Testimonies from a Mission trip to Norway

Hi, from the Salvation Army, you're listening to Words of Life.

Welcome back to Words of Life. Last week, we heard from a group of young adults who had just returned from a missions trip with the Salvation Army. These missions trips are called SSC or Salvationist Service Corps.

This week, we're going to hear from the second group who got back from Norway. And once again, to help us set up these testimonies, here's Kara Rodriguez, the Territorial Young Adult and Mission Coordinator for the Salvation Army. As women, we're pulled in every direction, and we often put pressure on ourselves to do all and be all. We may feel overwhelmed or isolated and wonder, is it just me?

Do other women feel this way too? God Hears Her from Our Daily Bread Ministries is a community of women who through honest conversations, personal stories, and biblically-based resources encounter God's grace and flourish together as a sisterhood in Christ. Visit GodHearsHer.org to experience podcasts, blogs, devotionals, and more that encourage us to lean on Jesus, the one who turns life's messiness into meaning.

Again, that's GodHearsHer.org. So for the Norway team, you had Deb and Keolani as the leaders. And last year, they were both on teams for SSC. Deb went to Japan. I'm not really sure where Keolani went. And they came back as leaders this year. So they've done it before, and they had a little bit of wisdom to go forward and do it again. But you also had Jaden on Norway, who had never been and just wanted something different from camp and took this huge leap.

And Markel, who came in to do SSC, went to Norway. And she came back and is now at the Evangeline Booth College to go to training to be a Salvation Army officer. And she said this, just spoke into her to say, yeah, you're going where you need to go. You're going to do this mission for Christ. SSC is doing what the Southern Territories mission statement is, which is to love and to serve and to disciple all together, maybe in different locations.

But that's what they're doing for the world, for the Lord. I'm going to be honest with you. The fight was... Hi, we are Salvationist Service Corps, a group of young adults who just came back from a missions trip. We went to the Norway, Iceland and Faroes Islands territory. We spent five weeks in Norway, and our last week we spent in Iceland. Before when I just found out I was going to Norway, I was like, it's going to be super cold.

And then we landed and we got there. Number one, it was hot. We had all the giant skis and pants. I had on ski pants, a sweater and a jacket thinking it's going to be freezing cold. I had to take all of it off. I was burning up. I was sweating to death. And then when we got to where we were going, it was just like all different types of cultures. But yeah, it was complete opposite of what we thought it would be. Yeah, it was very comforting because it felt like we were like...

It didn't feel like we were in America, but it was like a little tiny part of home. So I joined SSC because I wanted to step outside of my comfort zone. I'm like a big creature of habit. I do things the same way every day. My job revolves around schedule. I'm a teacher.

So if we don't have a schedule in place, it gets very chaotic, very fast. So I thought, well, why not do this in a place where I can step outside my comfort zone, but still be doing something that I know, doing ministry, being with the Salvation Army. So I did that. And how I prepared for it, I just prayed a whole bunch to make sure I was doing the right thing. I asked a lot of people who had done SSC before. My mom went to SSC when she was my age and she talks about it still to this day.

She has so many stories from going to Jamaica. And so I thought, well, why not? And I did. And when I got the message that I've been accepted, I was so excited. I probably wasn't supposed to tell people, but I went automatically and I was like, oh my gosh, you're never gonna believe what happened. They're like, oh my goodness, I knew you were gonna get in. Cause the entire time I was thinking, there's gotta be somebody out there who is probably better than me. So I felt when I did get here, I felt very inadequate, but over the summer, God really worked through me and showed me that I was here for a reason.

So I'm really glad I did it. So I applied last year and I got in and I went on the team to Japan and last year when I applied, it was just because everybody was just like, apply. And I was just like, I don't know if I really want to do this.

I never thought mission work would be for me or if I did mission work, I would do it for an organization cause I would want to do it my way. But then last year it just was very much a, it was not what I expected at all. And it was so awe-inspiring to just see the people that were around just helping a community that never seen this before. And so when I applied again for this year, I was just like, it doesn't hurt to apply again.

You never know what happened. And I got the chance to be a leader and I was just like, oh, it's like a step up. And I'm like, it just means that people really took what I did last year into consideration and was, you know, thought that I was worthy of being in this spot and that God knew that this is something that you're actually really good at and that I think you are meant to be a part of. Our first three weeks we did a lot of what they call summer fest. So that would usually be with like either the kids of the core or like more of a community thing that they would do like this outdoor festival to kind of kick off the summer and say school is over. And we would also do a lot of cafe visits.

So we would just go to the core and spend time at the cafe, talk to the people. Sometimes we as like the praise team would sing a few songs and it was just a lot of kind of fellowship with others. And the last three weeks were like camps. So we did a youth festival, which is kind of like youth councils, I would say, where we led some of the electives there.

Some of us led the sports elective and the other half led the drama elective. And then we did this like a family camp in Alta, Norway, which is above the Arctic Circle. So we experienced the midnight sun and it was a little colder there. And so we spent a lot of time there with just the families who are part of like the social services programs there. And so this was like their vacation time. So we got to play games with the kids and interact with the parents. And we took them on trips to a museum, swimming, ropes course.

Yeah, a lot of different things. And then our last week we spent in Iceland and we did a day camp with about like I would say elementary age kids. And so we just spent every day with them.

