Missions Changed My Life

Melody’s Story - Rejoicing Over Generosity

Melody was born in Texas and moved to North Carolina in 1998 when she was four years old. She is a graduate of Regent University in Virginia Beach. She worships at Hope Community Church in Raleigh and she works at Mead & Hunt Engineering Firm in downtown Raleigh. Melody has been to India multiple times through Global Hope India. She currently lives in Holly Springs, North Carolina. Despite going through some struggles while she was growing up, she enjoyed her childhood and is blessed to have supportive parents who made sure that Melody and her siblings grew up hearing about Jesus. She grew up going to church and knowing that there was a God, but she did not really know Jesus. When she was in high school, she became more confused about what she believed and where she stood with her faith. She started becoming a heavy partier and a people pleaser. By the end of her high school years, she started realizing that she had an emptiness inside her that needed to be filled. One weekend while she was driving, she heard this song called “Forever Rain” on the radio. It's a really simple song about somebody who is running to God's arms and it really resonated with Melody. She started crying out to God for the first time in her life and telling Him, “God, if you're real, whoever you are, please reveal yourself to me. I don't know who you are, but I want to know the real God.” And from there, He started showing up in little ways and although it was not obvious at that time,  Melody could feel a strong pull on her heart to read the Bible. About a year later when she was going through a rough patch, she became desperate and went to the Hope Community Church to find Jesus. During the worship, she started recognizing the melody of “Forever Rain” and it started to overwhelm her. It started to bring back the memory and it was the same song that was playing on the radio when she asked God to reveal Himself to her. She started worshiping, crying out, and from that day on, she has never experienced that kind of depression and thoughts about harming herself. God had rescued Melody that day. Melody has a friend who went to India and came back with a glow in her eyes. This made her want to go to India to share the gospel and she was presented with the opportunity through Hope Community Church. She shares some fond memories from her trip to India such as doing fun activities with kids from the orphanage and sharing the gospel with a local village. They wanted the gospel to be known through loving them. It was really just looking into their eyes, loving them, giving them resources, their time, and praying for them. Many of them might not even know Jesus but they are going to ask for prayer and this is a wonderful opportunity to be able to speak the light of Christ. She remembers an instance where they went to a well's dedication and saw an elderly lady who was so desperately happy for the clean water that she started bathing in it. It was amazing for Melody to see the rejoicing that goes on over generosity that it just melted her heart. This water project became an incredible witness of Christ in action because it's the Christian Church really lovingly caring and giving the clean water to the village freely and unconditionally. Melody’s life has been truly changed through missions. She realized that there were things that she has been taking for granted. She believes that God has opened her eyes to see everything that she has and to be grateful for them. The missions also taught her to appreciate another culture for it opens a lot of doors and definitely opens her heart. Spending time with the people in India made her realize that their needs are real and recognizing that made her also understand why it is important for her to act when there is a time of crisis. ___________Global Hope India: For over 20 years we have been watching God radically transform thousands of Americans & Indian Nationals through missions. We’ve taken nearly 1,000 Americans on short-term mission trips to India. We work with 12 long-term indigenous church planting partners located in North, South, East, & West mainland India as well as Northeast India. We empower the Church in India to make Christ known through leadership, child, & village development projects. Global Hope India is a federally recognized 501(c)3 nonprofit organization located in Morrisville, North Carolina. All gifts are tax-deductible. More about GHI.More about Missions Changed My Life Podcast.Meet Pastor Kevin: Pastor Kevin is Founder and Executive Director of Global Hope India and your host for Missions Changed My Life Podcast. He’s a poor kid from rural North Carolina, but get this… He just returned from his 50th trip to India in 20 years. If he doesn’t yet hold the Guinness Book of World Records for the most trips to India then he’s got to be close. He’s flown over a million miles to 27 different countries. He’s taken nearly 1,000 people on mission trips to India. Global Hope India has seen thousands of Indian Nationals and Americans radically transformed by God through missions. The miracle continues! More about Pastor Kevin.GHI Resources & Contact Info:Resource CenterGHI FacebookMCML Facebook PageGHI Instagram: @globalhopeindiaGHI Twitter: @globalhopeindiaEmail Us

