Testimony by Daniella Baroni

This year's mission trip experience was quite different from the past two years in a lot of ways. I learned a lot about having the right intentions on missions, God's love for all nations and people, the importance of praising God amongst other gods, what it means to be a leader, my weaknesses and how to depend on God for strength, how easy it is to fall and lose focus, and living an abnormal life.

During intensives, PMoon read to us three quotes by John Piper that he reads every year:

“Missions is not the ultimate goal of the church. Worship is. Missions exists because worship doesn’t. Worship is ultimate, not missions, because God is ultimate, not man. When this age is over, and the countless millions of the redeemed fall on their faces before he throne of God, missions will be no more. It is a temporary necessity. But worship abides forever.”

“Worship, therefore, is the fuel and goals in missions. It’s the goal of missions because in missions we simply aim to bring the nations into a white-hot enjoyment of God’s glory. The goal of missions is the gladness of the peoples in the greatness of God. But worship is also the fuel of missions. Passion for God in worship precedes the offer of God in preaching. You can’t commend what you don’t cherish.”

“Carey and thousands like him have been moved by the vision of a great and triumphant God. That vision must come first. Savoring it in worship precedes spreading it in missions. All of history is moving toward one great goal, the white-hot worship of God and His Son among all the peoples of the earth. Missions is not that goal. It is the means. And for that reason it is the second greatest human activity in the world.”

I remember hearing these words last year, but it wasn’t until this year that I actually understood what it meant (I’m a little slow). Age, language, and ethnicity make no difference to God; He loves them all. So, we went not merely to tell them the truth, but more to show them this great God that loves them, so that they might join with all God’s people in “white-hot worship” of Him. When I went with this motivation, the trip was so much more fulfilling and exciting.

One morning for qt, we read Psalm 138. Verse 1 particularly spoke to me, which reads, “I will praise You with my whole heart; Before the gods I will sing praises to You.” I realized that morning in Mongolia, the goal of everything we did, whether it be body worship, skits, teaching, etc, was to worship God. This was an opportunity for us not to perform or to put on a show, but rather to display our deep love for our God and King. They see us praising God with such joy in our hearts, and they might even wonder why they don’t have that kind of joy or love for their gods. They do not worship their gods out of grateful hearts, but more so out of fear or duty. So, that day I made it my goal to praise Him “with my whole heart”; to sing praises to Him “before the gods”.

This year, being my third time, I was very excited about being a leader, but I wasn’t sure I had what it takes. I soon learned that my preconceived notions about leadership were all wrong. Leadership is not about being in charge of people and bossing them around. Leadership is more accurately a commitment to sacrifice. If you sign up to be a leader, ultimately you sign up to be a servant. My dad told me that true leadership is about giving; giving of yourself to make the people you lead better. Your focus is not about you anymore, it’s about (God first) and the people you lead. Leadership is not easy; it is hard work!!!! It takes integrity, leading by example, and lots and lots of sacrifice. You may even deal with people who don’t like the way you lead, but you have to move on and keep doing what God wants you to do. I definitely grew a deeper appreciation for the other leaders on this trip, past trips, and of course for PMoon.

