Mission trip Chennai, Andaman & Nicobar
On 5 September the time has come: we are travelling again. This time to Chennai and the Andaman and Nicobar Islands. Fellow travellers will share their motivation for coming and what they expect.
Marjan Vonk's motivation
Travelling again! Is she going again? Yes! In recent years I have been on every trip, and I am beginning to feel more and more like a missionary. Here in the Netherlands too I get to do a lot of work through which God's Kingdom becomes visible on earth. When I was young and read the Bible, I always saw Jesus representing the Kingdom and doing His Father's works here on earth. But I myself did not see much of that Kingdom on earth. I believed in salvation from my sin through the blood of Jesus, and I was grateful for it, but beyond that I saw little of the Kingdom on earth. I remember once asking God: may I now see and experience it for myself too? This request first resulted in a change of thinking, which did not come easily, because my mind often got in the way with all kinds of reasoning. But when I began to understand that God has given me my identity as a Daughter, and that through His Spirit I can have intimacy with God the Father again, just like Adam before the fall, and can walk and talk and consult with Him, I noticed that God wants to show His Kingdom through me, His daughter. I learned to look at people and situations with His eyes and to respond through His revelations and wisdom. This is exactly what I believe needs to be taught throughout the whole world. A year ago God prophesied that He would use me to tell leaders, pastors and missionaries all over the world how to teach people to make disciples through the Holy Spirit. And really this is simply the Great Commission Jesus gave us, which we as Christians have lost sight of a little. That it is backed up by signs and wonders makes it surprising, adventurous and easy work.
Last year in India, for instance, we received new strength like an eagle, even though because of the heat we slept no more than 1 or 2 hours a night. And in one day we saw about 150 healings in New Delhi. All I do is make myself available, and God does the rest. There is often a lot of battle beforehand. My body protests, for example, and says as it were: “you can't do that at all”, and so on. But I have learned to persevere, not to listen to that and to focus on what God says and has said about me through prophecy. The result, every trip again, is that magnificent things happen, and that the order is: spirit, soul and body. So my spirit focuses on the Holy Spirit, my will, mind and emotions become subordinate to that, and my body in turn responds by obeying and joining in, no longer protesting out of fear. God's word really is truth, and by doing it I stand firmly on a rock, so that when there is some opposition or battle I no longer collapse straight away, sit in sackcloth and ashes or become discouraged. On the contrary, it lifts me up, and I soar like an eagle and get to see things from a wonderful height and experience the Kingdom of God. Yes, I am looking forward to it again. It is hard work, but again, I know I will be given all the strength I need for it.
Motivation Karel Victor Gooijer
Why I want to go on a mission trip. Since my baptism I have carried a calling in my heart for 30 years for mission to different peoples and countries. Now that I have turned fifty, I sense that in the coming years I may answer it through short mission trips. This year I have already been to the Dominican Republic with a team of Marien's from Stichting Dienstbaar. There we were able to make a real difference and saw much fruit from the work. I expected my next trip to be sometime next year, but at a reunion dinner of the DR trip, God confirmed an earlier word He had spoken to go on this trip. For this trip I again have great expectations of what God is going to do. I believe we are going to see a move of the Holy Spirit in India, with many signs and wonders, and that many people will have radical encounters with Jesus as the risen, living Lord.
Motivation Noël Cramer
For years I have had a heart to go on mission trips. A number of years ago God once led me to the Roma, a people who are the poorest of the poor among the population of Romania. It was there that I saw true poverty, with terrible manifestations. This people is spat out and rejected by the Romanian people and was trapped in deep darkness. Most girls there become pregnant at 13 or 14 and soon have to learn what the adult world of the Roma among the Romanian people means. Once, during a home visit, I saw how poor these people were and that in winter, at -20 degrees, they had to survive in a house full of cracks and gaps and without even a window. Roofs that leak, sometimes so badly that families with children slept outside with the horses among the hay. A man I visited had a 16-year-old daughter who was pregnant. She already had a boyfriend, and yet this man tried to persuade me to take his daughter as my wife, while his son-in-law stood right there. In another family an 8-year-old girl had been sent to Paris to beg, so that she could provide money for food and the like. This marked my heart forever and engraved it with the deep compassion of Christ. For years I wanted to do mission work, but God still held me back, to prepare me and make me ready. A few weeks ago God spoke to me and indicated that I had to go on a mission trip to India. I knew my wife was also called to come, and God confirmed this too. To my amazement I discovered that these Roma from Romania originally come from India. In this I see how God's hand arranges everything perfectly. Now we are about to go. On 5 September the time will come for us to visit the people of India in Chennai and the Andaman and Nicobar Islands, and to go into poor neighbourhoods of India to demonstrate and proclaim God's Kingdom. We are going there to preach the gospel in spirit and power: ‘For I determined not to know any thing among you, save Jesus Christ, and him crucified. And my speech and my preaching was not with enticing words of man's wisdom, but in demonstration of the Spirit and of power,’ 1 Corinthians 2:2, 4 KJV
Motivation Soraya Cramer
In 2018 I went on a mission trip to Romania for the first time, together with my husband and our church. It was such a special and beautiful experience, but at the same time very sad, and above all it made me think about everything.
In the years that followed I was so focused on my work that I did not feel, or could not make, the space to really go for the Lord and grow in that, let alone go on another mission trip.
Two months ago I decided to give up my job for a very different, beautiful job. I remember saying to the Lord: 16 May is my last shift at work; let that be the day of total transformation. Well, and how! To this very day the Lord is totally transforming my life in every area! Not long after, I said to my husband: okay, I want to, and I sense we have to go on a mission trip! And my husband felt exactly the same! At that point, however, the mission trip might still take place on other dates. In the weeks that followed it at some point became clear that the mission trip would take place in September after all! Because we felt God spoke so clearly in this, we immediately seized this opportunity to show the Kingdom of God in India!
Laurine Wegeling's motivation
I am Laurine and I am 21 years old. Ten years ago the desire arose in me to go on a mission trip. God miraculously provided the finances and made sure I got time off during my last year of primary school, which was actually not possible. Since then my heart has really been touched to help people.
I actually had other plans and was going to attend a prayer school. But when that suddenly fell through, doors opened for me to come on this group trip.
I long to be a blessing to people and to show and share His love, not only in my own surroundings but also where the gospel cannot be proclaimed so freely. The words of Jesus in Mark 16:17-18 inspire me, because I believe God will work powerfully when we share His message. It is a privilege to be involved in His plan and to be able to make a difference in people's lives. I am looking forward to the testimonies that are going to come!
