Casey's First Personal Mission 2024 by Casey Agusta

My First Personal Mission

caseyagusta — 2024-09-23 03:13:22 UTC

As I write my first experience on my personal mission, it has been a week since I finished my service from 16 to 20 September 2024. So many heartfelt feelings had changed inside of me. Because me and my friends had put a lot of time, efforts and energy to fully service people that are in need and make them feel loved. Those memories are still fresh in my mind as I recall all the hard work I've put in to ensure the personal mission went well throughout the week. It was a hectic week and I would never have believed that the Personal Mission had been finished. I had many new experiences and feelings that I've learned from the people that I've met. They were all so fun and kind that it made my heart feel warm and happy. Each day, we would have to spend 5 hours with them and even if it felt tiring, it was memorable and joyful. After that week passed, I would share my stories and experience of my personal mission with others so that they would know how heartwarming it is to fulfill God's call to service and help people around the world.

Personal Mission - Day 1 First Visit of The BCC Kids

caseyagusta — 2024-09-26 07:23:56 UTC

First, it came to the start of my personal Mission. All the plans and supplies that I and my friends had prepared were ready. My heart was pounding really fast because I was nervous about how to start the event with the kids. The kids are called "BCC Kids" and they are kids who have parents who couldn't afford education, so the place in Karang Anyer is a place for kids to learn. As I was in the car, my heart was beating more fast as I was closer to my destination. And a few minutes later, I arrived at the place with my friends. As I headed to the place where they learn, my heart leaped over my chest as I saw the number of children there. Me and my friends put our stuff down and then we were anxious about how to start the event. So, after some time of wandering around, I finally had the strength to speak up to the kids and start the event. We first started by introducing ourselves and after that, we started our event with praise and worship using Sunday school songs. On the first day of the personal mission, I planned on doing a "Bible-themed" study for the kids to understand the word of God. That's why the kids would start off with Sunday school songs to cheer them up. Then, after we were done singing the songs, I told the children to sit down and enjoy a little drama that me and my friends had planned before. It was a simple drama of "The Good Samaritan" and the kids enjoyed our little drama even if it's not that good. Yet, at least they got the lesson from the drama that we have to love others equally without looking at people's backgrounds. After the simple drama that we did, we gave the kids an arts and crafts picture of the Samaritan for them to color. Then, we took some pictures, played some games, and even had lunch together. Finally, after a long day, we cleaned the place and headed home. But as we were walking home, the kids followed us and we spent our evening walking with them and enjoying the view of the rice field and the villages. It was a tiring day yet I felt relieved to know that the kids were happy with our presences and that I was just starting my journey of my Personal Mission.

Personal Mission - Day 2 BCC Kids Mathematics Day

caseyagusta — 2024-09-26 08:03:35 UTC

Then came the 2nd day of my personal mission. I was feeling excited and ready to meet the children from the BCC kids again because from our first meeting, the children loved us so much and they were so enthusiastic throughout the day. So, I and my friends headed to the same place again and our next event for them was "Mathematics Day". We had prepared some mathematics worksheets for them and some math quizzes to make them more eager to study. As usual, we arrived at their place and some of the children were waiting for us. But soon we realized that we had arrived too early since some of them were still at school. So we had to wait for half an hour to start the event and while we were waiting, we spent our time playing with the kids. Then after half an hour, more kids came to the place after they finished school. So, we decided to just start the service even if some of the kids before hadn't come yet. We then started by dividing them into groups as usual for games, quizzes, and other competition activities to make them excited. Since I was the MC in the event while my other friends had to be the leaders for their group members which were the kids, I started the activity with a simple problem-solving competition. Then, the activity continued with some math games and finally a mathematic study bonding time. Each of the group leaders would have to guide and teach them the worksheets that had been printed out. One of my friends, Freynt even helped one of the children with their homework and I was glad that my group members were bonding with the kids really well. Before, I was worried that they would be too stiff with the kids and didn't know how to interact with them. But I was wrong, each of them learned the sincerity of their hearts to serve and help the children in need. Soon, after wearing their brains off with some critical math activities, we ended our service with fun games and making sandwiches together. The second day made us more confident in doing our mission journey because the kids were so energetic and excited that it made us more optimistic to spend our time with them. Especially when we made sandwiches together, it was wholesome and fun because all of the kids were competing to get the strawberry and chocolate jams. They were all filled up at the end of the day and we were relieved as we headed home.

