Students spread the Gospel in East Asia

Liberty University students had the opportunity to give back over winter break when Light Ministries sent a short-term mission group to share the Gospel with people in East Asia.

According to the Liberty News Service, the group of 14 students and two staff members departed for the long journey to East Asia Dec. 27. Students served disabled children at a local orphanage and spent the majority of the trip teaching English in several settings.

At the orphanage, the mission team spent several days caring for children suffering from minor to severe disabilities. The team fed and cared for orphans with Cerebral Palsy, as well as various mental and physical handicaps. When not serving the children, Liberty students got the opportunity to build relationships by spending quality time with them.

According to John, the trip’s Light Ministries campaign coordinator, the East Asian country does not value human life or those with disabilities. We are unable to use John’s last name because of safety reasons.

“The reality is that if it weren’t for this orphanage that was there, these kids would be dead,” John said. “The orphanage ministry that we plugged in with was really an amazing ministry.”

For one-and-a-half weeks of the trip, students spent their time building relationships with locals by connecting with nearby schools.

Liberty students split into four teams to teach English, physical education, crafts and more to 2-5-year-old children at a kindergarten.

The group also taught English to eighth-grade students at a middle school and connected with college-age students by teaching them English in a couple of
different settings.

For John, relational ministry with the university students was one of his favorite parts of the trip.

“It opened some really cool doors to be able to share our faith with them, as they were interested, and to see what the Lord was doing through that,” John said. “(It was exciting) to be able to give someone a Bible … and to see their excitement in that and their interest in reading it, and to see how the Holy Spirit was working through people as we talked with them about God’s word.”

Throughout the two-and-a-half-week trip, the team stayed involved in ministries that already existed in the region.

“It wasn’t just our team going in and doing our own little thing for two weeks, but we were plugging into something that God’s already doing and will continue to do. The impact, Lord willing, is continuing even after we leave,” John said.

Along with their involvement in several ministries, the team made a difference in the area by providing a Christian example in a spiritually desolate
part of the world.

“Simply just being a light in places where there’s very little light is impactful,” John said.

For the Liberty students who journeyed to East Asia, the trip will likely be something they will never forget. Students met and talked with people who had never heard of Jesus or seen a Bible.

“It exposed them to a place in the world where it’s very spiritually dark,” John said. “Being able to see that need and experience that need was and is impactful.”