2021 Youth Short Term Missions
Missions Trip Highlights:
Missions Trip Reflections:
Alison Cai:
In the duration of my first short term mission trip, I believe that I have experienced enough to want to come back again next year. Specifically, a memorable service moment was when I was in the clothing donation room, my crew and I in the clothing room were able to talk about the different and unique clothes we were folding. Whether it was talking about if the clothes were our style, or who the clothes could have belonged to before denoted, everyone shared laughs. Through missions, I believe God was by my side, because I was able to be more confident when talking/sharing- which was something I was worried about before going on the trip. I am definitely glad that I was able to go to Pittsburgh for these five days, so I'm thankful for those who helped us make this happen and provided support. I really appreciate the leader’s generosity and organization when it came to this STM trip.
Anna Cai:
1. Teaching middle school boys different girl clothing items was definitely a highlight of my trip. Not only was it hilarious, it was a great bonding moment that, I felt, allowed me to get closer to some youth individuals I normally would not be able to reach.
2. While I feel the whole week was quite centered on God and really allowed me to focus on Him, the most personal God moment I experienced was when we went to see an overlook of the whole city. Looking at the view I was reminded of how great our God is. All the people bustling in that city are known and loved by God- and so was I. Similarly, all those people out there living, are living out a purpose set by the Lord- reminding me that our existences itself are deeply meaningful and significant.
Our theme for the week was Worth It, and looking out at the city, it made me understand how worth it I was to our Heavenly Father.
3. I would like to thank everyone who made this trip possible. Your support through monetary donations and/or prayers were greatly appreciated and I am very grateful. God bless <33
Max Chiou:
One of my most memorable and favorite service moments was when my group sorting through some expensive articles of clothing in the clothes drive. I was surprised that someone was willing to donate something so valuable, and it was ironic since the week’s theme was “worth it.” My most personal God moments were when the people working for the Tree of Life and the "Red Shirts" went out of their way to make our lives better. For instance, the people working for the Tree of Life gave us pizza and the "Red Shirts" gave us air mattresses. These acts of kindness made me feel that God was truly here blessing us through others. Without all of your prayers and support, we would have never been able to grow our relationships with God and each other, or learn many valuable lessons through our services. Thank you.
Alex Chiou:
This year's STM was a blast, although this is my first STM it was still a great experience. One of my favorite service moments was when my crew went to a building being built into an axe throwing range, and the basement was filled with old furniture, wood, and doors. My crew was organizing the things in the basement into nice piles. Some God moments/sightings were that when we were cleaning a children's playroom in a church, God gave me the strength to clean the entire floor myself. I just want to thank you all who supported us physically and spiritually for making this trip possible.
Danny Gao:
This missions trip was extremely memorable and special. During the missions trip I enjoyed learning how to wire outlets, drill holes in walls, and put up metal studs. While it is difficult, I think construction work is really fun, and it was very satisfying to see our hard work and service come to fruition. While serving, I also enjoyed seeing the people of the church that we were serving. Two of the people we worked with, Steve and Wayne, were very inspirational. As we got to know them while serving with them, I learned much from their attitude and their words. They both were people who dedicated their lives and hearts to serving their community through their church. Steve seems very intimidating and hard at first, but it turned out he was a really goofy guy. He was funny and really genuine. Sometimes I would see him watching us work and see his thankfulness. You could tell our service really touched his heart. Wayne was also a very unique person who acted and looked very eccentric. He had long messy hair, a beard, and his clothes were very unique. Some of us called him Jesus because of his hair. His words though, were very deep and thoughtful. I remember the first day he and Jeff talked about how the way we serve and love God should be unique to ourselves. Some may worship differently, but when churches have their differences it is important to remember that if we all have common love of God, we should not dwell on the differences, but walk away to prevent conflict as conflict is not necessary if the core principles are the same. I think one of the most personal moments of the trip was when I lost my wallet for a day as the themes of the trip's devotionals and messages were about being lost and found. I was able to relate my feelings about the loss and discovery of my wallet under my air mattress with the lessons that were being taught to us. Thank you to everyone who supported me personally or us as a group. I'm sure this trip could have gone a million different ways without your prayer and support. We were able to struggle, suffer, but also learn as a result of both your support and God's grace. I hope God continues to speak with us as he did during this trip.
Rebecca Hsiao:
I had a few favorite moments. First of all, I learned many new things just from being in the room with Uncle Jeff and Wayne (someone from the church we were working at). Also, when our crew moved to the warehouse site, and we had to move all the stuff from the furniture, I really admired everyone's hard work and efforts. We were able to make a lot of progress. We had a lot of God sightings, but I felt Him the most was in the mornings. I would wake up relatively earlier than when program started and it was a good time to just relax and be calm because there was nothing going on yet. Thank you for everyone who has supported us. We really appreciate everyone for making this possible.
