God Worked in Students at Impact Manila

Trevor Ronning

Eighteen anxious students stood around outside the Dalat front office on the 23 of March. These students were about to embark on an impact trip to Manila, the purpose of which is to learn through service. The group had been preparing to go on Impact for months through weekly 7am meetings and several lunch meetings. They left Dalat at noon to head off to Manila and the unknown. The team wasn’t quite sure what to expect; all they knew was that God would use the trip for his glory.

When the group arrived in Manila at 11pm at night, every student was excited to enter a new culture and leave an impact on people in the area. The team arrived at the guesthouse and crashed in their rooms quickly that night. The next morning, the team went to church next to the guesthouse. After church, the team got together outside of the church building and began playing with the kids in their church clothes. The kids had loads of fun playing basketball with students like Alix Stuart (10) and Tori Lindsey (12), and the kids were quite entertained by Hudson Morgan’s (11) backflips.

By the time the team was done playing with the kids, two hours had slipped by. Over the course of the trip, the students spent a lot of time with kids through serving food to them and devotional nights at the children’s homes. I think the whole team would agree that spending time serving the kids helped us to grow spiritually. This kind of selfless service turned out to be a source of tremendous joy for the team.

Besides spending time with the kids, the team grew spiritually through the morning small group sessions, where a theme for each day guided their conversation. The theme for one particular day—abide—left a lasting impact on our hearts about how joyful we can be when we are in Jesus. The theme of abide included a verse that says when we abide in Christ, our joy will be complete (John 15:11). That day, my small group prayed that our joy would be complete as we went through our day. At the end of the day, God surely answered our prayers—the team was full of unexplainable joy.

Many students shared that night that they came to see how a relationship with God is possible through this verse and theme. Regarding the trip experience, Tori Lindsey said, “It's always eye-opening to go into a country like the Philippines and experience their way of life. I loved every minute of the trip and all the work we had the opportunity to do. I loved experiencing the culture and sharing the love of God with the people. Overall, it was an incredibly fulfilling and joyful trip that I will remember forever.”

In conclusion, the team was able to encounter God in an incredible way in Manila through service and other activities.