Stretching Your Comfort Zone

By Linda Hollman, Outreach Director

Do you like to try new things?  Do you welcome new experiences? Have you ever felt stretched beyond your personal comfort zone? Would you prayerfully consider going on an international mission trip with other Christ Our Savior members?  

Christ Our Savior is organizing a mission trip for our members to travel to the central American country of Guatemala through MOST in October 2020. Participants will get to share the love of Jesus in a tangible way by giving out eye glasses to those who literally cannot see clearly and do not have the financial means to purchase them.

I have had MANY opportunities to feel stretched above and beyond what I thought I was capable of!  Even though I love to travel and meet new people, I have vivid memories of feeling scared and asking the Lord and myself, “What have I gotten into?” I have also experienced some of my greatest joys on mission trips interacting with others from different places in the USA and abroad. I have seen how God has bought me and the team I was with through insecurities.

Let me share a few of my memories…

• I had the opportunity to travel to New York City with a team connected with Apple of His Eye. They are a ministry focused on sharing Jesus as the Messiah to Jews.  I was born and raised on a farm in Nebraska where our nearest neighbor was over half mile away and we didn’t lock our car or house doors. Going to NYC to navigate the subway, being surrounded by multitudes of people I didn’t know at all times in a city that never sleeps, and attempting to share the Gospel message with people who saw no need for Jesus and were angry following the Holocaust was scary to say the least. Yet on that trip I was able to engage in many short conversations as we traveled on the subway and interacted with Christians from several different cultures who were passionate about their faith.

• I had the opportunity to travel to mainland China with a group organized through LCMS World Missions. We went to teach English as a Second Language to middle school teachers. We left the USA on July 4 following a big patriotic service to celebrate our “freedoms” to enter a country where our every move was being monitored.  I was definitely not well adept at eating with chop sticks and one of our first events was attending a fancy banquet with city leaders. I quickly learned to laugh at myself while trying get the food to my mouth!  After being in our hotel rooms for a few days, we discovered the police were listening in on our “private” conversations via hidden microphones they had planted.  Since our team had daily devotions together each night, we used the “opportunity” to read the Bible aloud for their hearing since we knew the Bible says that God’s word does not return to him empty!

• My former congregation took a team up to Alaska to conduct a VBS in July in a remote village about an hour outside of Anchorage.  Following lots of planning, fund raising, and group building events our inter-generational group of 14 were ready.  Once our plane landed, we went to get our reserved rental vehicles and we were told that they were no longer available!   We scrambled to secure others and ended up with one of them being a pickup. This proved to be very needed for the rest of the trip.  God knew what we needed.  We had publicized in the community that our VBS would start at 9:30 am and be done at noon.  A few kids and their families (and pets) didn’t show up until about 11:30 am and were questioning and very hesitant about why we were there.  About 1:30 pm we were all starving, but the Lord blessed our small amount of food and no one went away hungry.  The rest of the week we changed our plans. We started VBS about 11:30 am with food and visiting and “introducing” those who came to Jesus.  Our congregation sent a team up to the same location for 3 years and developed some wonderful friendships.

I have learned through all my mission experiences that people throughout the world are all the same in desiring to be loved and cared for and listened to.  And most importantly, they (us too!) all need to hear about and experience the love of Jesus.  I would love to have you join our Christ Our Savior team as we travel to Guatemala this October. I know that you will be “stretched” and your faith will be strengthened and you will receive God’s abundant blessings! 

Read about Bill and Kathy Hahn's trip to South Africa through MOST here.

Register for this Guatemala mission trip here.

We will be selling Motown Soup to help defer the costs for the team. 
20% of your online order will go to the mission team. When ordering online please put Christ Our Savior in the comment section to indicate you would like the proceeds to go to our team.
30% of your order at church through a team member will go to the team.

Contact Bill Hahn or Linda Hollman with any questions.