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Missions trip produces life change in Tibet team

Multnomah students research methods of evangelism for Tibetan culture

The group trudges up the steep ridge to a palace outside of Tsetang, Tibet. A group of local children is following closely behind and beside them. The children know French songs so the team members teach them "Jesus Loves Me" and "Deep and Wide." Then the guide translates a gospel presentation.

Further up the ridge, the group discovers a cross standing in front of some prayer flags. Excitedly the team shows the children the crosses around team members' necks.

A tourist couple mounts the top of the hill and spots the cross near the flags. The woman disgustedly knocks it to the ground. As the children and the team members start back down the hill, one of the little boys runs back. He picks up the cross, rips down the Buddhist prayer flags and places them at the foot of the cross.

Kris, his brother, his uncle, Jenna, Ro, Severin and a missionary nurse named Michelle were the members of that team. This summer they traveled to Tibet to research methods of evangelizing the Tibetan people. The group searched for signs of Christians and Christian activity within Tibet. They gathered and read printed material, talked to the people who were open, visited Tibetan refugees in India and Nepal and returned with a daily log of activities and impressions during the trip. The team also returned with new stories, attitudes and ideas.

A small 7-year-old boy changed Jenna's life, she said. She played with him outside of Drepung monastery. He was thrilled that her watch played music and had Looney Toon characters on it. She said he was just full of life. Jenna learned from the group translator that in five short years the boy would become a Buddhist monk. Then the light in his eyes would be squelched.

"I never wanted to be able to speak another language so badly in my entire life," she said. "I told God if all He ever wanted me to do with my entire life was to live at the bottom of that hill so I could climb it every day and just sit there and talk to that child and children like him, I would. That little boy will always embody my memories of Tibet." Jenna said she never expeted a Tibetan boy would touch her heart.

God also used the trip to teach Jenna about having confidence in Him. She said her life was changed when she saw all the team's needs being met faithfully. "Every time we had to make a major switch [in transportation], God had provided somebody," she said, " There was always somebody who knew more about what was going on than we did there to help."

An example of this is when the team members first arrived in Katmandu. They couldn't locate the woman who was supposed to pick them up. But Kris luckily had a backup plan. They all piled into a taxi and headed for the Everest hotel.

"The driver kept sticking his head out the window or opening the door to make sure his right front tire wasn't coming off. We're passing cows meandering down the middle of the road and fly-covered roadside stands," Jenna said as she described the adventure.

The team members waited four hours before their contact finally arrived. As a result of miscommunication, she had gone to meet every flight arriving from Asia instead of those arriving from Europe.

Ro said her life changed when she realized her need for a more personal relationship with God. "I think what really struck me was the simplicity of their [Tibetan] life. They didn't have a burning desire for cars, TVs, clothes, the things that really matter to us in the Western world. They can't even comprehend our world, and the things that we think are necessity aren't," Ro said.

"Their life is simple. They eat, sleep, live and die. Before I went on this trip, I was kind of caught up in the relativity of our society. I knew that I was supposed to serve God, but I wanted it to be in a way that would serve me. "Being over there made me realize how selfish I was and how serving God should be a priority. God has put in me a desire to serve Him and a heart for the people--those who haven't heard and those who don't know."

Kris said his future goals and his image of himself were changed. "The greatest impact for me was learning leadership skills. To be a boss you have to boss. That's hard for me to do. I learned how to be very frank with people," he said. "I can see myself as being more of a director, mobilizer, advocate for the mission field. I'd be very interested in the administrative-type role of a missionary."

Kris said he is now trying to practice evangelism regularly, "looking for the evangelistic moments, whether it's with a taxi driver, or the person you're walking next to, or sitting by on the bus. Look for those moments. "On a mission, you get enthusiastic with it. It's your aim to reach people, your aim to tell people about Christ. Then you come back and take a vacation in the States. "I think the best thing I could have ever done for Student World Outreach Team was to go overseas this summer. It's helped me come back with an enthusiasm I'd lost. I can see even now that it's starting to die. You get less and less enthusiastic. I'm trying to do my best to keep that enthusiasm."




Ro said the Tibetans, stripped of possessions, live a life that is decades behind that of Americans.