HANNAH JUN 

Prior to missions, I wrestled with what it meant to go on missions when I should be fulfilling my duty as a student. It seemed almost contradictory, that I could either use my summer to be a diligent steward of God, or go on missions to obey the Great Commission. But in the end, also by meditating upon Matthew 6:33, I came to the conclusion that if I submit my heart up to God and was prayerful, He would allow my decisions to eventually align with His sovereign will. So I decided to go on summer missions because I wanted to partake in God’s Kingdom work across the nations.

God’s hand over India was truly beautiful and there were 3 main lessons He has graciously shown me:

(1) GOD WANTS US TO LIVE BY PRAYER - Every morning in Jalpaiguri, we would be given the opportunity to partake in morning prayer with the St. Paul school staff and missionary. This was something that was a routine for them, as faithful servants of God. As we took part in them, majority of the time I would pray for half of the 45 minutes and then feel myself drifting into sleep. I wrestled with frustration over how “weak” my prayer life was and would catch myself going into the prayer room every morning feeling overwhelmed by the amount of time we had. ‘How does one even become a prayer warrior?’ I would ask myself and feel discouraged whenever I couldn’t fight the temptations of sleep. However, as I was doing my devos one day, I came across the verse, Philippians 4:6. “Be anxious for nothing, but in everything by prayer and supplication, with thanksgiving, let your requests be known to God.” I’ve read this verse many times, but this time, God used this passage to instill in me a great peace. He revealed that Jesus has been allowing me to pray to Him through my everyday thoughts, like, “Thank you Lord for these beautiful sun rays” as I’m just gazing into His creation, or “Lord, would you allow these children to come to know you” in the middle of a skit, or “Lord, would you send down a gentle breeze” as I would be sitting in the unbearable heat. Through this realization, I learned that although there was much to grow in my prayer life, God wasn’t asking for lengthy, forced prayers, but rather simple conversations that ignited gratefulness towards Him. 

(2) THE LORD IS INTENTIONAL - Each night, I would reflect in my journal and realize moments where God intentionally works to reveal His glory. To give an instance, there was a discouraging morning when I felt nauseous and had barely made it through ministry. I asked to step outside during lunch, hoping that the fresh air would calm me down, when a girl named Sanjana came up to me. At first I was more than uncomfortable to have company, but then she began to share to me the story of her broken life -- how her father had recently passed away and she had become an orphan. Her current life seemed to portray a deep loneliness that came from a lack of a loving figure and it completely broke my heart. God used this moment to give me a heart of compassion and I prayed over her, also promising myself to keep her in my prayers. I believe that the Lord knew the exact timing and place for His love to be outpoured and this grew my faith in Him. Day by day, I was able to be attentive to the blessings stored because of the living grace of God.

(3) GOD’S LOVE IS UNITY - Our team met many pastors, staff, Christians, and heard various testimonies about how God had redeemed them. It was interesting to hear how God can be so personal and unique drawing near to us, but our love and praise towards Him looks the same. As our ministries started to come to an end, we had our last prayer meeting with the St. Paul School staff. We were sitting down in a large circle worshipping, and it hit me that all of us were so perfectly chosen from the beginning to be called into God’s family. What a beautiful privilege it was that regardless of our different backgrounds, we were gathered as one body to praise the one and only God! I knew that God allowed me to make room in my heart to love the people of India as my fellow brothers and sisters.

I am now inspired to carry these lessons to my current setting, called to remember these blessings and continue in God’s Kingdom works. Especially as I am finishing up my last year in college, I want to use this year to outreach to the lost and have a heart posture of loving my neighbors. I think something else that I learned is that in India, I was able to be sensitive to the Holy Spirit’s workings because I was so missional-minded and was far away from the distractions of idleness and comfort. In a country where these are idolized, I want to pursue after the Lord with a burning desire to live for Him, dying to my fleshly self everyday.