EST Students Learn On Their Summer Holidays

We traveled for nine hours to reach the Polish/Ukraine border. Then we spent time in a Ukrainian train traveling more than 1000 kilometers (over 600 miles). After that we got on an airplane to fly several hundred kilometres. At last we arrived at the airport in Baku, Azerbaijan, far away from Poland, on the border between Asia and Europe. We arrived there to learn about another culture and to share our spiritual knowledge about God.

Early in the morning we heard the calling for prayer from a neighboring mosque. After breakfast we met with Azerbaijan students and we talked about our lives, and in the evening we went walking by the seaside and down the old streets. After 8 p.m. you can’t see any woman on the streets. We went to bed at 1 a.m. because we were discussing what we had been talking about with locals and what we had understood about their culture and their God. We also visited sacred places, mosques, oil wells, markets and shops with dried fruits. We often ate a quick ‘donar’ (kebab with meat and spices), which was served on every corner.

Two weeks passed and then we came back home. Was it profitable? Did we use our time fruitfully? Can we answer these questions? You have to test it out – all of these remarkable experiences, deep talks, and spiritual discoveries. We came back as different people, we aroused interest in God, and we encouraged believers to continue their ministries. We were in a place where people don’t know much about Jesus.

Now we have to think about these people we meet in our daily life. We would like to encourage them to go on a mission trip as we did, to be brave enough to learn about different people of different culture and religion. God knows about the people we met.

EST teaches us how to experience ministry in missions. Memories will remain and there are our e-mails from the journey:

“Greetings. I have already cooled down after return, but sometimes I am wondering if it was just a dream. Once again – thanks that I could go with you.”

“I try to share my experience from Azerbaijan with other people…. But in fact nobody can completely understand what we could see there …”

“I would like to thank you for the time we spent together, there, in the East…. For our talks, laughter and common experiences. You are very important to me and I’m happy that I can write about it”
Missions is a great experience, it has eternal spiritual dimension.
Test it out!!!