I always knew in my mind that satan tries to attack us when we are doing God's work, but this year I truly felt it physically. For the first time in all three years of going on missions, I got sick. I woke up one morning at a Mongolian girl's house (Soko), who had the night before made me and Reuel dinner. Reuel and I woke up early for qt together, and I had the worst feeling in my stomach. I thought it might be diarrhea but it wasn't. After about an hour, I still felt horrible, and I wasn't sure what to do. The last thing I wanted was for Soko to feel bad for me and feel like she had to take care of me. PMoon's words went through my head, "It's all mental." So I sucked it up, washed my face, brushed my teeth and told myself I'd be fine. We walked to the school where everyone was meeting and I felt a little sick but it was manageable. I got to the dorm room where all the girls teachers were staying and I still felt sick so I decided to try going to the bathroom. Once I got there, I threw up right away. I was so shocked; I'd never thrown up on missions before, and in the past two years, I've eaten a lot of sketchy food. Then I had diarrhea and then I threw up again. I tried to avoid attention as much as possible but some girls heard me when I was in the bathroom. So, as usual when this happens to someone, I was encouraged to get some rest for a bit. I rested for about 2 minutes on my bed and thought to myself, "I can not let satan hold me back like this." I got up, tried to throw up again. It didn't work, so I just went back upstairs where everyone was learning a new dance. I still felt like I was going to throw up, but I kept telling myself that I wasn't going to let satan take me out of the game and prayed for and trusted God to give me strength. It was time to go worship with our students, so we all left and I had a choice and even temptation to just sit in the back and watch other teachers do all the body worship and talking with our students. But I refused to be taken out. I went and sat with one of my students, Soko, and put a smile on my face as much as I could. It was seriously so hard to not just sit there and look pitiful. I'm sure I still looked terrible, but I was trying so hard not to, because I knew if I allowed myself to look in pain as I felt in pain, attention would be drawn to me, which would cause my focus and possibly others' focus to be turned away from God's ministry and towards me. I pressed on. We had a body worship to do, so I forced myself up there focusing on the joy I have in Christ, rather than my own pain and truly worshipped God through dancing. After it was over, I sat down for a brief moment and then jolted up to go throw up again. Then I came back, sat down for a moment and got right back up to worship God again with my brothers and sisters through dance. Jumping around and forcing myself to shout out the words left me feeling sick again, and it was time to start teaching. So I told one of the teachers that I needed to be by the bathroom just in case something happens, but there was no room open near the bathroom, so I said to God, "Okay, God. Please give me strength and help me to not hinder your ministry." Again I was tempted to just sit back and let the other teachers teach, since there were four of us, but again I refused to be taken out. As we were sitting there, I felt terrible. I sat there for a few minutes and then I realized I had not given my testimony yet. So I spoke out, “Hey, let’s give our testimonies.” I went first and I began to speak and push my pain and the thoughts of the pain back. I speak no lie. As soon as I started to tell my testimony, the pain became unnoticeable. I began to focus on how great God had been to me in my life. In fact, only when I was done telling my testimony did I even realize, "hey, the pain is gone!! I don't feel like I have to throw up anymore." It was a miracle. This kind of thing happened to me more and more on the trip, but it was God’s strength that continued to sustain me and make me useful for His kingdom.

That story reminds me of the story PMoon often tells of when he tore his Achilles tendon and everyone told him not to go on missions. He went anyway, and when got off the plane, he didn’t have any pain…which brings me to my next point. One day I had a question about living in the Spirit versus living in the flesh. I asked PMoon and we were talking about it for a while and then he told me something that really hit me, and I hope I never forget it. He told me that sometimes when we give into the flesh, we can explain it away in our minds as being normal…because normal people do that kind of thing all the time. But, as Christians, we are not called to live normal lives; in fact, we can not live normal lives if we truly want to experience God. It’s so true!!! For example, it’s normal to be tired and not want to get up early to pray. And if I can’t get up, I often tell myself, “Well, it’s okay. It’s normal to be tired, and my body must have needed the rest,” and I go on with my day. Yet, had I gotten up to seek God, I could have experienced God in a mighty way. I’m not saying it’s a sin or a bad thing to give your body rest. But we as Christians should strive to be extreme, not normal. I don’t know if I explained it well enough, but in a nutshell, I was convicted and encouraged to rid myself of the normal life. In fact, I think in a way, going on missions will do that to you.

I’ve really only said the good things I learned on the trip. I did fail a lot, and lost focus many times, especially in Korea. When I was tired or hungry, I complained (maybe not outwardly, but inwardly). I didn’t always have my personal qt, because I often gave into sleep instead. However, in the end, I am extremely grateful to have been given the opportunity to go on the trip.

Thank you so much, NCKPC for your willingness to send us out and endlessly pray for us as we went. God truly did amazing things in my heart, on our team, and in the lives of the people we visited. Many people’s lives were changed forever as they had the opportunity to meet our great God. In fact, one more story…one night in Mongolia, we had an praise night, where the students could invite their friends and we worshipped God together. My student, Undka, brought a friend and introduced me to her. I didn’t talk to her that much, but after the event was over and she saw us do body worships and skits, she came up to me and told me that she wanted to know God as we did, but she didn’t know how. She then asked me if I could help her. I was shocked, excited, and speechless all at once. I sat her down and we talked for a bit, and I told her about how Jesus died for her sins and He wants a relationship with her. She seemed like she knew everything already and she was ready to follow Jesus. So prayed with her and we welcomed her to the family.