Southwestern students ‘humbled,’ ‘rejuvenated’ by New York City mission trip

Southwestern Baptist Theological Seminary students and their team leader said they returned from a weeklong mission trip to New York City both humbled and rejuvenated. The group spent the seminary’s fall reading days working with the South Asian Community Center (SACC) in the Jackson Heights neighborhood of the borough of Queens.

Team leader Ashley Allen, assistant professor of women’s ministries and assistant to the president at Southwestern, explained that the Jackson Heights neighborhood is known as “Little India,” though many people from different South Asian countries live there. She said the SACC ministers to the community by offering free English as a Second Language (ESL) classes, nutrition and exercise classes, citizenship classes, a Kids’ Club, and more.

“They seek to build relationships with people—men, women, and children—who need to learn English, but they are also sharing the Gospel with them,” Allen said, adding that the Southwestern team, serving alongside staff and volunteers at the center, worked one-on-one with those in the classes and got to know them.

Manon Nchang, a Master of Theology student, said many of the people there spoke Hindi, “and so even if they couldn’t understand or talk in English, we were able to communicate through Hindi and help them know better.” She also participated in a women’s class in which they were told the story of Christ’s birth and encouraged to share the story with family members or friends.

“It is a wonderful experience, and the Lord is working so much in that place and that community and in that mission, and I am so happy to be a part of that mission trip, to be able to help them,” she said.

Allen and the students also conducted prayer walks throughout the city and even prayed in Central Park, asking the Lord to guide them to people with whom they should share the Gospel. That resulted in a Gospel conversation with three different people, she said.

On another occasion, the opportunity to share came from a visit to a henna salon, a business that specializes in using natural henna dye for temporary tattoos and permanent hair coloring services. Keyi Hieme, a Master of Theology student at Southwestern, said she met a woman there who only spoke Hindi.

“And so it gave me the opportunity to be able to share the Gospel in Hindi, and then I realized that she has never heard about Jesus Christ,” Hieme said. “It was very neat how the timing and just the way God led us to that salon gave us the opportunity to share the Gospel to a person who has never heard about it.”

Allen echoed that sentiment, saying, “It was really amazing to see how the Lord orchestrated all of our footsteps, all throughout the planning of the trip, the naming of the team, and then throughout the week where He ordered our footsteps to go.”

She also said it was “humbling for me to watch our team of students as they grew in their gentle boldness in sharing the Gospel with complete strangers.”

“Humbled” was a word many of the students used in describing the trip.

“These experiences are always humbling,” said Joshua Okoye, who is pursuing a Master of Divinity degree with a concentration in evangelism and apologetics. “They make me want to try and implement these things that I’ve learned, especially from [the SACC staff], like the grit that they have, … or the ability to persist in those environments and those types of ministry climates, and to really try and find practical ways to aid people in everyday life, but also … give them the source that is greater than any other practical need that they do have.”

Nchang also said it was a humbling experience “to see the team working tirelessly and the sacrifice in a sacrificial way. They were sacrificing their time, their energy, to teach them, and that is for free, and they did not complain. … They were very professional with their work, and to see them sacrifice so much for the Lord, it is amazing, and it was humbling.

“And so I am reminded to humble myself and serve for the Lord and not be cranky about my issues all the time,” she added with a laugh.

Enxi Zheng, who is pursuing a Master of Arts in church music, said, “This missional ministry impacted me with God’s mercy and love. … God equipped me and proved me His victory. God taught me and allowed the ability to forgive and love people. Also, God taught me to focus on His work and glory. He humbled me. In all I want to say: Christ is proclaimed, and in that I rejoice.”

Hieme said the trip made her experience God’s love all over again.

“So I do think that I am revived from within about the love of God because of this trip, which I’m really grateful for,” she said, adding, “This overall experience of just being in the trip with the other group of people made me feel so much closer to God, and I feel like in my spirit I am rejuvenated to just continue life here again.”