The last ACTS Team for 2026 is wrapping up their trip at time of writing. The team will soon be departing South Central Asia, having served halfway across the world, making new friends and memories along the way.
Largely a women’s trip, this ACTS Team saw women from around the CGGC put together special sessions for women pastors, pastor’s wives, nurses, hospital staff, teachers, and other women in South Central Asia. The team moved around multiple towns and villages, meeting women from around the country to sing worship to God, teach from the Bible, share in prayer, and practical crafts that the women could reproduce in their own contexts to continue facilitating women’s gatherings on their own.
Translators were present at the gatherings and throughout the trip, and all of the sessions were held in dual languages. This had the wonderful effect of women singing praise to God in multiple languages simultaneously. It was a joyful noise.
The theme of the teaching was on the identity of women placed upon them by God, and on the community that women can foster when they gather together. By the end of most sessions, the participants would be split into groups and would pray with members of the ACTS Teams about their personal lives. Inevitably, many women would end hugging and weeping.
One Team member pointed out that even when translators were not present, the team was able to communicate effectively in most situations. While visiting the boy’s and girl’s hostels, the team played games like keep away and football (soccer) with the kids. While debriefing, one team member pointed out that, “If we have a single goal in mind, we can communicate even with two different languages.”
Along with the boy’s and girl’s hostels, the team also visited multiple churches, include new buildings which the team helped to dedicate. The honor was given to two of the team members who were asked to cut a red ribbon over the threshold of the new church. Afterward, the team met with the pastor and church leadership, and played with the children.
One team member’s (Travis’s) core takeaway from playing with the children was about how much power we have to include others. During a session of keep away, the girls were sent to another part of the campus from the boys. At first, the girls seemed to believe that they were not allowed to play anymore, until Travis followed after them and asked if they still wanted to play. “Their eyes lit up,” Travis said. “We have such power to include others and to give joy.”
As the team prepared to leave, we all recognized how strange it is to fall into the hands of other people you’ve never met, and to become fast friends. This happened both between team members and between the team and our hosts. We came immediately to rely on each other. We also came to love our hosts and feel a deep sadness at the thought of leaving and some of us wonder how long it will be before we can see each other again.
ACTS Teams are an eye-opening experience for many, particularly about how big the world is, and the relevance of once distant places. One team member commented that, “Once you meet people from a new place, the news affects the people you know and changes how you think about the world.” Suddenly, we start caring about the politics and social situations of lands that we barely understood. We care about the people and pray for their welfare.
Another oddity of many ACTS Teams is how upside down they feel. The name means Advance Christ Through Service. ACTS Teams always have a service component to them, wherein the team does a work project, teaching, or some kind of instruction like running a vacation Bible school. But often the hospitality of the hosts is so overwhelming that it flips the script. Where we came to serve others, we find ourselves being served. When we came to be a blessing, we find ourselves being blessed, with special attention and love. Where we came to teach, we find ourselves the students of a compassionate theology.
This ACTS Team saw members teach, pray with, and encourage women, hold newborn babies, help facilitate child sponsorship programs, dedicate new churches, play with children, buy clothes made by women learning a new trade, and fellowship with the hosts and their staff. It was a tremendous experience, mutually encouraging and life-sustaining.
If you don’t know, the CGGC has a tremendous mission in South Central Asia, and the ACTS Team was able to see only a small fraction of God’s Kingdom at work here.
Whether you ever intend to visit South Central Asia, or have ever considered supporting their work financially, please join us in a few special pray requests for the mission.
- Pray for the staff of our mission, who are leading an exceptionally important work in a land with great resistance and at times open hostility. Pray for their health, the fruitfulness of their work, and that people would come to know Jesus.
- Pray for our primary education teachers, who teach children of largely other faiths, that they would bring life changing education, and plant seeds of Jesus that would blossom.
- Pray for our medical professionals, both the hospital and eye clinic staff. Pray that God will continue to provide a steady financial support for these utterly crucial mission.
- Pray for the country of South Central Asia, a place where less than 1% are Christian, and many have never heard the name of Jesus once. Despite more than a century of work in this country, there is still much work to do.
Interested in future ACTS Teams? Stay tuned to our blog for posts about dates and locations for 2027. Likewise, check out ACTS.CGGC.ORG to stay up to date. The decision to go on an ACTS Team isn’t an easy one. One team member, Darlene, heard on the radio while she was making the decision, “When you receive a calling, you should never run from it.” Instead, Darlene ran towards her calling, and she’s glad she did.
CGGC eNews—Vol. 20, No. 46
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