When people ask me, “How was your ‘trip’ to New Zealand?” it takes me off guard because the past five months have been nothing less than some of the most challenging, soul searching, identity finding and heart opening that I’ve ever been through... not quite a “vacation”. So I’ve just gotten in the habit of saying “life changing” because words don’t even come close to communicating what God has been doing in me and through me this past year. What may have started as a new and exciting “trip” to one of my top bucket list locations, turned out to be one of the biggest transformational works God has done inside of me. I dedicated 3 months to learning more about God and what it means to know him and how to walk my life as one of his disciples striving to know him deeper and express the love I have for him every day.
Because it was hard to find time to send updates during my time overseas, I’m going to share about different parts of it in various blog posts now. Some will be more focused on my time in New Zealand where I was undergoing my Lecture phase and learning more about God and what it means to walk as his disciple every day from a variety of different speakers. Some will be centered around my art and the deeper ways God has used that in growing our relationship and how he speaks to me through it! __________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________
This blog post is going to cover my Outreach to the Solomon Islands and the amazing work that God did there! I started to understand that knowing God on a personal level and growing in an intimate relationship is crucial to stepping into the true calling he has given everyone: to make him known. (How can you make someone known if you don’t even know him?) The Great Commission is a command, not a suggestion. God calls us his disciples, which means every thing he said to them applies to us as well. “Go therefore and make disciples of all nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit, teaching them to observe all that I have commanded you.” Matthew 28:19-20 God moved in remarkable ways on our outreach to the Solomon Islands.
In total, we had: Direct contacts: 1,615 (people we prayed with, shared our testimonies and the Gospel, etc.) Salvations/recommitments: 37 Bible Distributions: 192 Healings: 13 Deliverances: 33 Overall, it was one of the biggest honors to be apart of such a unique and beautiful culture. Giving someone a Bible for the first time in their own language is something I will never forget. We were working with the Wycliffe Foundation in the capital of the Solomons, Honiara. This was where we were located for most of our time. Our first day of ministry we actually got to see the release of one of the newest translations of the Bible in the “Baeggu” language. It was an honor to be apart of the celebration of such a big accomplishment in the spread of the Word of God to the nations. This significant ceremony set the stage for what the rest of our outreach was going to look like. Our fourth night there we went to Gateway International Missions and Healing Centre to lead a youth camp. We sang worship songs, performed a skit and shared some of our testimonies. At the end of the night we had an altar call and were blown away to see about 30 of the kids dedicate their lives to Christ. It was so incredibly powerful especially since this all happened on our fifth day there! God had big things in store! Our main ministry during the first two weeks was dedicated to working in local areas such as schools and churches. Gateway Church was specifically one of the main places that we invested most in (this ended up being our church for the rest of the time). We did a lot of street ministry, evangelizing, prayer walks and treasure hunts. Most of the time our mode of transportations was walking, hopping in the back of a trunk or the city buses.
A WWII plane crash. School director playing the pan pipes.
By treasure hunt I mean we paired up with one team member and prayed for God to show us people, places, images or any “clue” of where he wanted us to go that day. We spent the rest of the day walking around searching for these things and asking Holy Spirit to lead us where he wanted us to go. I was paired with Drew, and we did a lot of food ministry by going into restaurants and praying over the staff there. What’s really cool is one of the promises we were given was that God was going to bring the people to us (aka we wouldn’t be wandering around aimlessly trying to find opportunities for ministry, but God was going to lead us to the right people and the right places); and how evident this was throughout our entire time! He showed us what he was already doing in the Solomon Islands and gave us the opportunity to speak with very influential people there. During our day Drew and I happened to sit down at the corner of a store to rest from the heat of the day and pray over Honiara. We hadn’t been there for more than a minute when a lady came up to us and asked if we were okay and if we needed anything. We told her that we were praying for the Solomon Islands; when she heard this she was really excited and offered for us to come into her restaurant, The Waterlily Cafe. We thought she was just being nice and letting us sit inside the air conditioning, but then she lead us back into the kitchen where she told her entire staff to drop what they were doing so we could pray for them. She then introduced us to her cousin, Lucy, who was working there and whom provided an abundance of food for the two of us! Lucy sat with us for two hours and we found out that she is actually an evangelist who has been walking with the Lord for a while. Her mission by working in the restaurant is to infiltrate the gospel into that environment and perhaps influence her cousin who owns the store. We were blown away by the passion and zeal this woman carried and were so excited to meet her that we followed up with her during our last 2 weeks by bringing back the rest of our team to lead some worship and share some words of encouragement with the staff on the terrace.
