By Brendan Rees
“They had tears in their eyes many times”.
That’s how Pastor Phil Cayzer of Turning Point Church in Cranbourne East described the emotion of nine young people when they met children living in hardship in Africa.
The year 11 students from the Lighthouse Christian College Cranbourne arrived home in January after spending four weeks providing aid to the children of Uganda, Tanzania and Kenya.
Throughout their journey, the students provided relief to hospitals, visited schools and orphanages where they gave out gifts to children and hosted Sunday school groups at the local churches.
Pastor Cayzer, who led the students on their first missionary trip with three other staff members from the church, says their lives will be forever changed.
“We had a couple of young guys that were very shy but then to stand in front of a crowd of about 2000 and talk to them they got used to it after the trip.”
“They were incredibly changed,” he said. “They were able to inspire, they were happy to walk among the crowd.”
He added his team was left in shock just by the simple act of handing out tennis balls to African children, which “nearly sent them crazy”.
Some of the local kids had never seen gifts before such as toys, books, and coloured pencils, he said.
He recalled visiting high schools in Kenya as a very powerful time as they had never had western visitors.
“To actually just talk with us was a highlight of their education as well as finding out hearing what we do.”
It was Pastor Cazyer’s fourth trip to Africa who says the students came back with wonderful memories and an awakening in their faith for God.
One student, 15-year-old Nyador Yual was initially unable to get her passport months before the trip because she could not confirm her country of birth.
“We found the problem was that she was actually not born in South Sudan; she was born in Kenya in a refugee camp because the family had to flee violence,” said Pastor Cayzer.
He said she was unable to prove who her father was because he was murdered when her family sought refuge.
Pastor Cayzer said the students took many things away from the trip.
Running open concerts where the group drew large crowds was something the students highly enjoyed, he said.
“Our guys put together dance routines because a number of them were from Samoa so they do Samoa dances; they also did some Africa dances”.
He said the students also raised their own money to buy bags of flour, soup and rice for the patients at the hospital.
“The hospital system is very different where they don’t have any care”.
“So we would go in there and talk with them, encourage them, and then the main thing we could do is pray for them”.
