ETHAN OH

Earlier this year, having decided to answer God’s calling to a life of vocational ministry by going to seminary, I naturally prayed over my summer plans. The thought of long-term missions has always been on my mind, and I felt God was telling me to go short-term this summer before heading into a busy post-grad life. I wanted to serve with Kristos Campus Missions (KCM), a ministry that I have had the pleasure of being a part of for the last 4 years, so I signed up to go with no country preferences in mind. Although Nicaragua was still a nation that I care for in my heart, I wanted God to speak to me in different ways in new contexts, so I asked Him to use me wherever He desired to send me, and that I will have no say nor objection in the matter. So it was with a joyful heart that I found out I was placed in the South India team, and I thanked God for the eighteen other brothers and sisters who I would be serving with there. 

We did a variety of ministries for the first three weeks we were in southern India, mostly in a city called Bangalore, which included VBS for 1600+ children who went to different St. Paul’s School campuses (the Christian school that our long-term missionary contact was running), ministry caring for lepers and the blind, rural church encouragement, and discipleship groups with some of the older students we did VBS with. After the busy three weeks, we had an even busier two weeks of traveling across India, which the missionaries had us do to understand the culture and spiritual state that India was in, so it was during this time that we visited places like Kolkata, where Mother Theresa did a lot of her work with the poor; Agra, where the Taj Mahal resides; and Varanasi, the most important city for Hinduism. 

I think the greatest takeaway from this trip for me is a deeper love for the gospel, and a deeper appreciation for every opportunity I have to preach it to the people that the Lord loves and desires. A lot of the ministry that we did involved the presentation of the gospel, whether that was in classrooms with younger students, in discipleship groups with older students or even when sharing our own testimonies with lepers. The first time I tried to have a conversation about the gospel with my discipleship group, it was quite the struggle. It was already hard keeping them engaged, but it was also so hard to talk for longer than five minutes. In the moment, it felt like the gospel message was too simple, too quick and easy to share, and I felt like I was just trying to fill time. I was feeling discouraged, because as a Christian, this was something that I was supposed to be passionate about, and with other things that I am passionate about, I can probably talk for hours without any problem. But for some reason when it was the gospel, I could only share the basic points and couldn’t follow up with questions to the students or even answer some of the questions they had for me. Perhaps it was fear, fear that I would not be able to give the most theologically rich presentation, or that they would think less of me if I shared for too long or short. 

But as I kept doing more discipleship groups, as I shared my testimony many times throughout the trip, even as I was teaching English for a class of  younger students, the Holy Spirit continued to teach and guide me with what to say, and by the midpoint of our ministry days, it felt like the gospel of Jesus Christ was just at the tip of tongue with every conversation I had. 

I had discovered the joy of being able to preach the gospel. As the days went on, I was eager to meet my discipleship group, to share my testimony for a classroom of bored students, because I was sharing the Good News about the Son of God who came down to earth as a man, to live a perfect life, to die for my sins, to rise again from the dead and reconcile my broken relationship with the heavenly Father, all so that I may be counted as righteous and His beloved child. Sharing the source of my joy caused me greater joy, and I thank God for the opportunity He was giving me to do so in a broken nation like India that so desperately needed the gospel. 

As our main ministry came to a close and we started traveling up north, my prayer was that I would not lose this renewed passion for the gospel, and that I will obey every opportunity He places before me to testify to His goodness. It is my hope that I carry this desire in my heart all the days of my life.