Translating Christ’s Love Through Missions - Alex’s Story

Alex was born in El Salvador but he is currently in the US studying at Campbell University. He is scheduled to graduate in the spring of 2020 right in the middle of the pandemic. He will be graduating with a double major in Journalism/Digital Media Communication and Christian Studies. He was born in El Salvador and lived there until he was 18 years old. He came to believe in Christ at an early age but he realized that he did not have faith in Him. Alex knew who He was from hearing about Him, but he only started to experience and know Jesus during his first church camp. One night when they were singing worship songs, he remembers standing on a chair and feeling the overwhelming need to get on his knees. When he did, he felt how his heart was completely transformed from the inside out, and his whole being was going through this transformation. When he was a senior in high school, they had people from the US coming over to El Salvador to do mission work. These were usually some sort of medical mission work where they would have doctors, nurses, and anybody else that would want to participate in those missions. They would go out to El Salvador and they would partner with Alex’s church. Since Alex knew the English language, he was one of those selected to help with the mission trip by serving as a translator. He developed a friendship with one of the doctors who encouraged him to go to the US for his studies. A week after the mission trip ended, Alex received an email from him saying that after he left, he definitely felt from the Lord that he needed to help Alex to come to the US in some form or way. A month after that, Alex got a ticket to come and visit him in the US and they started looking for schools. The doctor helped him get settled and this started his journey of faith in the US. Alex talks about his mission trip experience in Mumbai. This was a medical mission trip where he also got to preach and share the gospel of the Lord. Their team went to the red light district as well as the Hope Center. It was his first time to be on the side of the missionaries that were going to a different country. For Alex, it was an incredible experience to feel what it was like to be on the other side of a mission trip. He also talks about language as one of the biggest challenges that he had while in Mumbai. Despite the language barrier, he believes that showing love and good acts of generosity helped establish a connection between them and the people in Mumbai.Alex shares that missions changed his life by helping him get rid of a lot of pride and ego that he did not know he had. He felt so confident in himself that he was not going to be impressed anymore. So he was already going through some feelings that because he had seen so much in his home country, there was nothing that could surprise him. But through missions, his perspective changed and he was able to see the fullness of God’s character. Through missions, he was able to experience God in different cultures and different countries.  ___________Global Hope India: For over 20 years we have been watching God radically transform thousands of Americans & Indian Nationals through missions. We’ve taken nearly 1,000 Americans on short-term mission trips to India. We work with 12 long-term indigenous church planting partners located in North, South, East, & West mainland India as well as Northeast India. We empower the Church in India to make Christ known through leadership, child, & village development projects. Global Hope India is a federally recognized 501(c)3 nonprofit organization located in Morrisville, North Carolina. All gifts are tax-deductible. More about GHI.More about Missions Changed My Life Podcast.Meet Pastor Kevin: Pastor Kevin is Founder and Executive Director of Global Hope India and your host for Missions Changed My Life Podcast. He’s a poor kid from rural North Carolina, but get this… He just returned from his 50th trip to India in 20 years. If he doesn’t yet hold the Guinness Book of World Records for the most trips to India then he’s got to be close. He’s flown over a million miles to 27 different countries. He’s taken nearly 1,000 people on mission trips to India. Global Hope India has seen thousands of Indian Nationals and Americans radically transformed by God through missions. The miracle continues! More about Pastor Kevin.GHI Resources & Contact Info:Resource CenterGHI FacebookMCML Facebook PageGHI Instagram: @globalhopeindiaGHI Twitter: @globalhopeindiaEmail Us

