From Brother Brandon Tsai (Participant)

When I first came to MVP, truthfully I was a little intimidated. Being one out of the five under-aged participants, not to mention the youngest participant, I felt that I had to meet the expectations for college students or working youths. At the same time, I appreciated the mature atmosphere because I could see that everyone around me came with a heart to serve. I also learned a lot from those who are older than me and involved in a lot of holy work. They encouraged me to strive to further my servitude for God. The only things that I did in Fellowship Games were researching and typing up character descriptions for the game ‘Figs to Figs’, but I enjoyed these seemingly tedious tasks. I was told in Fellowship Games that whenever we have problems or negative thoughts to say “praise and thank God.” But praise and thank God, everything went smoothly and easily on my part. MVP gave me the opportunity to examine myself and the heart that I offer when serving God. As I reflected on my servitude for God with the help of prayer sessions and nighttime sharing, I came up with two conclusions:

Firstly, servitude is a blessing given to us by God. We have been chosen and sanctified to do God’s work and to be a part of His master plan. If we truly have the heart of a servant, we will find joy in everything that we do for God. I hope everyone who attended MVP felt that joy. Secondly, I learned that servitude is a lifestyle. We do not only serve God through the holy work we do in church but we also serve God constantly by setting an example for other believers and by showing Christlike characteristics to those who don’t know Christ. As it says in Romans 12:1, our whole lives are spiritual offerings to God and we need to use our lives to please God. I hope each one of us can be a servant of God every day and give off a fragrant aroma to Him.

May all the glory and praise be unto His holy name. Amen.

From Candace Chang (Participant)

In the name of the Lord Jesus Christ I share about attending the Ministry Volunteer Program (MVP). The first MVP I attended was in 2011 and I was accepted in to the Spanish Ministry project team. At that time, I had only taken two years of Spanish in high school. My Spanish was even more limited than it is at present so I knew that I had little to offer. Nevertheless, I thought that since God had given me the opportunity to be exposed to the language, it could become a tool that I also use for the church. The Spanish Ministry project team introduced me to our missionary work taking place in Dominican Republic (DR). There were always at least two team members who had been to the DR the years that I was in the Spanish Ministry team. Every year, these experienced brothers and sisters presented the church development and street evangelism in the DR and their presentations introduced me to the living conditions, food and remarkable faith of our members in the DR. Seeing photos and hearing the experiences from them gave me a sense of direction as we worked on various projects and activities throughout the years, including the compiling of a glossary of biblical terms, studying the Bible in Spanish, preparing brief explanations of our church doctrines in Spanish, and flyering to the Spanish communities in LA. When I finally went to the DR for street fair evangelism in 2014, recognizing the brethren and the broadened view of our church’s mission gave me a sense of familiarity in an otherwise foreign land.

“But you shall receive power when the Holy Spirit has come upon you; and you shall be witnesses to Me in Jerusalem, and in all Judea and Samaria, and to the end of the earth” (Acts 1:8).

During some past MVPs, participants from all project teams went out together to flyer for an evangelical service that concluded each MVP. These experiences taught me how directly related prayer is to evangelism. There were sessions dedicated to equipping us with helpful words and actions when preaching the gospel. There were also prayers dedicated to the flyering and evangelical service. After a week of praying together, the Holy Spirit seemed to have unified everyone in our mission and in our boldness for Christ. The fellowship, enthusiasm and mindset we shared in evangelism are something I will always fondly remember.

“As each one has received a gift, minister it to one another, as good stewards of the manifold grace of God. If anyone speaks, let him speak as the oracles of God. If anyone ministers, let him do it as with the ability which God supplies, that in all things God may be glorified through Jesus Christ, to whom belong the glory and the dominion forever and ever. Amen. (1 Peter 4:10-11)” 

This was the verse we memorized each morning at this year’s MVP in the Fellowship Games project group. There, I experienced the great pleasure and joy to gather together with brothers and sisters who desire to offer up their abilities to God. Great amount of dedicated attention to details went into the card game that the Fellowship Games group was making. Working with precision takes time, but we steadily made progress in the sewing, drawing, writing and editing. While writing character descriptions for character cards, I had the chance to look into the lives of biblical characters that I was previously unfamiliar with and ponder upon the lessons to be learned from the paths they took. Each day, our team was encouraged to joyfully give glory to God in all circumstances as servants who emit the fragrant aroma of Christ. The completion of the ‘Figs to Figs’ card game is something we eagerly anticipated together.

Attending MVPs has been a meaningful way to spend my summers, and I thank God for allowing me the opportunities to serve and learn at each MVP.

May all the glory and honor be unto His holy name. Amen.