Westside Work and Witness
by Joy Pring
It’s been said that if you want to do missions, you have got to have two things: a passport and a Bible. This is of course true but a Work and Witness team from the Westside Church of the Nazarene proved that there might just be some other tools you would want to throw in your suitcase.
The team from Indianapolis, Indiana led by Gil Hawk did not only let the love of Jesus Christ speak through their words but also through their hard work and labor. The men rolled up their sleeves and helped in the construction of the APNTS Cobb Worship Center using their very own carpentry tools that they brought all the way from home. Meanwhile, the women, aside from visiting an orphanage near the area, helped in the seminary’s library work, cutting out and preparing materials for the students’ child development classes.
Work and Witness also had the chance to meet with some of the APNTS students coming from different parts of the world and be blessed by their inspiring stories of faith. “One of the most powerful things in this trip for me is that we now have a new awareness of what the students sacrifice just to do what God has called them to do,” says Diana Cossell. “So now, we have names and faces, people whom we actually know and can lift up to the Lord in prayer even when we get home.”
Perhaps, the people whom Work and Witness have touched in their short stay may fail to remember the kind and encouraging words they have shared, maybe even their full names, or even the minutiae of their faces. But one thing is for sure, APNTS will never forget that they have demonstrate solidarity with the community and that they have shared their hearts and lives not just with word or tongue, but in deed and truth.