Ben’s Story - Debt and Stewardship

Ben has traveled to India with Global Hope India. He is a graduate of NC State University and he has a bachelor's in Science and Secondary Mathematics Education. Ben attends the Summit Church with pastor JD Greear. He's involved there in the financial coaching ministry as well as their First Impressions. His mom’s philosophy was, “if I force you to do this, it's not going to be authentic and real” and so Ben was never forced to go to church. It was always a choice and Ben’s choice then was to not go to church most of the time. It was not until he was in high school that things started to change for him. He accepted Christ and started going to church on a regular basis. Ben has left his teaching job and is a company owner of CMC solutions, a medical supply company. He shares that this turning point felt like the Lord gave him a really hard tug which made him decide to start CMC solutions. He has gone on so many medical mission trips that he really felt the need to provide medical equipment for patients. A percentage of each product sale goes towards supporting an organization. These organizations can then send someone on a mission trip or they provide a product to those who need them. Ben wants his company to be able to give back for what God was so good for. He shares how he discovered his financial coach path when he was 26 through his mentor, Blair Graham. Blair showed him how powerful finances were in the Bible and that awoke a discipleship type of heart in him when it came to really trying to lead people. Ben had always loved finances and Blair just really sat down with him and made him digest everything that the Bible had to say about money. What most people don’t realize is that finances, learning to leverage your treasure, your talent, and your time are all intertwined. He then realized how important it was to get that mentality down in people’s hearts. Ben talks about debt and stewardship and how debts can hold people back when they commit before the Lord, in the sense that they will prioritize getting out of debt. He stresses that one can still keep giving and pay off their debts quicker at the same time. It’s a matter of putting God first in everything and giving Him your time. He always tells people that sometimes it looks like God's not showing up and He shows up in a way that you didn't expect or it was a lot later than you thought. It is just one of those things that God is going to show up, but God's not going to show up if you don't put Him first. When asked to describe his mission experience in one word, Ben says the word “powerful” comes to mind. He saw so many things that just had to be in God's power. There was no other explanation, but the Lord was there and He's all-powerful. The team saw miracles through the healings that took place in the medical clinics. It was one of those things that he had never seen in his whole life. And when he got home, he was just never the same. Because he felt like his prayer life was so shallow and he has this power inside of him that he could tap into. Ben also offered advice to those who want to go on a mission trip and this was to go outside of their comfort zones. For sometimes, it's not always a verbal calling or a calling from somebody else. It can be completely dark and you won’t know whether you should do it. But you just need to take that step. And then God is going to shine a light on it because He is the light. And He is going to show up. ___________Global Hope India: For over 20 years we have been watching God radically transform thousands of Americans & Indian Nationals through missions. We’ve taken nearly 1,000 Americans on short-term mission trips to India. We work with 12 long-term indigenous church planting partners located in North, South, East, & West mainland India as well as Northeast India. We empower the Church in India to make Christ known through leadership, child, & village development projects. Global Hope India is a federally recognized 501(c)3 nonprofit organization located in Morrisville, North Carolina. All gifts are tax-deductible. More about GHI.More about Missions Changed My Life Podcast.Meet Pastor Kevin: Pastor Kevin is Founder and Executive Director of Global Hope India and your host for Missions Changed My Life Podcast. He’s a poor kid from rural North Carolina, but get this… He just returned from his 50th trip to India in 20 years. If he doesn’t yet hold the Guinness Book of World Records for the most trips to India then he’s got to be close. He’s flown over a million miles to 27 different countries. He’s taken nearly 1,000 people on mission trips to India. Global Hope India has seen thousands of Indian Nationals and Americans radically transformed by God through missions. The miracle continues! More about Pastor Kevin.GHI Resources & Contact Info:Resource CenterGHI FacebookMCML Facebook PageGHI Instagram: @globalhopeindiaGHI Twitter: @globalhopeindiaEmail Us

Savanah’s Story - A Breakthrough From Missions

Savanah's Story - A Breakthrough From MissionsSavanah is a barista from Fuquay-Varina, North Carolina.  She went on her first-ever mission trip to India with Global Hope India when she was in high school. And after graduating, Savanah did a gap year experience doing four countries in nine months with the World Race Through Adventures in Missions. Currently, she is a part of the Vertical Life Church in Holly Springs. She is a barista at Thanks A Latte Coffee Shop in Holly Springs. Savanah dreams of running her own coffee shop one day that will focus on bringing the local community and globe together. She grew up in a Christian home and the challenges she encountered with her family were what pushed Savannah to surrender her life to the Lord. This was right before she decided to go on her first mission trip which ended up being India. Going to India in 2017 was a big turning point for her faith and her walk with the Lord. She believes that her heart would not have grown so much for missions if she had not gone to India. After leaving India, Savanah knew that she wanted to go back there as well as continue to travel the world. India definitely gave her the perspective of just how much more there was in the world and the needs that there are and just how blessed she was. It opened her eyes and made her realize that her relationship with the Lord was just craving that different perspective. She loved learning about other cultures and knowing that despite the differences and language barriers, we all serve the same God and build relationships from that. When Savanah was planning on going to college, she came across a race post on social media and felt very clearly that the Lord was telling her to go. So she signed up for the race where she went to four countries in nine months. The four countries she went to were Cambodia, Ethiopia, Nicaragua, and Costa Rica. She fondly talks about the great opportunity to spend a lot of time diving into relationships and being intentional with each country's locals. This allowed her to develop a deeper relationship with them to be able to plant those seeds and really share Jesus's love with them and get them to that point of wanting to surrender their life to the Lord. If she would sum up her mission trip experiences in one word, Savanah says it would be “breakthrough”. Spending time with the Lord while on the mission trip has changed her heart, her priorities, and what matters most to her. The missions enabled her to see how other countries live, how they have almost nothing, yet they have way more joy than a lot of people in the US. She also learned to be more intentional with people since she only had limited time with the kids in India and might not ever see them again, so being intentional with each person that she came in contact with and loving them the way that Jesus would.  Despite the heat and challenging circumstances in India, these would not keep her from going the extra mile and continuing to pour out love and allow the Lord to use her to overflow His love into someone else's life. Savanah believes in taking that back to the US too. Because it's not just the orphans in India that need love. It’s your neighbor or the person you see at the grocery store. It’s everybody. It’s all about taking your eyes off of your own life and looking at the needs of other people. ___________Global Hope India: For over 20 years we have been watching God radically transform thousands of Americans & Indian Nationals through missions. We’ve taken nearly 1,000 Americans on short-term mission trips to India. We work with 12 long-term indigenous church planting partners located in North, South, East, & West mainland India as well as Northeast India. We empower the Church in India to make Christ known through leadership, child, & village development projects. Global Hope India is a federally recognized 501(c)3 nonprofit organization located in Morrisville, North Carolina. All gifts are tax-deductible. More about GHI.More about Missions Changed My Life Podcast.Meet Pastor Kevin: Pastor Kevin is Founder and Executive Director of Global Hope India and your host for Missions Changed My Life Podcast. He’s a poor kid from rural North Carolina, but get this… He just returned from his 50th trip to India in 20 years. If he doesn’t yet hold the Guinness Book of World Records for the most trips to India then he’s got to be close. He’s flown over a million miles to 27 different countries. He’s taken nearly 1,000 people on mission trips to India. Global Hope India has seen thousands of Indian Nationals and Americans radically transformed by God through missions. The miracle continues! More about Pastor Kevin.GHI Resources & Contact Info:Resource CenterGHI FacebookMCML Facebook PageGHI Instagram: @globalhopeindiaGHI Twitter: @globalhopeindiaEmail Us

