By Jennifer Frampton
By Jennifer Frampton
PLAINFIELD, Indiana--Last summer I went on a missions trip to Germany sponsored by Teen Missions International.
Teen Missions is an interdenominational organization founded in 1970 by Bob Bland, who still serves as president. Every summer it sends from 1,500 to 2,000 youths on mission trips throughout the world.
My team's project to Germany was to continue construction on a shower house and to help prepare a youth camp in Neufrankenroda. Every day we broke up into different groups that worked on the shower house or built pallets and trusses.
In the morning, we would have personal devotions, breakfast and a Bible-marking class before starting work at 8:30. Then we would work for four hours.
We then had lunch made by Motese, the camp cook. Then we worked three and a half hours in the afternoon and had one hour free time before dinner.
In the evenings we had a class for the girls and the guys, group devotions and camp-fire time before getting ready for bed.
My team was a work team, but we did have a chance to do some evangelism. The main way of communicating with people was through German tapes we used while doing performances with puppets. We had several opportunities to spend time with German children playing games, singing and doing puppet shows.
Two of my team members gave their testimonials with the help of a translator. One of them gave her testimony to a group of children one evening, and the other one gave hers during a church service with many unsaved people there.
My favorite time of evangelism was when we would give presentations on street corners in town. We did three different performances and were well-received each time. People would stop and listen, and then after a song, we would go and pass out tracts.
On several occasions we ran into people who spoke English, and at those times we witnessed to them. I always prayed for the people who took tracts that God would use them for his glory.
Some people were surprised that we would give up our summers to go and work for God.
We were allowed only 32 pounds of luggage, and that included our sleeping bags and everything else we were taking. It was difficult for me to choose which items to eliminate, as I arrived in Florida 20 pounds over the weight limit.
I lived with much less than I ever dreamed I would be able to, and I was happy.
Copyright © Worldwide Church of God, 1998