A Year to Remember!Debbie Meroff OM Chile’s Intensive Training Team“I decided to quit my job, take a year off, and see what God would do with it,” explained Malaysian-born accountant Jason Hoh. He had always had an interest in missions and once, in fact, spent four weeks with OM in Kazakstan. It was a great experience, and now, after working three years for British Telecom in London, he was ready for another one.
Going on the OM website to look at short term opportunities, he saw that Chile offered a 9-month Global Action program. He had taken some Spanish classes but knew nothing about South America. So he went for it!
In Santiago Jason met up with nine other Intensive Team members from Finland, Norway, Germany, England, the Netherlands and USA. Adjusting to the food and getting around on the city’s modern metro system proved easy. And in his own words, “living with so many nationalities, seeing people pray in different languages to the same God, was really exciting.”
The first six months provided everyone with good basic training in Spanish and useful evangelism tools. The team worked alongside churches and other OM team members reaching out to some of the city’s youth and homeless residents. Later they travelled to Brazil to help with OM’s annual “Teen Street,” attended by almost 1,000 teens.
One of the highlights for Jason and his teammates was travelling in the beautiful south of the country, trying out extreme sports like rafting, climbing and mountain biking, and visiting the indigenous Mapuche Indians. “We spent time with various families, sharing the gospel in some way. A lot of them had never seen foreigners and here we were, people from all over the world, and that gave them an interest. It was amazing to see a whole family proclaiming their faith in Christ after we shared.—I didn’t think things like that still happened!”
By the end of the program, 30-year-old Jason was able to observe, “It’s become a lot clearer as to where he can use me for his purposes. There was a lot of parental pressure for me to go into finance, though as a kid I never wanted to. But now I’ve come to terms with God using all kinds of people. In the future I’d really like to use my profession to serve him.”
Teammate Annette Kossen, a social worker from Germany, said that her goals had also been met: “I prayed before I came to Chile that God would change me, and he took me seriously! He showed me things I had to deal with in my heart.” And 20-year-old American Jonathan Yackley stated, “I’ve grown so much in my time here. The leaders have a lot of faith in you and put you in charge from the start.—You have opportunities you’d never have at home. I’ve also learned more about myself and my faith in God—that God can really use me. I’ve stretched myself in ways never done before. It’s so cool to have to depend on God!”
Jason and the others say they would definitely encourage others to try the Global Action experience. “It’s an exposure to the bigger world of missions. I think if I hadn’t come I wouldn’t see the importance of missions as I do now. It’s also an amazing tool to find out more about yourself, and to learn to love yourself for who you are. I’ve done a lot of things I’ve never done before—but when you’re thrown in you discover you can do them!”
This year OM Chile is offering another option to Intensive Training team members—an added three-months in Ecuador! Participants will have the opportunity to explore a very different part of South America while sharing their faith with unreached peoples. For more details about this program contact:
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