Katie’s Story - Faithfulness and Relying on God’s Power

A few weeks ago, Josh shared his story with us, and in this episode, we talk to his wife, Katie. Katie and Josh are from New Bern, North Carolina. They started dating when they were only 16 years old, and Katie finally convinced Josh into proposing when they were 19 years old. They were engaged, but it took them three years to finally marry when they were 22 years old. They have now been married 12 years and they have three children. A daughter that is eight, a son that is six, and a son that is three years old. Katie has a bachelor's in Exercise Sports Science from Elon University and a bachelor's in Nursing from Duke University Nursing School. Katie is still a registered nurse, even though she is currently a stay at home mom. Katie and Josh are heavily involved in the Summit Church, the Apex campus, and she leads a women's Bible study at Summit and also a high school girls' small group. She and Josh are involved in an adult small group and with Global Hope India and Your Choice Pregnancy Center in Raleigh. Katie is also a lead singer in a local band named Secret Drive. Katie shared some stories from her mission trips. The first time she went to India was in January 2015. She went with GHI where her husband, Josh, was the lead. It’s a great example that a young newlywed couple with young children at home can actually still go on missions. To date, Katie has been to India twice where she got to lead a team on her second trip. In 2018, she signed up to go on a women's trip to Haiti with the Summit Church. Her most recent trip was to Johannesburg in South Africa where they went to places that tourists would not normally go to. They did street evangelism and did not have a hard time talking to people since most of them knew the English language. They would tell them about Christmas and ask them about their traditions. Then they would go straight to the gospel and tell them that Christmas was actually the celebration of the birth of our savior and that it is for everyone, not just Americans. They would then invite them to Bible studies, which is what the missionaries who live in Johannesburg do. They continue that relationship with them throughout the year, and that turns into a discipleship relationship.She talks about some of the challenges that she faced as a result of going to an orphanage of special needs children in India. She found that the most challenging part of the trip was changing her and her team’s mindset. They wanted to make an impact on the lives of the children in a matter of five short days. They realized that they just needed to change their mindset and focus more on loving and impacting. They were moms that ended up really pouring their lives out into other moms and people that were in motherly positions within the ministry. This is a reflection of how even if you plan everything out for a trip,  mid-trip God will do a paradigm shift and say, “you know, you're here for the children, but you're also here for the staff and your greatest impact maybe even left in the staff and then it is going to be left in the children”.Katie shares that going on missions have changed her life so much. She has not seen more growth in her walk with Christ than she has when she has been going on mission trips. She has seen this growth through the evidence of how much she now sees her need for a savior, just how good God is and His kindness through everything that she has walked through. Katie talks about how it’s amazing to also see other people grow through going on missions by leaving their comfort zone and putting their faith in God. She also shares about the costs involved in following Christ. There are rewards, but the costs are also just as real. Benefits do outweigh the cost, but that doesn't mean that there wasn't a cost involved. Despite all the costs, it all comes down to the great commission and the urgent need that everyone has to be reconciled to God through his Son, Jesus Christ. ___________Global Hope India: For over 20 years we have been watching God radically transform thousands of Americans & Indian Nationals through missions. We’ve taken nearly 1,000 Americans on short-term mission trips to India. We work with 12 long-term indigenous church planting partners located in North, South, East, & West mainland India as well as Northeast India. We empower the Church in India to make Christ known through leadership, child, & village development projects. Global Hope India is a federally recognized 501(c)3 nonprofit organization located in Morrisville, North Carolina. All gifts are tax-deductible. More about GHI.More about Missions Changed My Life Podcast.Meet Pastor Kevin: Pastor Kevin is Founder and Executive Director of Global Hope India and your host for Missions Changed My Life Podcast. He’s a poor kid from rural North Carolina, but get this… He just returned from his 50th trip to India in 20 years. If he doesn’t yet hold the Guinness Book of World Records for the most trips to India then he’s got to be close. He’s flown over a million miles to 27 different countries. He’s taken nearly 1,000 people on mission trips to India. Global Hope India has seen thousands of Indian Nationals and Americans radically transformed by God through missions. The miracle continues! More about Pastor Kevin.GHI Resources & Contact Info:Resource CenterGHI FacebookMCML Facebook PageGHI Instagram: @globalhopeindiaGHI Twitter: @globalhopeindiaEmail Us

