The Post About England

Welp, here we go. Here it is. The post about England.

For those who don’t know: on August 1st, I left on a mission trip to England with a small group—two other people—from the church I’ve been attending in Mississippi. I first heard about the trip at a church service when it was advertised on a PowerPoint slide. “Mission trip to England,” it said.

Immediately I thought, “whoa, how cool! How awesome would that be? To get to go to England, and on a mission trip?”

My good friend Rachel, who invited me to the church in the first place, noticed my interest and asked if I wanted to go to the initial meeting for the trip.

So we went, both of us, to the meeting, and I was further interested in going. The only problem? Money. The trip cost over $1000 in total, not including the possibility of going to London for an extra day. As an unemployed college student, I didn’t think I’d be able to come up with that kind of money.

So while I thought the trip sounded awesome, and I knew it would be a good experience for me, I resigned myself to the fact that I wouldn’t be able to go this year. However, maybe I could save up enough money to go the following summer.

Rachel became interested in the trip, too. We learned that the church was actually taking 2 trips out to England: one in June, and one in August. Rachel was interested in the June trip. I was interested in the August one.

Even knowing I couldn’t afford it, I kept thinking about how cool it would be to go. I’d never been on a mission trip before, and I thought it would be a good way for me to stretch my faith and expand my horizons. I kept thinking about it, and I felt a strong desire to go, but I basically just said “Lord, I would totally go, if I had the money. I’ll go next year.”

Then I learned that the church wasn’t sure if they’d be sending out teams to England in 2015. A group from England was planning to come to Mississippi that year instead.

I’m hoping to have graduated college by the summer of 2016, so that basically meant if I didn’t go on the mission trip this year, I wouldn’t be able to go at all.

Then, suddenly but not unexpectedly, my great-grandmother passed away. She left me money. More money than I knew what to do with. I asked my mom if it would be selfish of me to use some of the money for the trip. “No,” she said, “Grandmother Evelyn would’ve loved for you to use the money for a mission trip!”

Now there was nothing stopping me. I signed up to go, and I'm so glad I did.

A map of the city of Wem.

We flew out on Friday, August 1st, and I underestimated how bad the jet lag would be. We arrived in England on Saturday morning, and I found myself dozing off throughout the day, wishing I could go to bed but knowing I had to get myself adjusted to the new time zone.

Most of my time in England was spent in the city of Wem. It’s a small market town located in Shropshire, in the English countryside. If you drive ten minutes outside of town, you’ll be winding through rolling hills, amidst the sheep and cows and expansive green fields.

Wem definitely has its own charm. Aside from the prettiness of the countryside, it’s an older city, so the buildings are exactly what you’d picture in a historic English market town. The people of Wem, namely those at the church we partnered with, amazed me with their kindness. They were so welcoming to us, and genuinely warm, and I think that was one of the biggest things that struck me about the trip: the warmth that the people around me displayed.

We helped the church in Wem with their Holiday Bible Club (HBC), which was very similar to Vacation Bible School. I worked with the 10’s & 11’s age group. We started out the morning with recreation/games, then joined the other age groups for skits and Bible stories, then split off again to do crafts and artwork and help the kids with their activity workbooks.

The recreation time was fun, but I’m really not an athletic person, so I wasn’t able to get super into it. My favorite part of HBC was the final portion, where the kids were working on their crafts & workbooks. It was then that they really started thinking about the Bible stories they learned—I was able to help answer some questions and bond a bit with certain kids.

The 10’s and 11’s were an interesting age group. Some of the kids were still very much kids: they got very into the games, did the motions/actions of the songs we sung, and were generally enthusiastic about everything. Others in the group were more on the cusp of teenagerhood, so they didn’t get into the activities quite as much.

Game time!

But oh man—they were thoughtful. On Friday morning, the last day of HBC, we held a “question and answer” time in which the kids could ask questions about what they’d learned throughout the week.

“Why does God make people kill each other?” asked one girl.

“Does God still love people when they’re in hell?” asked another.

It was good for me to hear these questions, because they were things I hadn’t thought about on a deep level before, and it motivated me to contemplate them more.

After HBC was over, we had the afternoons off. In the evenings we helped out with Jagged, a week-long youth group where teenagers could come hang out, play games, and hear the Gospel presented.

It surprised me how friendly and willing to talk the teenagers at Jagged were. There were a few girls in particular who treated me as a friend, which relieved me, ‘cause I was worried they would see me as a “not-cool adult” or something. (Which would be true, I guess, since I’m an adult and definitely not cool most of the time.)

After the week of HBC and Jagged—which pretty much used up all of my energy (but it was a good kind of exhausted, if that makes any sense)—we visited Chester on Saturday, then took the train to London on Sunday afternoon. We spent all day Monday in London, then flew home on Tuesday the 12th.

London!

I already mentioned that one of the things I took to heart during the trip was “treating people with warmth.” It’s definitely something I want to aspire to.

Another awesome thing was meeting Christians in another part of the world. The team leaders I met at HBC and Jagged were really, genuinely passionate about Christ and His work, and they all had an honest desire to teach kids and teenagers about Him. It’s awesome—very awesome—to share that connection, that common belief in Christ, with people who live all the way across the ocean.

It cements the realization that Christ changes lives everywhere, and He has the ability to reach anyone, regardless of their upbringing or current circumstances or where they live.

I have brothers and sisters in Christ living all around the world. And while I’ve always known that fact in my mind, meeting the believers in England made it a vivid reality. It’s such a cool thing, to actually meet Christians in other parts of the world.

The trip also helped bring me out of my comfort zone a bit, which I was hoping it would. Being a shyer introvert, socialization has never been one of my strong points. I’ve always struggled with talking to people, conversing with people normally, and bonding with people. I was surprised by how easily I could interact with the kids at Holiday Bible Club; and while Jagged was a bit different, I was still able to have casual conversations with the teenagers there.
I was stretched to get better at conversation and be more open about sharing my faith. I didn’t ever get to sit down one-on-one with someone, or talk with someone in-depth about my faith and struggles and testimony—but on the last night of Jagged, I was able to approach a few friends and ask if I could pray for anything specific for them. I was able to ask them this, even though I didn’t know whether they were Christians or not. It was a good small step towards being bolder about my faith, and I know it’ll take more practice, but I was proud of myself for just managing to do that.

Our day spent in London was one of the highlights of the trip. I did get huge blisters on my feet, which wasn’t fun, but that was entirely my fault since I didn’t bring the best walking shoes. But getting to see Big Ben and Buckingham Palace and the Tower of London in person was incredible. We also went to see Charlie and the Chocolate Factory, which reminded me of why I love theatre.

There were a lot of things that affected me on the trip: things I’m still working through, things I’m still processing.
But, to summarize, some the biggest things I learned from the trip were: to be warmer with people; to be unafraid of discussing my faith if the chance arises, even if I’m not sure about others’ personal beliefs; and that the Holy Spirit will provide the strength you need when you’re completely exhausted and totally worn out.
(Truth is, I was already really exhausted by the third day of HBC. But somehow, I was able to keep going and work throughout the other days. I don’t know how that happened, but hey, praise the Lord! *jazz hands*)

I also realized that traveling is super fun and I want to do more of it. I would love to go on more mission trips, to have more opportunities to talk openly about my faith. I know it’s not me who “convinces” people to become Christians, or who “makes” them so. I’m only a vessel for the Holy Spirit. Seeing as this was my first mission trip? Being a vessel for the Holy Spirit is pretty darn awesome, and it’s something I should be striving toward whether I happen to be on a mission trip or not.