Short-term service 2009—Report by Dominic
Provisional translation by the webmaster:
The time I was allowed to spend in Madagascar, was absolutely amazing—I had the chance to experience so much more cool things, that I could not even begin to write down all of them, but I want to give a brief overview.
My expectations with regard to Madagascar were not particularly high. I wanted to come over there and quite practically pass on some of the abundance we have here and of the gifts I have received from God (such as health, enough to eat, his grace) by helping to put up the school in Ambohitsara, and we may hereby motivate the local people. It was also important to me that people see our true motivation behind the “humanitarian mission”, namely that Jesus is behind the whole thing. Of course I also wanted to experience just something special. Although it would take too long here to mention everything individually, but what I can tell is that all expectations were entirely fulfilled! For example, Rivo (the construction manager) has assured me that we were all a big motivation for him and the time when we were there, has done him a lot of good.
Additionally, I was allowed to experience and learn so many other things that I will always remember and that will surely shape me for a long time. For example, I have experienced so much with God himself as otherwise not in a much longer time. Whenever it—by whatever manner—has become challenging, God has given me very quickly total trust again using people, the Bible and podcast sermons. Furthermore, I got to know interesting people and their stories, what was very encouraging also for me and my personal faith.
I really have to embolden everyone to make such an outreach if the opportunity arises. One will not regret it because one gets so much more back in gratitude and experiences than one could ever imagine.
Therefore, without exaggeration I can say that it was my absolute best “holiday” of all time, even though we were not lying on the beach or the like, but were actually there to work and to be there for the people and children. Accordingly, I will certainly do something like this once again—maybe in Madagascar, or maybe somewhere else.
Dominic Schikor, 22 years, student of Information Systems
Mission trip from 12 August to 12 September 2009
In our online photo albums you will find more pictures of the short-term mission outreaches in 2009 and 2010.
See also:General information about a short-term service in the Mission Center Port-Bergé, Madagascar