Emily’s Story - Finding Her Calling

Emily is currently a sophomore at Appalachian State University in Boone, North Carolina. She is pursuing a bachelor's degree in Public Health with a minor in Nutrition. She attends Harvest House Church in Boone, North Carolina. She is deeply involved in the college ministry there at Harvest House. Due to the coronavirus pandemic, Emily has been taking her courses online and she shares that it has been a big transition for her and her teachers. She has been going to church since she was born. But it was in fifth grade when she worked at Hope Community Church when she decided to accept Jesus into her heart. She got baptized when she was in seventh grade and really started to pursue Jesus. But that was more of reading the Bible and she did not really understand what it meant to have a relationship with Jesus. But when she was a sophomore in high school, something just clicked. And she realized that she was missing something in her life and she could not figure out what it was. And when Emily heard that there were these mission trips going on in her high school ministry, she immediately knew that she had to go. She knew in her heart that it was the next step. So she told her mom that she was going to India, but ended up going to Haiti that summer. That was the first time that she had been taken out of the distractions of America and was really able to just feel God's peace and presence. And it was the first time that she had ever heard His voice, and it was incredible. In her junior year in high school, she decided to follow her heart and go on a mission trip to India. Emily feels like that trip was the answer to her prayer of trying to figure out who she was. She shares how when she was having lunch with Justin, he shared his story of how his mom died of cancer because they did not have enough money to give her the life-saving care that she needed. When Emily heard that story, it was like a flame of ignited in her heart and she finally knew what her calling was. Emily talks about her trip to India and how she helped show the kids from the Orissa orphanage that there is a God there for them and that He loves them and that He can provide for their needs. She shares some highlights of that trip including seeing all the joy on the children’s faces. Although most of them have almost nothing, yet they are so full of joy, so full of excitement. And it felt like nothing could knock them down. She also talks about one of the challenges that she encountered. She talks about the village’s problem with water supply, where they do not have water and indoor plumbing. This really gave Emily a sense of perspective and made her grateful for the things that they have in America. Emily shares how missions have changed her life in terms of her prayer life is drastically changed. Many people in India have such a huge faith and trust in God and they're constantly praying about anything and everything in their life. She feels like in America they have lost the power of prayer and just the gift that God has given them to be able to talk to Him through prayer. It is so easy to just put off reading the Bible because of the things that they need to do and blame it on busyness or distractions in this world. But coming back from India and just witnessing their faith in God and their trust in the power of prayer just reminded Emily of the fact that prayer can move mountains.___________Global Hope India: For over 20 years we have been watching God radically transform thousands of Americans & Indian Nationals through missions. We’ve taken nearly 1,000 Americans on short-term mission trips to India. We work with 12 long-term indigenous church planting partners located in North, South, East, & West mainland India as well as Northeast India. We empower the Church in India to make Christ known through leadership, child, & village development projects. Global Hope India is a federally recognized 501(c)3 nonprofit organization located in Morrisville, North Carolina. All gifts are tax-deductible. More about GHI.More about Missions Changed My Life Podcast.Meet Pastor Kevin: Pastor Kevin is Founder and Executive Director of Global Hope India and your host for Missions Changed My Life Podcast. He’s a poor kid from rural North Carolina, but get this… He just returned from his 50th trip to India in 20 years. If he doesn’t yet hold the Guinness Book of World Records for the most trips to India then he’s got to be close. He’s flown over a million miles to 27 different countries. He’s taken nearly 1,000 people on mission trips to India. Global Hope India has seen thousands of Indian Nationals and Americans radically transformed by God through missions. The miracle continues! More about Pastor Kevin.GHI Resources & Contact Info:Resource CenterGHI FacebookMCML Facebook PageGHI Instagram: @globalhopeindiaGHI Twitter: @globalhopeindiaEmail Us

