A Leaders Perspective: The Philippines

Hello everyone,

I am Jason Gamber. This was my 2nd year working with the Philippines track and let me tell you this time was a completely different experience than my first year. This year was my first time co-leading the Philippines track as the year prior I was an intern. I was nervous to go back but at the same time I was excited to see all of my friends there that I connected with in the previous year. This was also my first time getting to return to a country I had already been once before and seeing the progress.

I wanted to see all my Filipino friends and eat all the amazing food that the Philippines has to offer. The funny thing is, I was even more excited to see the missionaries that I met the previous year. I love them and loved working with them. I honestly look up to every one of them. I value their time and I value our friendship. I will always remember the time they spent with our Pack Your Bags team.

As a leader you get to see so much. You see your students faces light up when they do something for the first time like sharing their testimony. You see them crash when they haven't had sleep in over 30 hours due to jet-lag. Our team experienced new highs and new lows everyday on our trip in the Philippines. As a leader it is your job to create a good atmosphere. Your team needs to be ready for anything when on a Missions trip. You try to expect the unexpected and always have a backup plan in mind. 

This brings me back to our first day in the Philippines. Well, it wasn't exactly our first day in the Philippines but it was our first Sunday there and we just finished a week of training with a missionary. During our training we were told that we would need to prepare a short skit or human video for the Sunday service and a few testimonies along with it. The students came up with a human video and a couple of them had a short testimony that coincided with the video. That Sunday service was a huge task for our team. Why, you may ask— because we were at Baguio City Church for 2 services. I honestly didn't know how the students would react to such a long day. Needless to say they absolutely killed it. The human video that our team performed that Sunday gave me goosebumps. The testimonies were well thought out and the students spoke from their heart. I, of course, gave a short testimony (and I usually talk longer than I am supposed to!).

There was something about that Sunday service that I just couldn’t shake. The worship was phenomenal and the preacher did such an awesome job. The students worked so well together. 

I say all of this because in the end, this trip was life changing. Not only for my students— but for me as well. No matter what happened during our trip God was always watching over us. I could go on for hours talking about how God had His hand of protection over us. We were faithful and obedient and he showed us that He cares. I am sure the students could tell you many stories about our Philippines trip. They would tell you how we heard stories of how God intervened— how God saved a child from an unhealthy home and placed her exactly where she needed to be.

What's in it for me? I don't do this job for money. I do this because God has placed a burden on my heart. I get so much joy from working with the students. I love watching them allow God to use them in different ways. God has big plans for them. I just get to be a small part of it.