ACF sends at least three Mission Trip teams every year.  We have had the honor to serve alongside hundreds of mighty men and woman of God!  Our Mission Trip volunteers are passionate people with hearts that strongly desire to serve God wherever they’re called.  Katherine Faul is one of these people.  She went on our July trip this year, and she has a powerful testimony about how God spoke to her while she was serving with us.  I hope her testimony ministers to your heart as it did mine. 

“The message that God spoke to me most clearly during our week in Romania was that of our role in His Body. John Frank led a devotional one morning with our team about our roles in the church body, and our individual roles within the body of our mission trip, which sparked my focus on this concept for the week. This message via Paul’s letter to the Corinthians has always been a very tangible idea for me, and one that clearly demonstrates an abstract concept – that Christians are to work together to further the gospel. Humans are so self-centered, and ‘The American Dream’ is often built on self-reliance, self-growth, and individual success which can often make it hard for us to look outside of ourselves. Our week in Romania was a shining example of the good that can come from selflessly pursuing the gospel as a group. I often needed help and ideas for my VBS small group, and there wasn’t a moment of hesitation from anyone to help me succeed-because that meant the group was succeeding and therefore we were a whole healthy body presenting Jesus to all these little ones. The Word says that when one member of the body suffers, the whole body suffers with them. What I didn’t realize at the time was that this thought extended beyond our team. Many of us were in need of supplies, support and encouragement throughout the week. But more than that, the kids we were reaching were hurting on a much deeper level. And they are a part of the larger body of Christ and when they suffer we all-you included-should suffer with them and help provide healing. We do this not out of selfishness or wanting to feel noble, but because we know if we aid the hurting part of the body, we are ultimately helping the whole. Our team on this trip was an example on a small scale of what Christians world-wide should strive for within our global body of Christ. Not saying our group was perfect by any means, but I believe the selflessness and generosity shown to each person for the sake of strengthening our team and strengthening our effectiveness to communicate the love of God to these Roma children, was what Paul had in mind for the church in his message of Christ’s Body. Galatians 6:9 tells us ‘Do not grow weary in doing good, for at the right time the harvest will be reaped if we do not give up.’ Thank you for being a part of our team through your prayers and support! I want to finish my thoughts with a challenge to each of you to find a hurting member of The Body this week and provide healing to them through Jesus, knowing that God commands us to work together for His good and perfect purpose on this planet, which most definitely includes us right here in Lafayette. Amin.”