christ had faithful and beautiful testimonies of overcoming adversity prior to the mission trip.  Elder Paul from EFC Irvine recently started a new job and had serious stomach ulcer problems.  His wife and daughter also recently went through surgery and required his assistance.  His family and work issues did not stop him from faithfully participate in this mission trip.  During the mission trip, Alex shut down his architectural firm for two weeks; all the doctors also closed their practices for two weeks.  These brothers and sisters in Christ are all very busy with heavy burdens; they are not rich, nor retirees with nothing to do.  Yet they joyfully join the mission team so the gospel of Christ may be shared with those who had never heard of Jesus.

One of the most unforgettable moments during this mission trip was when I was passing out balloons to children in Porto Bahia Negra in Paraguay.  I was closely surrounded by about sixty children and adults.  I did not have enough balloons to pass out to everyone there.  When I am down to the last few, everyone started pushing, shoving, and grabbing to fight for the balloons.  I was shocked.  These were just balloons!  Something so ordinary, yet even the adults were fighting for them.  This image can not escape my mind even after I returned to the US.  All of the sudden it occurred to me that most Christians like us who live in this nice environment are just like them.  We are fighting and grabbing for something every moment.  What are we fighting for?  more time to study to get into good colleges?  opportunities to make money quick?  higher paying jobs?  more time for family and children?  more recreation and vacation?  Simply put, we are in a frenzy to fight and grab for whatever we can.  We may have grabbed on to many of the things we desire, but we also pickup a lot of worries and burdens.  Jesus said in Luke 10:41-42, “Martha, Martha, you are worried and upset about many things, but only one thing is needed.  Mary has chosen what is better, and it will not be taken away from her.”  I know that we are all busy and have different kinds of burden in life.  But I hope that we will be like Mary who has chosen what is better.

Emmanuel,
Tom Wu