Youth from InterCP worshipping at the Mount of Olives in Jerusalem.
United Breakthrough Ministries (UBM), a relatively young church that will be celebrating its fourth anniversary next March, recently sent a young mission team to the Middle East through a mission organization called InterCP this past summer, amid the widely known Israel-Hamas conflict in the Gaza Strip.
The mission team of 12, which visited Palestine, Jordan, and Israel, consisted entirely of youth members from the ages of 10 to 17, and was led by one 24-year-old staff, Andrew Yang, who also serves as their youth pastor at UBM. They arrived in Jordan exactly one day after the Israel-Hamas conflict started, and when they visited Israel, they found that the hearts of the people there were very hardened. The mission team could not find anything even remotely similar to the shape of the cross wherever they looked.
"Even their plus signs when they do addition are not crosses," Yang said. "All the roads are rounded as well so there are no cross intersections."
But in the midst of conflict and war, the hearts of the people were inevitably "very troubled."
"We would hear gunshots," he said. "And when sirens rang, people had to be in shelters for 24 hours."
"They would ask us, "Why would you come here at a time like this?' And we would tell them, "We came because we want to pray for you and bless you and show that we care about you,'" Yang said. "And little by little, you could see their hearts being touched and opened."
In Israel, the team did not do any direct ministry, but they prayed over the land as they walked in it and met people. Yang explained that the gospel must be preached to Jewish people because there are "certain things that must happen in order for Jesus to return."
"One of them is that Israel must welcome Him. So Gentiles must evangelize to Israel and to Jewish people," he explained.
(From left to right:) Nathan Wee, David Park, Eunice Kim, and Andrew Yang were part of a youth mission team that went to Jordan, Israel, and Palestine this past summer.
In Palestine, the team participated in a ministry called Fuel Operations (FO), during which the team was dropped off at a randomly chosen village in the countryside, given a few denarii, and left to find their own food and shelter. But the team discovered hospitality beyond what they imagined.
"We would just wave to the villagers and say hi, and a lot of times they would invite us into their homes," Yang explained. "They would offer us tea, talk with us, and as our conversations went on, they would prepare dinner for us. We would have a blast, and they would even ask us to stay for the night. And eventually, our goal would be to share the gospel during our stay at their home."
"We saw the poverty, the broken lives, and the wounded hearts," said David Park, one of the mission team members. "But we witnessed God healing people there."
Other parts of their mission trip included ministry with orphans and children, and going to the King's Highway, an area described in Isaiah 19, and worshipping with songs in each desert area along the way to "prepare the way for Jesus."
The mission trip allowed these youth to gain a greater heart for the nations and for God Himself. Nathan Wee, another mission team member, said that he actually did not want to go on the trip, but that he went because his mother had forced him to. When asked whether his parents were not concerned for his safety, Wee said that his mother said, "God is on your side."
"But I'm glad that I went," he said. "Now I'm actually starting to read the Bible."
As a team, they still keep in contact and have conference calls together to pray for Jordan.
This, however, is not just an isolated incident that only happened with UBM. Yang said that hundreds of youth gathered in Palestine this past July for a mission conference hosted by InterCP, the mission organization through which this UBM mission team was able to go to the Middle East. 600 people total went to missions to the Middle East through InterCP - 200 of those were from the U.S., and the rest were from Korea.
"I'm excited," Yang said. "There's a mighty army of youth rising up in this generation for His kingdom and preparing for Jesus' coming."