Hayden’s Story - Reward in the Midst of Discomfort

Hayden was born in North Carolina. She is 17 years old, attends Green Hope High School where she is a junior, and she worships at Hope Community Church. Hayden also loves horror movies. She was on staff at Cary School of Gymnastics where she worked once a week. Working there was probably her favorite thing in the world because she got to hang out with kids and she loves kids. Hayden also has two brothers with whom she loves to play sports with. In this episode, Hayden shares some memorable stories of her experience during her first mission trip to India. She remembers their group’s air conditioning and power challenges at their hotel. She also talks about the other members of the team who made the trip very enjoyable and memorable for her. Hayden discusses the time zone change which was the biggest adjustment that she had to make while on the trip. Hayden also talks about how the missions made her feel full. Her favorite part of all was doing the songs and the dances for the kids. They looked so happy the whole time and they were getting the words and jumping up and down dancing. Just seeing how happy their team could make the kids just made Hayden very happy. Before going on missions, she was already grateful for what she had. But she realized now, that she was not feeling blessed and was not as grateful as she should have been. After going on the mission trip, she realized that there are so many things that she took for granted. And sometimes true joy doesn't come from the things you have, but it comes from God and the people around you.  Seeing the people in India not only changed her heart, but it also changed her mindset and made her closer to God. Because it made her want to appreciate the things that she had more. And she felt almost guilty for having the things that she had. For when she saw the people that didn't have the things that she had, it just made her try to be more grateful. When asked to explain her mission trip in one word, Hayden says “rewarding”. As it was an experience that not a lot of people get to have, it really gave her a different feeling and it was very beneficial to her as a person. ___________Global Hope India: For over 20 years we have been watching God radically transform thousands of Americans & Indian Nationals through missions. We’ve taken nearly 1,000 Americans on short-term mission trips to India. We work with 12 long-term indigenous church planting partners located in North, South, East, & West mainland India as well as Northeast India. We empower the Church in India to make Christ known through leadership, child, & village development projects. Global Hope India is a federally recognized 501(c)3 nonprofit organization located in Morrisville, North Carolina. All gifts are tax-deductible. More about GHI.More about Missions Changed My Life Podcast.Meet Pastor Kevin: Pastor Kevin is Founder and Executive Director of Global Hope India and your host for Missions Changed My Life Podcast. He’s a poor kid from rural North Carolina, but get this… He just returned from his 50th trip to India in 20 years. If he doesn’t yet hold the Guinness Book of World Records for the most trips to India then he’s got to be close. He’s flown over a million miles to 27 different countries. He’s taken nearly 1,000 people on mission trips to India. Global Hope India has seen thousands of Indian Nationals and Americans radically transformed by God through missions. The miracle continues! More about Pastor Kevin.GHI Resources & Contact Info:Resource CenterGHI FacebookMCML Facebook PageGHI Instagram: @globalhopeindiaGHI Twitter: @globalhopeindiaEmail Us

