One Bad Pig
March 10th 2006, 02:36 AM
what organization was your trip organized through?
The trip was organized through Word of Life Youth Reachout (http://www.wol.org/yro).
where did you go?
We went to Austria, Hungary, and Romania in July of 1999.
what was your role?
I was a group counselor.
why did you decide to go on a missions trip?
My dad's church sponsors a yearly missions conference. I had recently re-dedicated my life to Christ, and wanted to explore the possibility that God was calling me to missions.
what were some of the things you did while there?
I sang in a choir, acted in a wordless play, and helped hand out tracts/talk to people about Christ. We also did a little sightseeing when time permitted.
how was the culture and enviroment diffrent to your own?
There was a much bigger emphasis on recycling; at the McDonald's we stopped at on the border of Hungary and Austria, I think about the only thing not recycled was napkins. Everything else (straws, cups, burger containers...) was (presumably) rinsed out and reused. In Romania, there were people begging for food and/or money.
how was it the same?
Since the countries I visited are culturally Western, the culture was fairly similar (just poorer).
how do you feel the people responded to your group?
It really depended on the country. In Austria, evangelical Christians are considered a cult; people would politely accept the tracts, but we'd find them on the ground. In Hungary and Romania, people were more open to responding. In Romania, we had to stop giving tracts to the Gypsy children; they were taking as many as they could and selling them to the bookstore down the street.
what were some highlights?
One of our connecting flights from Prague to Budapest was cancelled, and we were detoured to Bratislava where we caught a bus to Budapest. A woman was saved on the bus, and we hadn't even started yet.
We got to put on our presentation in the Salzburg Cathedral on a moment's notice. We had gotten a permit to do our presentation in the square outside the cathedral, but it was pouring down rain when we got there. It turned out that the Ohio State Glee Club was singing there that afternoon, and they had set that up a year in advance.
On the trip back to the US, the connecting flights from Budapest to Prague were staggered over a 24-hour period, so people on the first flight were unexpectedly able to spend a day in Prague sightseeing. One group was interviewed by a camera crew doing a survey on religion for Czech national TV, and was filmed doing a gospel presentation.
did being on a mission trip meet your expectations?
how was it diffrent to your expectations? both good and bad
I really didn't know what to expect. It stretched me, which is what I wanted.
what was the high point of the trip for you?
Singing in the Salzburg Cathedral. It was an intensely worshipful experience.
what was the low point?
Earlier that day. It was cold and damp, and people were in a generally rotten mood. That evening we did our presentation in a rented hall. Most of us were feeling sick, and our performance was not as good as it could have been. Fittingly, that's the night the most people by far indicated salvation.
tell us a bit about your trip in your own words....
Before the trip started, we gathered at WOL's headquarters in Schroon Lake, NY for about a week of training; the counselors arrived a few days in advance of the main group. There were about 60 of us, split into two teams. Our first ministry area was Graz, Austria. We spent 3 or 4 days there doing mostly open-air presentations, then travelled to Salzburg and spent a couple days there. Our last stop in Austria was Vienna, where we put on our presentation jointly with an accomplished concert pianist. After leaving Austria, we spent the remainder of our time operating out of a castle in Hungary that had been donated to WOL. We spent about a week and a half ministering in various locations around the castle, including a prison and a children's hospital. We also got to spend a day sightseeing in Budapest. The last area of ministry was in Romania, which was a two-day bus drive from the castle. On the way there, we discovered a slalom course setup just outside the university where we were staying overnight, and got to watch some of the locals have fun (the event was sponsored by Ford). Unfortunately, the starter on our bus broke on the way to Romania, so the guys had to push-start the bus to get going in the morning. We were told there probably wouldn't be any bathing facilities in Romania; we were staying overnight in a church (though it turned out there was a bathtub we could use - for 60 people). Our first day in Romania was spent in a marketplace and at an orphanage. The next day we were the main event in a church service. We spent one last night at the castle for an evening of fun and fellowship, then headed back to the US.
What was the thing that you most enjoyed? Liked least?
I think the most enjoyable experience was singing in the Salzburg Cathedral. My least favorite was probably giving my testimony through a translator; I'm not one for public speaking.
What touched you the most?
The way the gypsies in Romania treated their children; some were intentionally mutilated so they'd bring in more money begging, and some were already smokers.
What would you most like to tell us about your experience?
The trip really drove home to me the fact that when we are weak, God is strong.
How effective was your trip (formal groups will often have some kind of evaluation criteria)?
When the woman was saved on the bus to Budapest, we considered the trip a success. The WOL director in Austria was pleasantly surprised by the number of decisions for Christ (about 20, a lot for that country).
Are you looking forward to/planning to go again or on another trip?