Here are some pictures of the schools we served in, the people we met and some of the ministry we did in them.
After our first 2 1/2 weeks in Honiara we made plans to go to a different province called Malaita– specifically in Kwaio. Our original plan was to go to one of the most unreached locations in the Solomon Islands where the islanders dream of going to do their missions work: West Kwaio. This place is known for the heathen people that are native to the mountains who engage in a lot of dark magic, worship of their ancestors and hostility towards foreigners. We knew that we were walking into dangerous territory but trusted that God had his hand of protection over us throughout the whole time. Through a series of events we actually ended up going to East Kwaio for a week and a half and to West Kwaio for just a weekend. At first we were a bit disconcerted with how many times our plans got flipped around but we just kept trusting that God’s plan was much better than ours and,
“The heart of man plans his way, but the LORD establishes his steps.” Proverbs 16:9 It was amazing to see how perfectly God put his plan together for us. When something didn’t go the way we planned and a door closed, another one always opened. In order to get to Malaita we had to take a 3 hour ferry boat ride to a dock where we ended up being delayed because one of our guides didn’t make the ferry boat. So we ended up staying in the capital, Auki for 2 nights with Hilda’s sister. During our time there we got to go to a school where we all shared our testimonies as well as do market ministry where we sold our first Kwaio Bible!
Our main ministries during our time in Malaita: distributing the Kwaio Bible, showing the Jesus Film in the Kwaio language, preaching the gospel, sharing our testimonies, performing skits, worship and children’s ministry. When Hilda, the Director of the YWAM Solomon’s Base arrived in Auki with her little 2-year old daughter, Darlene (aka DarDar :)), we embarked on our way to East Kwaio where we would stay in Hilda’s husband’s home village.
In order to get there we took a 3 hour truck ride...
An hour and a half boat ride...
...until we finally made it to East Kwaio! Now we were expecting to be walking right into a hike to the village we were supposed to be staying at, only to our surprise to find out that we were actually going to be based at our David’s house (our guide who is a native Kwaio) in East Kwaio!
We were blown away by the beauty of this place and marveled at the probability that we might be some of the only foreigners to ever come to a place like this. It was quite humbling to step into a culture where this is all they ever know.
Nicole and Evan worshipping with the village children.
Baby octopus the children gigged in the water.
Hilda cooking in the kitchen at David's house
Enjoying the fresh catch of the day!!!
One of the best but most challenging experiences about being in Kwaio was when we went to Aaron's village. It required us to hike for 3 hours and who knows how many miles through rough terrain of the tropical forest.
But through the mud, the sweat, and tears we made it to the end...
While we were in Kwaio we were able to visit 7 villages (on separate islands) that we commuted to by boat. Since it is an honor to host guests in the Solomon Islands, the villages were arguing over who was going to take us in. Even though we were already planning at staying at David’s house for the week, we agreed to stay with one of the villages for 2 nights to honor them. They were so happy to have us and we got a true taste of the village culture as well as “island time”.
The significance about this is place is that it was the first time I ever preached in front of a congregation. God did a lot of defining work in me to prepare me for this and I was so grateful that I could be used as his broken vessel to further His Word. The Solomon Islanders are some of the most gracious and loving people I have ever met and it was an honor to be apart of their culture and to live as one of them for a season.
Receiving a Bible for the first time in their own language! Praise the Lord!
Thank you for taking the time to read my story. There are many more that will be told but there's only so much one can put in writing.
I want to especially thank anyone who supported me financially or through prayer. I know they had such a big impact on my entire time and I am so grateful.
I pray you have been blessed by my testimony and perhaps it may stir your heart to aim for the higher callings such as missions, but all in all I hope more than anything that you take from this remember: God has you right where you are for a reason.
Strive to do his will in every situation whether that be in a foreign country or your hometown. The world needs more of Jesus so go share more of him.
"He said to them, “Go into all the world and preach the gospel to all creation." Mark 16:15