Samuel Hsiao:
talking about worth - favorite service moments
praying with people - personal God moments
and thank you for supporting our mission trip
Aimee Lie:
This past week at Week of Hope was an interesting experience to me because I was able to see how even just through cleaning and organizing things, many people would be effected. Looking at the before and after pictures of areas that we cleaned was fascinating to see and was part of my favorite service moments. God worked indirectly this past week through small moments, where I was able to feel His presence whether it would be working or fellowshipping with other youth group members. I am very grateful for the support from our home community, support that came in different forms from giving up time and goods and even prayer.
Timothy Lien:
Before I came to this short terms missions trip, I was a bit hesitant as I didn’t know what to expect and only heard about the dirty living conditions. But as I adjusted to my new room along with my roommates and started doing service tasks, I started looking past all of the negatives and realized how much fun missions trip really is. Being able to work beside my friends was a super fun experience for me. I had lots of laughs and giggles once in a while which improved the whole missions trip by a lot. Having devotionals during lunch time and during programs was a good moment for me to connect with God. We touched upon the themes of being lost and found as well as how much we are worth to God. I started reflecting a lot upon my own faith when pastor Joseph pulled me aside to pray for me. I discovered how much more room for improvement I have in my walk with God as a Christian. I would like to thank the "Red Shirts" for organizing all of the short term missions activities, especially Josh’s cooking. I would also like to thank everyone who donated at our fundraising event for making this trip possible. Lastly I would like to thank all of the youth that came. They made the trip infinitely better and much more employable and motivational. God bless.
Angela Liu:
This missions trip helped me to understand others better. Each one of us is unique and has different talents and preferences, from taste in clothes to personality. Despite our differences, however, we were all united under the same goal: to share the love of God through service. STM has taught me that unsimilarities are not barriers but doors of opportunity to reach a wider range of people and spread Jesus’s love more effectively.
Jamie Shen:
I really enjoyed the entire experience this week. I was able to work on so many different projects such as sorting clothes, cleaning rugs and chairs, and wiring. I was able to talk to some of my peers and the leaders about what was on my heart. One night we had stations that gave us versus to think about, including topics like appearance and identity. I appreciate all the support that we received from everyone in the church. All the prayers we received helped us have open hearts to serve and love others in the community of Pittsburgh.
Faith Tan:
Overall, this year's mission trip to Pittsburgh, PA was quite an impactful experience. We were stationed at the Tree of Life Community Church, a church that truly lives up to its name. The church’s clothing drive is quite well funded by well-meaning individuals who donate used and well-loved clothing. However, the influx of clothes and the little amount of workers at the church made for a very disorganized clothing warehouse. My group managed to fold and organize the piles of clothes into labeled and categorized compartment boxes, and throughout the four days of service, get through all the clothes and successfully compartmentalize them. By the end of the week, the room looked almost unrecognizable from the beginning of the week. What used to be a pile of trash bags filled with miscellaneous clothes was now a neatly stacked group of boxes, organized by gender, age group, and season.
However, important as that was, the work we did at Tree of Life wasn’t the moment where God seemed to speak to me. The most personal “God - Sighting” I had was when we took an afternoon to visit downtown Pittsburgh. There was a moment where we were all walking through the city, laughing and taking the city scene in. Ice cream in one hand and my bag in the other, the song "Piano Man" by Billy Joel began to play in the background. I took a deep breath in, and out, looking at the bustling people around me - vowing to myself to never forget that moment.
About twenty minutes later I found myself at an overlook of the same city I was just walking around. Watching the sunset over the tiny apartments and houses made me truly contemplate how the infinite vastness of humanity can also seem so tiny and compressed. I then realized how amazing God's love is- that even though we are so tiny and small in the spectrum of the universe, we are all made for a purpose- we are all “worth it” to God.
As we prepared to leave downtown Pittsburgh, my mind began to drift. I began to think of the infinite nature of the universe, and the tiny city below us, and wondered if Billy Joel’s Piano Man was still playing in the busy streets below.
I would like to thank everyone for their prayers and donations. You have truly made an impact on the people of Pittsburgh, and I truly thank you for all your support.
God Bless!
Matthew Zhang:
My favorite service moments:
I definitely enjoyed every day of service at STM. A highlight from Tuesday, at the Church, was washing walls and transporting giant trash bags to the dumpster. It was a joy to see everyone working together really effectively, with strategies such as assembly lines and dividing/conquering. Thursday was also very memorable. That’s because I was genuinely surprised to see my crew singlehandedly organize the largest and dirtiest indoor junkyard I’ve ever seen. However, my most favorite service moment by far took place on Wednesday. Alex, Samuel, and I were able to clean the large children’s playroom at the Church. Two God sightings were produced by this: First, Alex—a rising 7th grader, singlehandedly vacuumed and washed the ENTIRE carpet of the playroom. I had never seen a greater display of motivation and perseverance from someone his age, and I knew that God was working through him. Second, three managers of the Church visited us to see our progress. They were in disbelief at our productivity and couldn’t stop thanking us. Their joyous and grateful reactions were priceless to me because they showed me that all of our work on STM was WORTH IT.
