Katie Burkholder (center), part of the five-member Chile YES team, interacts with neighborhood children during a community-wide Bible school led by the YES team. Photo supplied by YES team.

SALUNGA, Pa. – Midway through two weeks of re-entry, five teams of passionate young adults – just back from serving on Youth Evangelism Service (YES) teams in Albania, Cambodia, Chile, and Thailand, and on a Brethren in Christ STEP team in Honduras, filled the Eastern Mennonite Missions meetinghouse for sharing on April 28. They also shared how they saw God transforming lives around the world in an EMM chapel, May 2.

The teams used personal stories, skits, and PowerPoint presentations to share their experiences with friends and family members. One pastoral couple, Gary and Anna Miller, had come all the way from Goshen, Indiana, to cheer on three young adults from their congregation, Maple City Chapel.

“I feel like Moses when he came down off the mountain,” said Austin Beachy, Goshen, Indiana, from the Chile team. “I want people to notice that my face is shining – that I’ve grown!”

All the teams had worked alongside emerging Mennonite or Brethren in Christ congregations overseas. Most had lived with host families.

The Albania and Thailand teams taught English. The Cambodia team worked at renovation projects and in a dormitory for college students. The Honduras team tutored street kids and helped build a school on the edge of a city dump. The Chile team worked with children on the islands around Puerto Montt and built a bathroom.

The initial interactions and language barriers with host families were difficult and stilted. “But God taught me how to creatively love people – without English!” said Becky Blimline from the Albania team. Justin Zacharias (Thailand team leader), said,” It was an incredible privilege for me to witness what God was doing in the lives of the community we were working in.”

There were other highlights – like when the Thailand team witnessed the baptism of several of their friends and also of the man who had driven the truck that killed EMM missionary John Hertzler last summer, and when funds came through to complete a school for children at the city dump in Tegucigalpa, Honduras.

When Lindsey Martin moved in with her Albanian host family, the father was an avowed atheist even though his wife and daughter attended the Mennonite church. But by the time she left, he believed in God.

The Chile team was excited to watch as their host father lead an Argentinean family to faith in Christ – and to pray with seven girls who said they wanted to follow Jesus.

Most participants echoed the words of Justin Eberly (Cambodia team), “It was very stretching to do things I’ve never done before!”

“It didn’t seem like we did very much,” said Andy Hoover (Albania team). “But we drank coffee with friends three times a day. It was all about building relationships – inside our English classes and out.”

“We’re the ones that got blessed,” said Becky Blimline (Albania team). “We did a lot of planting, but it’s God who grows the seed.”

Doreen Ebersole, training director for short-term teams, closed the evening by stating, “I want to thank you for serving well. I know you don’t get a lot of thanks for hours of prayer, or thanks for some of the behind-the-scenes work that you do, but I believe God was glorified. I know there were moments when you thought, ‘This is hard. I want to give up.’ But you persevered, and we’re proud of you. Tonight was a glimpse of the deep impact made on your lives. I’m looking at completely different individuals today than I did several months ago. I praise God for the work that is going on within you!”

Most teams kept fun weblogs or “blogs” with photos and journal entries of their experiences. You can access those at emm.org/short-term/stories.

-Jewel Showalter

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