Jayden’s Story: Joyful Through Jesus

Jayden is the only American to ever be baptized in India on any Global Hope India’s teams. She is still in high school at Green Hope High School and she is not yet married. She attends Hope Community Church with Pastor Mike Lee. Jayden may not like to brush her hair, but she loves to hike. Prior to the Covid19 pandemic, she had a part-time job where she worked as a babysitter after school. In her podcast interview, Jayden talks about her first trip to India where she went to one city a week for three weeks: Hyderabad, Chennai, and Mumbai. She remembers the welcoming atmosphere in Hyderabad where she got to spend time with kids. She shares her experience in Chennai where they got to minister to adults which were definitely a different experience. She fondly talks about the kids in Mumbai who made a huge impact on her. She sees this as a divine appointment of the almighty God for she just found herself to be in the right place at the right time. Jayden also talks about how missions have changed her life. Before going on missions she was not necessarily open, did not necessarily encourage people with their relationship with Jesus, and she was not the type of person that people would come to ask for guidance. But after the missions, she found herself being that person for a few people who have come to her and asked for her guidance on a way to have a relationship with God. Aside from this, she has also started treating people differently because she has seen the way the kids in India treated her. She realized that it was a privilege for her to be able to go there and for her to be able to experience the missions. She shares how the mission trip experience has changed her everyday life. Jayden says that she now has a sense of gratitude for what God has given her. She finds that it has increased exponentially since she has been to India. When asked why she decided to get baptized while in India, Jayden explains that one of the most uncomfortable things she experienced was ministering to people even when she was unable to fully understand God's power. She did not feel that it was right for her to be administering to them. And for her to be preaching the gospel, which she believed, but having not accepted that yet, it did not feel right to her. So she decided to be baptized right there in India, and this baptism is just the beginning of her joyful journey with Christ. ___________Global Hope India: For over 20 years we have been watching God radically transform thousands of Americans & Indian Nationals through missions. We’ve taken nearly 1,000 Americans on short-term mission trips to India. We work with 12 long-term indigenous church planting partners located in North, South, East, & West mainland India as well as Northeast India. We empower the Church in India to make Christ known through leadership, child, & village development projects. Global Hope India is a federally recognized 501(c)3 nonprofit organization located in Morrisville, North Carolina. All gifts are tax-deductible. More about GHI.More about Missions Changed My Life Podcast.Meet Pastor Kevin: Pastor Kevin is Founder and Executive Director of Global Hope India and your host for Missions Changed My Life Podcast. He’s a poor kid from rural North Carolina, but get this… He just returned from his 50th trip to India in 20 years. If he doesn’t yet hold the Guinness Book of World Records for the most trips to India then he’s got to be close. He’s flown over a million miles to 27 different countries. He’s taken nearly 1,000 people on mission trips to India. Global Hope India has seen thousands of Indian Nationals and Americans radically transformed by God through missions. The miracle continues! More about Pastor Kevin.GHI Resources & Contact Info:Resource CenterGHI FacebookMCML Facebook PageGHI Instagram: @globalhopeindiaGHI Twitter: @globalhopeindiaEmail Us

Emma’s Story- God’s Gift of Fulfillment

Emma is a senior at Green Hope High School in Cary, North Carolina. She has already been to India two times with Global Hope India. She is involved in student ministries at Hope Community Church. Emma has already done more for the Lord than most people do in their whole life. She leads to small groups of middle school girls and has reached over a hundred students from her school. She helps them grow their understanding of God and scriptures. Emma was a missionary of the gospel long before she set her feet on the soil of India. She talks about how God has used that to be transformational for her. Emma’s first trip to India was in the summer of 2018 where she went to Hyderabad, India, and stayed there for nine days along with other high schoolers. It was a great way for her to be introduced to missions and for her to really see how God could work in her life. She shares some of the biggest adjustments that she had to make while on mission trips. As a “go with the flow” person, she did not have a hard time adjusting to the culture but what she found most challenging was being away from her family. She has a strong relationship with her family and she was able to cope by talking to them every night.She shares how she thinks God has definitely used missions to grow her faith into what it is now because she has grown up in a church her whole life. She was practically born there, and was in the nursery and then in elementary school ministry, all the way through high school ministry. And she feels that she never truly had a strong relationship with God until she participated in the mission trips and she was just able to see God's raw love on the mission field. Emma also believes that missions helped grow her faith by showing her that the purpose of being a follower of God is not to just be able to pray and to receive from God. Her purpose was to fulfill the Great Commission. When asked to describe her mission trip experience in one word, Emma says, “fulfilling”. She says that when she was in India, she had the feeling of being filled with everything she needed through God in order to live a bountiful life and she wanted to show others that as well. Being stripped of all the comforts and security of homemade her realize that she was already fulfilled through Christ. Missions have changed her everyday life by making her more appreciative of everything she has. She has seen how people in India are able to live so happily and freely without all the unnecessary things. Missions have sparked in her heart a freeness of being able to not judge people and just love them for who they are.____________Global Hope India: For over 20 years we have been watching God radically transform thousands of Americans & Indian Nationals through missions. We’ve taken nearly 1,000 Americans on short-term mission trips to India. We work with 12 long-term indigenous church planting partners located in North, South, East, & West mainland India as well as Northeast India. We empower the Church in India to make Christ known through leadership, child, & village development projects. Global Hope India is a federally recognized 501(c)3 nonprofit organization located in Morrisville, North Carolina. All gifts are tax-deductible. More about GHI.More about Missions Changed My Life Podcast.Meet Pastor Kevin: Pastor Kevin is Founder and Executive Director of Global Hope India and your host for Missions Changed My Life Podcast. He’s a poor kid from rural North Carolina, but get this… He just returned from his 50th trip to India in 20 years. If he doesn’t yet hold the Guinness Book of World Records for the most trips to India then he’s got to be close. He’s flown over a million miles to 27 different countries. He’s taken nearly 1,000 people on mission trips to India. Global Hope India has seen thousands of Indian Nationals and Americans radically transformed by God through missions. The miracle continues! More about Pastor Kevin.GHI Resources & Contact Info:Resource CenterGHI FacebookMCML Facebook PageGHI Instagram: @globalhopeindiaGHI Twitter: @globalhopeindiaEmail Us

