Reflections on TEA

New Zealand | OM International

Seven young women, living together and travelling around New Zealand for ten weeks in a van or on foot. Not your typical short-term mission trip, but then, this is TEA!

The TEA (Training, Evangelism, Adventure) programme is offered 3-4 times a year by OM in New Zealand, and it exists to grow young people from around the world in discipleship and confidence in sharing Christ’s Good News while travelling in a team around the country and reaching out to other international travellers.

TEAm members from the January to March ’08 TEA were asked to reflect on what God had been doing during their time in New Zealand:  

Hitchhiker’s guide to evangelism

Leanne from the USA wanted to challenge herself to talk more about Jesus Christ in conversations while on TEA. Along with the other TEAm members, she enjoyed meeting new people and trying to share Jesus naturally with them. One way to meet new people was to pick up hitchhikers.

Leanne writes: "It has been our privileged joy to have the company of several hitchhikers from Israel, Germany, and the Czech Republic join us in our road-tripping… Unknown to them, our greatest hope was to share more than a friendly car ride from ‘point-A to point-B.’… We’re aware that the next twenty, thirty, or so minutes with these individuals just might be their only chance to hear the gospel. After some ‘weather talk’, we appreciated hearing their genuine responses to questions such as, "What’s your story and who is God to you?” and “Have you ever read the Bible?"

Each hitchhiker has been highly responsive and curious about the faith that so unifies our otherwise very international diverse team of girls. The Czech couple accepted the Backpackers Bible and will get one in their own language back home.”

Normal and Christian!

Meeting other travellers in mountain huts and sharing her faith with them was valuable for Nadia from the Netherlands, and she especially enjoyed breaking stereotypes that people often seem to have about Christianity. “I think I like it when people are sceptical and show them I am ‘normal’ but also not – I’m a Christian! I really was surprised about how easy it was to talk to people in the huts!”

Evangelism seemed to take on a greater importance for Nadia. “I really am excited about evangelism, more even than I thought I would be, since it was not the number one reason I applied.”

A new tool-belt

“Does it glorify God?” Laure from Belgium asks this question regularly now when faced with decisions in her daily life. A young believer from a country with few Christians, one reason Laure had for joining TEA was to get to know God better.  

She says that TEA “has shaken me and my small picture of God… I learned so much about God and who He really is, (not the one that I made up!) I now have a better understanding of what a disciple of Christ is and what God wants him to do.”  

Laure is now excited to go home and live out her faith among her family and friends who don’t know Jesus. “I received a tool-belt to be an effective worker for God’s glory. I’m ready for it!”  

Big Picture

When asked what the biggest thing she learned on TEA was, Tanja from Germany wrote, “To see the ‘bigger picture’; that God has a plan for this world and I am a part of it… TEA helped me to set my focus on God and not on my own life… My perspective has changed from focussing on myself to wanting to do everything for God… He is the priority in my life and gives me the perspective where to go.”

This is our prayer for all the people who have completed the TEA programme, and we praise God for what He has done in their lives and through them to reach many others from around the world in only ten weeks.

Credit: OM International
© 2008 OM International