Missions Short-Term Mission Reports Hamakua 2023
HAMAKUA 2023
GRACE: This missions trip was so powerful and was something that I’ll remember forever. We got to go out to evangelize, help people out in different areas and hold outreach events. Before this missions trip, one of the prayers that was repeated was “God, break my heart for what breaks yours.” I began to pray this every day while counting down the days until we were sent out. I feel like God really broke my heart for the things that break His during this missions trip. The Holy Spirit really touched my heart on our last Friday night where we had another youth night. Tym asked everyone who wanted to feel the Father’s love to raise their hand. As we started to sing Reckless Love, I felt so much love from the Father and so much love for all the youth and the kids. Tears began to stream down my face. I was just thanking God for being such a loving Father and I began to pray in my spirit for breakthroughs for everyone in the audience and that they may feel the Father’s love for themselves. We had an altar call after the message and I felt the Holy Spirit moving in everyone so powerfully. I felt God speak to me that He loves everyone so much and that really touched my heart.
SILVIA: The love of Jesus moved me to say Yes to missions. Missions is the heartbeat of Jesus. Now here I was with the youth for two weeks in Hamakua. The one thing that I grew in the most spiritually was through my experience of being in charge of Vacation Bible School (VBS). I had no clue of how to run a VBS and I did not like the idea at all but I trusted God that He assigned me this task for a reason. God gave me a quick rundown of VBS with Pastor Trenton at the grocery store, then He gave me some VBS resources from Aleiah. He told me what to order from Amazon. I thought I could just wing it by following the program. The next challenge was developing a relationship with the youth first before working with them to get this VBS going. It was bumpy in the beginning that needed a lot of dying to my flesh and a lot of prayers. Jesus also knew He had to deal with my pride and self-confidence before He could work through me. During one of our morning devos Jesus broke my heart with John 3:16, God’s love is always there and Jesus wants to show His love to His children in Hamakua. The powerful prayer led by Pastor Jacob with the team freed me from the spirits of fear, anxiety, unbelief and self-reliance and humbled me to embrace my own weakness to exalt Jesus. In the end, this is His VBS, right?
TYM: I am so grateful to God for giving me the opportunity to go, because at first I wasn’t sure if I would be able to go due to finances. However Uncle Tyrone encouraged me to believe for the best and I signed up. As a result, the Lord blessed me with the money because someone anonymously covered my cost for this trip God was telling me that it was time to step up and start being a leader. I never wanted to step into any leadership positions and whenever someone suggested that I do, I always thought that someone else could do it. Someone who is better than I, someone who is more able than I, but definitely not me. What the Lord revealed to me was that sometimes there is nobody else. The reality is that once I made the choice to step into the calling to rise up, we saw the Lord move in such wonderful ways! Everything that happened would not have happened if we had not answered God’s call and went on this mission trip. I want to encourage all my friends not to fear and to step into God’s calling because He will most definitely turn it into something beautiful.
BRANDON: The road to Hamakua started for me at the Men’s Encounter. It was there that God impressed on me that He had more planned for my life. As I continued with School of Leaders, School for Christian Growth and church membership, the opportunity to be a part of the short-term mission team to Hamakua presented itself. I carried on with praying and reading the Word. I could also see that my desires began to change to what He desired for me. I used to say “if I could find time, I’d do more devotions, serve more and seek God more.” I had to change my way of thinking and now say “I will make time for God.” He wants a real relationship and for us to depend on Him. Still, I couldn’t help but wonder if this trip was something that God wanted for me. After my wife Shauna (who originally wanted to go) could not go due to work, and other pastors speaking into my life, I knew without a doubt that it was His plan all along for me to be a part of this team.
TYRONE: This is my second short-term mission trip, but my first as the team leader and definitely my first where the team was mostly youth. I’ve been in leadership for many years, but this was definitely different. God challenged me in many ways and often I felt unsure of myself. God blessed me with a great team of leaders and youth that showed me support and a lot of grace. The blessing for me was watching these young people step up and minister to not only youth and kids but to adults as well. It was also exciting to see the leaders step up in roles that were very different from their roles back at home. The team stepped out of their comfort zones and made a huge impact on our family in Hamakua. I’m so thankful for the Hamakua team, Pastor Jacob, Sister Hoku, Mike, and Tasha. I just want to encourage everyone to go on missions. You will definitely be blessed.