Josh’s Story - A Life of Purpose

Josh is the current President of the Board of Directors of Global Hope India. He and his wife, Katie, have been married for 12 years. They have three children and they currently live in Apex, North Carolina. Josh holds a Bachelor's in Mechanical Engineering from North Carolina State University. He is employed at Tethis as an Engineering and Capital Projects Manager. Josh and Katie attend Summit Church with Pastor J.D. Greear. Josh is involved there on the prayer team, first Impressions, and he is a small group leader.Josh talks about how he was baptized when he was seven or eight years old. He says he was lucky to have been born into a family that loves the Lord. His father led him to faith and he remembers being able to walk through it. He sees this as the beginning of a long process of sanctification. He feels like he’s not any further along than when he was eight. But he knows that's not true because he has markers in his life that he can look back to where God has awakened him to new truths about who He is, about the personal work of Jesus Christ, about the totality of His rule and reign in the world and in Josh’s life: specifically in what submission to that looks like.These spiritual markers were evident in Josh’s life through the Global Hope India missions that he got involved in. His first international trip was in Indonesia where he went with his wife, Katie, eight years ago. That trip was awakening and very solidifying for Josh and Katie because this is where they understood that Indonesia was not where God was calling them to go right in the end. But instead, He was calling them to a heart and a passion for mobilization and to see people engage with the global church. They see this as a need since  God is the God of the nations and not just the God of the US. Around that same year, they partnered with Global Hope India and went on their first mission trip to India where they took a team of engineers, teachers, and nurses, with them. Josh shares how missions have changed his life by giving him purpose. That trip really helped form and show Josh the value of a diverse group of people going to India. They're seeing their hearts transform and their eyes opened to the fact that the world is bigger than where they live. That the people in India, in Asia, need Jesus just like they need Jesus, and they struggle with the same problems that they do with family dysfunction, poverty, fear about job loss, or difficulty in relationships. The part that he loved about God and the thing that really set him off was seeing those people's hearts transformed coming back to the States, even if they don't go back overseas again, they're coming back transformed and ready to see God move and they're expecting God to move and they're believing God for big things.____________Global Hope India: For over 20 years we have been watching God radically transform thousands of Americans & Indian Nationals through missions. We’ve taken nearly 1,000 Americans on short-term mission trips to India. We work with 12 long-term indigenous church planting partners located in North, South, East, & West mainland India as well as Northeast India. We empower the Church in India to make Christ known through leadership, child, & village development projects. Global Hope India is a federally recognized 501(c)3 nonprofit organization located in Morrisville, North Carolina. All gifts are tax-deductible. More about GHI.More about Missions Changed My Life Podcast.Meet Pastor Kevin: Pastor Kevin is Founder and Executive Director of Global Hope India and your host for Missions Changed My Life Podcast. He’s a poor kid from rural North Carolina, but get this… He just returned from his 50th trip to India in 20 years. If he doesn’t yet hold the Guinness Book of World Records for the most trips to India then he’s got to be close. He’s flown over a million miles to 27 different countries. He’s taken nearly 1,000 people on mission trips to India. Global Hope India has seen thousands of Indian Nationals and Americans radically transformed by God through missions. The miracle continues! More about Pastor Kevin.GHI Resources & Contact Info:Resource CenterGHI FacebookMCML Facebook PageGHI Instagram: @globalhopeindiaGHI Twitter: @globalhopeindiaEmail Us