A Sense of Communion

Sawyer Wiersma, member of Harvest OPC in Wyoming, MI, recently returned from a short-term trip to Puerto Rico, where he and four others traveled to greet and serve the brothers and sisters there, namely the congregation of Sola Escritura in Guayama, PR.

Upon the team’s return, he took a few moments to document their travels and reflect on the trip. He writes:

“After we flew in on Saturday night, we went to pastor Bradney Lopez’s parent’s house. They don’t speak English, but William Devenney from Calvary OPC, Glenside, PA, our team leader, is helpfully fluent.

On Sunday morning we went to worship at Bradney’s church. The service was in Spanish, so I didn't understand most of what was being said, but the liturgy was the same as my home church. I recognized all the songs because I was able to make out the titles of the songs from the tunes. We sang ‘Holy, Holy, Holy’ in Spanish. It was really beautiful and gave me a real sense of communion with my fellow brothers and sisters from a different part of the world, regardless of language. 

A considerable part of the trip was the house visits, which I was not expecting. I had never been on a mission trip where you go on two or three house visits a day and are offered generous amounts of food, but that is what we experienced!

William described this trip as more of a ministry trip than a true mission trip, and I think I agree with him. Though we did not do a lot of service projects or evangelism we instead went to congregants’ houses to experience what it was like to be involved in a shepherding visit—which is a neat experience for me. About half of the congregants are fluent in English, a pleasant surprise!  

One of the more memorable things from the trip was the time I had to speak with Pastor Lopez. It was encouraging to have extended conversations with him concerning spiritual matters.

Overall, this mission trip was very encouraging, insightful, and confirmational for the call I feel toward becoming a pastor.”