Most personal God moments:
My most personal God moments, without a doubt, came on Wednesday night. On Wednesday, our camp had a reflection/prayer night, where we reflected on our faith, worth, and identity as Christians. The counselors gave us exercises/devotions to do, which facilitated our reflections. As I individually prayed during those devotions, and as Pastor Joseph prayed over me, I was suddenly overcome by emotion because I truly felt God’s presence within me. God was telling me that my identity as a Christian, as his child, is more defining and valuable for me than my appearance, accomplishments, etc. But what made this night even more memorable was my job as a prayer leader. Our adult leaders—Jeff, Pastor Joseph, and Stephanie—selected Aimee, Anna, and I to personally pray over the youths on our team as they reflected. This was the very first time I’ve done such a thing, and it was surreal because just a year or two ago, I myself was being prayed over by leaders who are now graduated. I decided to pray over the younger members of our group. And as I did, I felt God’s power and wisdom flow through me like it never had before. For every person, I talked to them about what they were reflecting on before I prayed over them. Through a series of questions, I was able to get each person to vulnerably share what they were struggling with when it came to self-worth and faith in God. This process is known as “digging deeper”, a skill that I was taught to use for small-group leading this past year. This is one of the most important abilities of a good small group leader. I tried really hard to improve at it over the school year but failed to do it consistently. However, on Wednesday night, I was suddenly able to dig deeper into people’s thoughts and feelings than I did out of all the small group sessions I’ve ever led! Moreover, I was surprised by the quality and insightfulness of my prayers over other people. They were filled with coherence, power, and wisdom that I knew only God could provide me with. Overall, seeing people be encouraged, uplifted, and touched by my words made me the happiest I’ve been in a really long time. This experience revealed to me that my duty as a Christian, my purpose in life should be to love others the way God loves us.
Word of thanks:
STM 2021 was my very first mission trip. And it was an incredible experience that I will never, ever forget. I want to thank all of the CCCNJ leaders and church members who supported us and made our trip possible. Thank you for blessing me and the other members of our team with the means to travel out to Pittsburgh, serve the community, grow closer to God, and make endless memories. We wouldn’t have been able to make such a positive impact on the lives of people in Pittsburgh without your gifts and prayers. So thanks again!!
Emily Zhao:
On my account, our mission trip to Pittsburg, PA was a success! We were able to help out the Tree of Life Community Church, which is a church that pours out much more than it takes in. In my group, we were able to organize and help throw out cardboard boxes and bags of heavy shoes that were stacked up to the ceiling, clean the dirt off the walls and floors of two levels of the church, reorganize a corner of the main space, clean the floor of the sanctuary, and individually clean around 150-200 chairs (fact check??? I can't remember). On the first day of cleaning the floor and chairs, we could not quite figure out how to use the carpet cleaning machines, the electricity kept shutting off, and we only had a tiny corner of the sanctuary clean and about 30 chairs done after a full day of work. It didn’t seem possible that we would finish.
But somehow, right before our last day ended, the carpet was a different color, the wood was a little shinier, and the disgusting smelling juice from the chairs had all been extracted and poured into the toilet. The gratefulness that the church volunteers showed to us made all of our efforts worth it. And not to mention seeing how they give everything. It’s crazy: volunteering all day at the church while handling 50,000,000 tasks at once, and then going to their jobs after it is over. I could barely survive picking up some chairs and cleaning up the floor! Needless to say, this mission trip helped to put my life into perspective. Not only did we see how privileged we are to live the life that we have, but we were also able to give ourselves a little reminder of how fulfilling doing work for God is, and how He needs to return to the #1 spot in our life. Our night of reflection on Wednesday when we were prompted to sit, pray, and think about our identity, accomplishments, physical image, and relationships was quite a significant moment in the trip. While it was difficult to see how some of my peers were struggling and praying earnestly at certain stations, it was important for all of us to confront what we were facing head on. For me, I was able to rediscover how God makes us all for a reason, and while we are imperfect and fallible human beings, he still loves us. So much so, that He would die for us. I was able to realize how God’s love is crazy, unconditional, and completely incomprehensible to us. I’m sure each of the youth will tell you something different about what they learned. I know that God was working this week, through not only the work that we did for the church and what we learned, but also strengthened our relationships with one another. But in the end, I cannot thank you enough for the ways that you have supported our mission trip. Whether it’s getting your car washed by a group of youth that has never washed a car before, buying some of our questionable baked goods, sending in school supplies for our community gift, or making a donation, you made our work and experiences possible. You made it possible for us to help out and give to the Tree of Life Church (all those clean floors and walls!!) and the people there. So, thank you, thank you, thank you again for all your support!
