By Allison Tran

What’s up friends?! My name is Allison; I’m a youth here at SJCAC and wanted to share about my journey to Gainesville, Georgia this summer.

I started this journey with Adventures in Missions (AIM) thinking that I would be going to Peru this past summer. Because of COVID I was given the alternative option to take a domestic trip to Gainesville, Georgia. Originally, I applied for this secondary trip because I had already fundraised. As the time got closer for me to leave, I was extremely excited to be surrounded by new people who would push me in my walk with the Lord. I was excited to experience missions in this country, be in a new state, and draw closer to God’s heart. When I got there, I sat alone one morning and struggled. I realized that I had signed up for this trip without fully asking if God wanted me there. Read more →

And we’re back! On our last day at the YWAM base, we prepared a restaurant-style lunch for those on the streets. Our preparation included baking cookies, cooking spaghetti and meatballs, prepping a salad bar, passing out flyers, and making blessing cards. We opened the doors for people to come in at 12:30PM. Each of us was assigned different roles which included welcoming and ushering our guests, sitting down to talk with them, being waiters/waitresses, and taking food orders & serving individualized plates for each guest. The YWAM workers explained that it is important for those experiencing homelessness to choose their meals because they are usually never given a choice of what they want to eat at other shelters. By giving them the option to choose (i.e. meatballs on their spaghetti or bell peppers on their salad) allows them to make decisions that they usually do not have the opportunity to make. Read more →

By Allison Tran

The world is a wild place and we never know what could or will happen in the future. About twenty other church members and I had the opportunity to visit victims of the Camp Fire in Chico two weeks after the fire broke out in the neighboring city of Paradise. We served at Neighborhood Church, a local C&MA church, that was serving as a fire relief evacuation center. Most of the time, when natural disasters strike, or when so much is lost, many people question God or turn away from His goodness. They continuously ask why He would do such a thing to them. Some other Youth and I were working to sort out donations and give people resources that they needed. Many people would come in and ask for socks or shampoo, and be appreciative of what we could offer them, but you could tell that a part of them was still missing and that they were hopeless. Read more →

by Hou Lei

Our Mandarin Congregation has been reaching out to San Jose State University (SJSU) students for almost a year now. We mainly provide them with free lunch and by that we are able to get to know them and share the Gospel with them. We learned this way from our Cantonese Congregation who pioneered their Soup Club ministry with fruitful results. This semester, a few other brothers & sisters who had a burden for this ministry also joined us, giving us additional helpful resources.

In the beginning of this semester, other than the students we met in the past, many new students were also drawn to our lunch activity. On of the Wednesday (9/12), our brother Jason Ho shared with the students the Four Spiritual Laws and 3 students decided to follow Jesus. This is indeed the work of God, and all glory be unto Him! Of course, we must have a sense of urgency to disciple them. On the other hand, we had an opportunity to meet with a group of 30 students who came from Taiwan for only a 3-month stay. We hope that we are able to get to know them more and share the Gospel with them. Please continue to pray for this SJSU outreach ministry for both the Cantonese and Mandarin Congregations. Thank you for your support!

By Kevin Tran

When I was in college, I went on a week long missions trip to Mexico. I was an idealistic college student, eager to improve the lives of the people we met there. I was part of a team that worked on a small schoolhouse. Our group spent our week helping a local worker with his tasks: fixing a roof, painting some walls, erecting a fence, and building an outhouse. In the afternoons, we taught the local children Bible lessons.

As the week came to an end, I thought about our time in Mexico. What had we really accomplished? We made small repairs to a ramshackle building that might make it a little more inviting. We played with some kids for a bit. How long would any of what we did there last? Read more →