Summer Missions 2024 Overview
Praise God for His incredible provisions and all that He has done through SMG this summer with 16 teams sent to 12 cities in 8 countries. Even just imagining the many stories that are being told of God’s faithfulness on the mission field to our ministry partners via our newsletters brings me joy and a huge sense of gratitude. Truly, God has done something remarkable among us. I pray that this email will give you a moment to recognize and thank God with me. I will give us a brief overview of how our student missionaries reported as they returned to the US.
Total Number of Participants: 207
Student Missionaries: 177
Full-Time Staff: 22
GCTC: 2
Volunteer Staff: 6
As you can see below, with about 85% of student missionaries reporting, we see that there are over 50% of students who are considering to apply to Summer Missions in 2025, 21% of students praying about applying to International Internship, along with 7% of students committing to join full-time / volunteer staff with SMG ! And remarkably, we see overwhelming reports (80% and above) of students committing to being a life-long follower of Christ, attending their local church faithfully, and going wherever the Lord sends them.
More than anything, I believe that these numbers indicate that students’ eyes are being opened to see that through the Holy Spirit, Jesus is fulfilling His promise that we will do even greater things than He did (John 14:12) if we believe in Him. God has done such great work to capture our students’ hearts to live for Him to the fullest (John 10:10) wherever they are sent. Praise God that He has involved you and me in this marvelous work.
“Initially, our team at Kangaku imagined that making conversations with the students would be difficult. However, we found the students were very willing and happy to spend time with us… after multiple appointments, relationships were built, and the hearts of the students were also open to spiritual conversations… In addition to sharing the gospel, we also shared our personal testimonies to show that Christianity is about having a personal relationship with the living God.”
SOCAL
KOBE, JAPAN 2019
“My heart broke to see her heart so closed to the Gospel, and it really struck me that the only way that she could come to know God is through the work of the Holy Spirit. So I resolved to pray, to rely on the Holy Spirit rather than myself, to pray that He would change the hearts of the lost…”
J. JUNG
EAB, NY 2019
“Sayo was the first person that desired to pray with me to receive Christ after four years of evangelizing in college. I was overwhelmed with joy because I saw how much God loved Sayo. God told me to expect great things during this trip, and everyday He has shown me His faithfulness.”
GRACE KIM
JMT NY 2019
“I hope to continue to reach out to people just like Z and not be discriminatory to who I evangelize to. I have seen that most meaningful relationships are one that are centered around God and not surface level interests and agreements with other people. As I heard back to America. I will continue to hold deep spiritual conversations with the people I am evangelizing to…”
J.
EAB, NY 2019
“Being able to witness how God has been working within his heart over the span of a year gives me hope and confidence that God is working - not only in Sotaro but all the other friends I made in Japan. I can see the work God has done through us after sowing the seeds of the gospel into their hearts and seeing Him water those seeds to grow a deep desire to know Him. My hope and prayer are for all the friends that my team and I had made during this summer is that they will eventually come to see how loving God is and receive Jesus in their lives as their Savior.”
DAVID LIN
JMT, NY 2019
“There was fear that they might reject me, but God made a way—B noticed me looking through the Bible and asked if he could try looking up the verses. We ended up studying verse-to-verse for an entire hour! I then mustered up the courage and asked them if they wanted to pray to receive Christ. I distinctly remember B saying, “It would be my honor to,” then I looked towards C, seeing her nod her head. At that moment, I felt that my prayer was answered.”
A. LEE
BD, NY 2019
“My heart broke to see her heart so closed to the Gospel, and it really struck me that the only way that she could come to know God is through the work of the Holy Spirit. So I resolved to pray, to rely on the Holy Spirit rather than myself, to pray that He would change the hearts of the lost…”
J. JUNG
EAB, NY 2019