We took them to the zoo and we played games with them, sang songs, did little dances, just spend a lot of time with the kids there as well. A lot of times we took time when we got off of like doing a summer fest or we got back, we would like, we had bought board games to like, you know, just have like some fun time. And I think that would probably be like a really like a highlight for a lot of us because we got to know each other. Another thing that I felt that we did that really brought us together was we'd all talked about The Chosen a lot and we watched the first two seasons as a team and we'd stay up late watching those and we'd just binge it all. And then after we started staying at big houses where we could all be in the same like living space, then we started watching it on our own. And I think that really brought us together because we could watch an episode and then come together and be like, Oh my gosh, did you see what Peter did? Even though we already know what he did, but it kind of brought us together because we were able to sit down and actually talk about it. We'd pause it.

We'd all freak out together about what was happening, even though we already know we have the Bible, but I wonder what's going to happen to Peter. As women, we're pulled in every direction and we often put pressure on ourselves to do all and be all. We may feel overwhelmed or isolated and wonder, is it just me?

Do other women feel this way too? God Hears Her from Our Daily Bread Ministries is a community of women who through honest conversations, personal stories, and biblically based resources encounter God's grace and flourish together as a sisterhood in Christ. Visit GodHearsHer.org to experience podcasts, blogs, devotionals, and more that encourage us to lean on Jesus, the one who turns life's messiness into meaning. Again, that's GodHearsHer.org. Yeah, they're a post-Christian society, so they don't believe God can help them or save them. They think, Oh, I will save myself.

So let the group fail, but if the group wins, that means they win. Something that I thought was interesting, even though they are very post-Christian, they are very big on community. I think I noticed that a lot, just like with the people and those who weren't Christian, they were still like accepting of everyone. No matter if they were from Russia, Ukraine, or they were from a whole different Africa, just different places, they still were like, Okay, well, even if we don't believe in the same person, I'm still going to help you out or you need help. I'm still going to be there. We can still be friends.

They didn't let their differences set them apart. I'm by nature a very shy person. So I was a little nervous going on this trip because I didn't want that to stop the ministry that God wanted me to do there. Throughout the trip, I could just see myself growing more and more confident in who I am through God. And then just taking initiative when it came to seeing a need and then feeling it and not waiting for someone else to come by and do it. And then spiritually, just being obedient to every opportunity that God presents me with. And just being present because we're not going to be able to ever have that same moment again.

Being scared of like going up and talking to someone like that could be literally mean like life and death for that person. So always being open and obedient to that. Just listening to people's stories like I grew in that and just you don't always have to give advice.

You can just be there to listen. One of my favorite memories was also in drama at the youth festival. I also helped teach the drama elective. And I was I was with these kids all week.

The last day I was saying bye to some of my girls that I taught. And one of the girls said to me, thank you for being the best drama teacher ever. And I was just like, that touched me. And I wanted to cry in that moment. And I was like, well, thank you for being such a great student.

Like, thank you just for being there for being open to things. And I really saw every single one of those kids open up so much that week. It was when we were in Oslo, we were at the cafe and it's for refugees to like learn Norwegian.

And we also performed praise and worship there. But when we were finished, this lady called me over. She was a retired officer. And as soon as I sat down, she just started telling me about her life, which was really special. But she was telling me that she was diagnosed with bone cancer. She was just like so joyful while she was telling me her story, which I couldn't really understand at first. Because when you know, most people when they get that news they're just like, well, like thinking the worst and just kind of turn their their backs on God. But while she was just telling me all this stuff that she was going through, she was she said that God told me I'm not going to die from this illness. And just her faith in him was like so beautiful to see. And that just strengthened my faith in a way that like, if she can be this joyful and like faithful to God, still when this is going on, like, why can't I with like the small things that just happen in everyday life.

There's nothing like this experience that you can ever do. And it's going to be something that's where you grow from it, and you bring it back to where you're from. And it's going to affect your community definitely. So I just felt like, if you know that you want to be a leader, or that you want to, like you want to grow in your faith, do SSC. It's just an amazing experience to be out of your comfort zone, go somewhere new, be with people that you may or may not know, that by the end of the summer, you'll be able to say that's that's my family. And so I just think it's a wonderful experience that if you feel called to do it, and you have the opportunity that you should do it. The Salvation Army's mission, doing the most good means helping people with material and spiritual needs. You become a part of this mission every time you give to the Salvation Army. Visit salvationarmyusa.org to offer your support. You can subscribe to Words of Life on your favorite podcast store or visit salvationarmysoundcast.org. Join us next time for the Salvation Army's Words of Life. Thanks so much for listening to Words of Life. We want to thank the team at Life Audio for their partnership with us on the show. Visit lifeaudio.com where you'll find dozens of other faith centered podcasts in their network. They have shows about prayer, Bible studying, parenting, and more. Thanks again for listening. We'll see you next time. The Historical Jesus Podcast is the sweeping saga of the life and times of Galilean Jesus of Nazareth, as well as the faith, religion, and church founded to honor and disseminate his acts and teachings. Join me, Mark Vinette, on this fascinating journey through time exploring the many great works of Christian theology, literature, architecture, music, and art inspired by the words and deeds of Jesus Christ.