Jung's "Missions Exposure" Trip to Uganda

Hi friends,

As most of you know, I have been serving on staff at a church called Evangel for the past 5 years, located in Youngstown, Ohio. Before we moved here, my wife and I were praying and desiring to be in a church setting where we could engage people from all over the world or become missionaries overseas. Both of us grew up outside of the United States and always felt called to be in some type of international ministry. God has been gracious and faithful in growing our church and our family into a season of being able to teach the Word, invite people into our homes, and meet students from all around the world. As a church, it's also been a blessing to send short-term mission teams almost yearly to different countries pre-covid.

This year we will be sending two teams, one to Uganda and one to the Dominican Republic.

I will be on the Uganda missions trip with five other members from July 29th until August 14th. The purpose of this trip is actually a bit different from what you might see happen in what we call a "normal short-term mission trip". We will be focused more on being exposed to what doing missions looks like in Uganda, specifically to unreached people groups, while taking a perspective course and being taught by local leaders and missionaries. For most of the time, we will be located in the district of Karamoja, traveling with local missionaries to visit people and be trained.

I have often had concerns about how short-term and long-term mission trips are run, especially after going on poorly orchestrated mission trips in the past, but I have confidence that this trip will be different after hearing about how our time will be spent in Uganda. Our team leader has shared with our team that this trip will cause us to think about what it means to be life-long followers of Christ wherever we go and be disciples that make other disciples. I'm also encouraged that our team leader used to be a missionary in Uganda for 3 years- knowing the culture and people. My hope is that our team going on this trip will learn and grow a lot, be humbled, encourage and support those already serving there, and have opportunities to share the gospel and teach God's Word.

My goal is to pay for 25% of the trip cost on my own and raise the rest of it through your financial support and prayer. Our church is also generously helping us individually with some startup funds, and we will be doing fundraisers throughout this summer as well. If I raise more funds than my fundraising goal, I will give the extra funds to the other team members or the local missionaries in Uganda.

Even if you can't give financially, would you please pray for me, the members going on both trips, and for Evangel- that as a church body, we will continue to grow in our desire to see the Gospel and God's kingdom spread?

I greatly appreciate your help and please feel free to reach out to me if you have any questions!

In Christ,

Jung