News and Views

Mission of Peace offers youth a new outlook on faith

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Four youth from the Baltimore-Washington Conference boarded a plane in late December to join 17 other youth to spend 20 days discovering God’s Spirit at work in Cuba. The Mission of Peace is a journey to experience God’s extended family and learn how people live as disciples of Jesus Christ in their own country.

Sponsored by the Northeastern Jurisdiction, the Mission of Peace is a yearly journey of discovery and Shalom. The youth met with other youth from Cuba to exchange ideas about faith and the role of the Church in the world. Youth were immersed in the journey of daily prayer for Shalom and an understanding between God’s extended family, and explored ideas on building peace, particularly stressing and nurturing the development of confidence and trust between people. The four youth from BWC, Evan, Karis, Nito and Roman, raised the needed funds through their church, friends and family during 2017 to participate in the Mission of Peace. 

Each year, the Northeastern Jurisdiction Council on Youth Ministry selects four youth from each Annual Conference to share in this life-changing experience. Inspired by Bishop Dale White in 1984, the Mission of Peach has traveled to the then USSR, the People’s Republic of China, Eastern Europe, Zimbabwe, Guyana, India, Nicaragua, Brazil, Cuba and South Africa.

In 2019, the Mission of Peace will travel to the Philippines to unite as a community in Christ. Youth in grades 9 through 12 are welcome to apply for the 2018 Mission of Peace. Contact Pam Bowen for the 2019 Mission of Peace application at .

By Evan Gaalswyk

Mission trips in the past had been great experiences for me, but I found it difficult to sustain the powerful feeling of fulfilment once I returned home after the trips. Immediately after arriving in Cuba, I could tell that this experience would be different in the best way possible.Before the Mission of Peace, I had no idea what to do with my life. I know that a sense of purpose isn’t to be expected at my age, but my lack of it still gnawed at me. I’d thought and prayed about this issue, but I still felt lost, and I was not expecting the Mission of Peace to be the source of the direction that I was seeking.

What really cemented this feeling for me was the New Year’s Eve worship and fellowship that we shared with locals. Sitting by the fire and singing, I felt immense peace, and I got a feeling that I was where I needed to be.

A few hours later, we were split into groups to pray for each other. After the prayer, a Cuban woman that I had only just met offered a testimony to the group that 2018 was going to be a great year for me, and that I would find my calling.

I was amazed, and what the woman said stuck with me, but, being a skeptic sometimes, I thought of it as a coincidence. On Sunday, my thoughts on that changed completely. During worship at a local church, the pastor, to whom I’d also never spoken, laid his hands on me and told me that God was calling him to pray over me and my direction in life. He told me that I would do great things with my gifts, and that I had a great future serving God through Spanish (I’m a fluent speaker).

This floored me. I broke down and cried, and even as I’m writing this I’m tearing up. How could this be? My walls of doubt started to crumble, and I started giving serious thought to this call that I was hearing here in Cuba.

However, I may have continued a skeptic had it not been for a service later that night. The service was amazing, but the truly transformative and decisive moment on the trip, and in my life as well, came shortly after. As I was speaking to the pastor, she told me that I had the gift of the Spanish language,andasked “What are you going to do with it?”

She answered by telling me I couldn’t ignore my call: that I needed to use my Spanish to serve God in some way. I felt like a fog was lifted from around me, and that I could now see the path that I was supposed to be traveling on. It was a surreal and amazing feeling, and it still is.

Aside from the other things that the Mission of Peace gave me, it satisfied my deepest need: direction.

Evan Gaalswyk plays with a child during Mission of Peace in Cuba.

By Karis Arnold 

My trip to Cuba was truly one I will never forget, for it was an absolutely life changing experience. Everything from the other Mission of Peace sojourners to all of the accepting hearts of the people we got to encounter was truly eye-opening, and changed my personal perceptions of Cuba.

I saw a lot of amazingly beautiful things while in Cuba. One of the first things I witnessed that truly touched my heart was on the second day of our trip. That night we went to a church service at the Iglesia de Albanza (Church of Albanza), while we were attending the service I did a lot of observing, and while the worship team was playing some music it was so amazing to just see the holy spirit move the people, despite the fact that I had no idea what the lyrics to the song meant.

Another thing I saw that touched my heart was one afternoon, on about the third or fourth day we threw a little surprise party for a woman named Regla, who has fallen out of a mango tree at age 12 and has been paralyzed from the neck down ever since leaving her wheelchair bound. Once we surprised Regla with cake, we sang her some songs. While we were singing our songs, I looked up from my song booklet and Regla had the biggest smile on her face, my heart was overjoyed.

Another account I have was on New Year’s Eve. On New Year’s Eve we went to the CCM (Cuba Connection Ministry) Farm for a huge bonfire with those in the community, together we shared a time of dancing, fellowship, prayer, song, and testimony. For me this was awesome, because we were all able to enjoy our time together despite our language barrier.

The idea that those children were so firm in their faith despite their differences was a beautiful thing I got to witness. I was also touched by the smiles of the differently abled children we visited in their homes.Another experience that touched my heart was when we would go to the different churches and sing for them and they would absolutely love it. The people we would sing for would follow along with our motions, and would have the biggest smiles on their faces. It also warmed my heart when we volunteered with a differently abled children’s ministry. The children would sing songs or recite bible verses they had memorized, and that was so powerful.

One particular child that really made my heart sing is when we sang to Jaunquiel, a bedridden boy he had the biggest smile on his face that I’ve ever seen. Lastly, the acceptance of us by all of the people we visited was truly heartwarming. Everywhere we went we were greeted with open arms, open hearts and a smile which really made me feel like that was where I was supposed to be at that time.

This trip had a huge impact on my faith life, but did not really show through until I returned home. I used to not really sing in church or let the spirit move me through swaying or anything like that, but ever since I witnessed the people of Cuba let the holy spirit move them my outlook changed. I became more open to it, and now I sing every song and sway in my pew.

I also have become all around more aware of what’s going on in the worship service. I pay a greater attention to the lyrics of the songs, the scripture reading, and my pastors sermons in these things I have an easier time finding God in the little things.

 Overall, I found my trip to be the most eye opening thing I’ve ever been able to be a part of. The trip made me realize that the misconceptions aren’t true by any means. I absolutely love that I was able to interact with people from a country different from mine, and a language different from mine and simply spread the love of the Lord to many. I am so incredibly blessed to have been able to be a part of the Mission of Peace trip to Cuba.

Front L to R: Roman Ditzenberger, Evan Gaalswyk, Karis Arnold, and Nito Slack attended the Mission of Peace in Cuba as the delegation from the BWC.

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