I've since gone on two other trips, to the Dominican Republic and Brazil, and I'm willing to do more.
The trip was organized through Word of Life Youth Reachout (http://www.wol.org/yro).
where did you go?
We went to Austria, Hungary, and Romania in July of 1999.
what was your role?
I was a group counselor.
why did you decide to go on a missions trip?
My dad's church sponsors a yearly missions conference. I had recently re-dedicated my life to Christ, and wanted to explore the possibility that God was calling me to missions.
what were some of the things you did while there?
I sang in a choir, acted in a wordless play, and helped hand out tracts/talk to people about Christ. We also did a little sightseeing when time permitted.
how was the culture and enviroment diffrent to your own?
There was a much bigger emphasis on recycling; at the McDonald's we stopped at on the border of Hungary and Austria, I think about the only thing not recycled was napkins. Everything else (straws, cups, burger containers...) was (presumably) rinsed out and reused. In Romania, there were people begging for food and/or money.
how was it the same?
Since the countries I visited are culturally Western, the culture was fairly similar (just poorer).
how do you feel the people responded to your group?
It really depended on the country. In Austria, evangelical Christians are considered a cult; people would politely accept the tracts, but we'd find them on the ground. In Hungary and Romania, people were more open to responding. In Romania, we had to stop giving tracts to the Gypsy children; they were taking as many as they could and selling them to the bookstore down the street.
what were some highlights?
One of our connecting flights from Prague to Budapest was cancelled, and we were detoured to Bratislava where we caught a bus to Budapest. A woman was saved on the bus, and we hadn't even started yet.
We got to put on our presentation in the Salzburg Cathedral on a moment's notice. We had gotten a permit to do our presentation in the square outside the cathedral, but it was pouring down rain when we got there. It turned out that the Ohio State Glee Club was singing there that afternoon, and they had set that up a year in advance.
On the trip back to the US, the connecting flights from Budapest to Prague were staggered over a 24-hour period, so people on the first flight were unexpectedly able to spend a day in Prague sightseeing. One group was interviewed by a camera crew doing a survey on religion for Czech national TV, and was filmed doing a gospel presentation.
did being on a mission trip meet your expectations?
how was it diffrent to your expectations? both good and bad
I really didn't know what to expect. It stretched me, which is what I wanted.
what was the high point of the trip for you?
Singing in the Salzburg Cathedral. It was an intensely worshipful experience.
what was the low point?
Earlier that day. It was cold and damp, and people were in a generally rotten mood. That evening we did our presentation in a rented hall. Most of us were feeling sick, and our performance was not as good as it could have been. Fittingly, that's the night the most people by far indicated salvation.
tell us a bit about your trip in your own words....
Before the trip started, we gathered at WOL's headquarters in Schroon Lake, NY for about a week of training; the counselors arrived a few days in advance of the main group. There were about 60 of us, split into two teams. Our first ministry area was Graz, Austria. We spent 3 or 4 days there doing mostly open-air presentations, then travelled to Salzburg and spent a couple days there. Our last stop in Austria was Vienna, where we put on our presentation jointly with an accomplished concert pianist. After leaving Austria, we spent the remainder of our time operating out of a castle in Hungary that had been donated to WOL. We spent about a week and a half ministering in various locations around the castle, including a prison and a children's hospital. We also got to spend a day sightseeing in Budapest. The last area of ministry was in Romania, which was a two-day bus drive from the castle. On the way there, we discovered a slalom course setup just outside the university where we were staying overnight, and got to watch some of the locals have fun (the event was sponsored by Ford). Unfortunately, the starter on our bus broke on the way to Romania, so the guys had to push-start the bus to get going in the morning. We were told there probably wouldn't be any bathing facilities in Romania; we were staying overnight in a church (though it turned out there was a bathtub we could use - for 60 people). Our first day in Romania was spent in a marketplace and at an orphanage. The next day we were the main event in a church service. We spent one last night at the castle for an evening of fun and fellowship, then headed back to the US.
What was the thing that you most enjoyed? Liked least?
I think the most enjoyable experience was singing in the Salzburg Cathedral. My least favorite was probably giving my testimony through a translator; I'm not one for public speaking.
What touched you the most?
The way the gypsies in Romania treated their children; some were intentionally mutilated so they'd bring in more money begging, and some were already smokers.
What would you most like to tell us about your experience?
The trip really drove home to me the fact that when we are weak, God is strong.
How effective was your trip (formal groups will often have some kind of evaluation criteria)?
When the woman was saved on the bus to Budapest, we considered the trip a success. The WOL director in Austria was pleasantly surprised by the number of decisions for Christ (about 20, a lot for that country).
Are you looking forward to/planning to go again or on another trip?
I've since gone on two other trips, to the Dominican Republic and Brazil, and I'm willing to do more.