Recently two members of our Cornerstone family had the priviledge of serving God in another culture. Sean Owen led a trip of high school students to Thailand and Cambodia. He writes,
Thank you all for your prayers and support! My time in Thailand and Cambodia, leading a team from MEI, was amazing. Our team of 12 high school students and 2 leaders (including myself), spent 10 days in Chonburi Thailand supporting MB Missions missionaries through running church services, running VBS, teaching English, and helping out with the kids at Abundant Life Home (a children’s home in Chonburi where most of our team stayed). After our time there our team traveled for 3 hours to the boarder town of Poipet, Cambodia. Here we taught English, helped at delousing clinics by clean children’s hair, tend to small wounds, and cut and clean nails, we also ran some VBS’. Our 4 days in Cambodia was eye opening for a lot of the team as it is much poorer country. The children of town we were in face the very real reality of ending up working in one of the many casino’s nearby. Prostitution is rampant in that area as it goes hand in hand with the casino culture, and there, it knows no age. As a leader it was awesome to see my team battle through challenges such as language barriers, lack of sleep, major changes in diet, and still strive to show people that they have never met the love of Christ. It was great to watch them rise and run the VBS’, lead worship, teach kids English, and show love unconditionally. Again, thank you for all of your support. When things got difficult, it was nice to know that we had a massive network of people praying for us!
Our Cornerstone Kids coordinator, Manuela Silva, also travelled recently for ministry. Due to her ability in Spanish, Manuela was helpful in co-leading the youth from Hope Community Church in Surrey on their mission trip to Mexico. Manuela shares,
My trip to Mexico was amazing. It was an incredible experience to drive that far with people I had only just met, but it was so encouraging to be able to build relationships with the youth in such a short time. It was incredible to see how God used every one of the youth to connect with the children in Mexicali which allowed them to share God's love with them. And although we were serving, it was amazing to see how much we were able to learn from God. We were reminded throughout the week that sometimes we ask for something, and we get upset when he doesn't give it to us, however, He has better things in store for us. Our theme verse from the trip was Jamea 1:17 which says "Every good and perfect gift is from above, coming down from the Father of the heavenly lights, who does not change like shifting shadows." I also want to express gratitude to the church for letting be a part of this trip.