Personal Mission - Day 3 Last Day With The BCC Kids

caseyagusta — 2024-09-26 08:08:37 UTC

Each day and each hour I've spent with them, I had never felt so grateful in my life. Even if 5 hours with them felt exhausting, it made me proud that the time that me and my friends had put in was worth the smiles and happiness we received from the children. Turns out, 2 days had passed and then it came the last day with them. Before arriving at their place, we had prepared many goodie bags, presents, and drawing books for them as gifts from us, the "Koko dan cici UPHC". Our last day with the BCC kids was an English-themed event. Since we were aware that some of the children before couldn't come to the place because they had school, we decided to arrive later in the afternoon so that the children would gather. Then as we arrived, the smiles from their face lit up when they saw us. They were eager to learn and happy to meet us again. As usual, we gathered into our groups and they all listened to me teaching them basic English lessons like introductions, weather, days, animals, fruits, and many more. Since learning too much would make them more bored, I decided to play hangman with them and count points for each group that guessed it to make the situation more heated and pumped. Even some of the children's mothers came to visit and learned some basic English too. I wasn't afraid of speaking in front of an audience anymore because I knew my goal was to help others so I needed confidence and sincerity to bless them with the education that they deserve. A few hours into the study session, the sun had set and it was becoming dark, so I decided to do our last games with them. They were all overjoyed and screaming out of joy while they played the games. It was a teamwork game, so all the children were competitive but happy to play the games. As one of the group wins, the games had come to an end and all of them were filled with joy. Soon, we ended our service by giving them goodie bags, bottles, donuts, and much more. Each kid who was given those gifts thanked us and it made my heart feel warm. Then, before we left, we took pictures and cleaned up the place. Some of the kids hugged us and said that they would miss us. I felt my heart throbbing with affection as each hour that we spent had finally come to an end. But, when me and my friends headed to the parking lot, the children surprised us with letters and candy. We were all so shocked and touched. We thought they had left after we were done with our service, but we were wrong. They followed us until we were safely headed to the parking lot. Soon, they gave their last goodbye to us and I waved to them until their cheers and laughs faded away. It was an amazing 3 days filled with love with the BCC Kids.

Personal Mission - Day 4 First Time Visit To The Abhimata Orphanage

caseyagusta — 2024-09-26 08:10:02 UTC

After our wonderful 3 days with the BCC Kids, it was time to change places and service new people. Though moving on from them was hard, I had to start a new chapter for our mission journey. Our next destination was in Bintaro and it was called an Abhimata Orphanage. We had prepared some English worksheets for them and expected the children to be around elementary school. But it turns out we had a miscommunication with the people of the orphanage. So, when we arrived, they looked at us strangely like we weren't supposed to be there. But we kept the flow going and spent our time with the little ones. We were confused at first since the orphanage had already been taken care of well and we didn't know where to start our event. Eventually, we realized that we didn't need to start an event since we were only servicing toddlers. Finally, after some confusion, we headed to their playroom and brought them papers for them to draw and color. We also teach them basic English lessons about animals and fruits. We brought some printed pictures of animals and fruits so that the toddlers could guess what the item was in English. But I felt strange because we had no guidance in basically anything. We just casually went into the playroom and played with them. The people who run the orphanage just seemed to not care. Then, we just decided to just keep the flow going and do our job which was to spend time with them and service them with fun activities that are useful for education too. Soon, the caretakers had to take the toddlers to their bed as it was their bedtime in the afternoon. We had no choice but to finish cleaning up and help the toddlers to their bedroom. Even if some of the people in the orphanage hardly acknowledged us, I was glad that the toddlers were happy playing with us. We even carried some of the toddlers, taught them about animals and fruits, drew with them, and much more. I had to focus on my goal in the mission and ignore the difficulties that had come to me. Then, we gave our last hugs to them, gave them some snacks, and lastly, we headed home.

Personal Mission - Day 5 Final Day of Personal Mission With The Abhimata Kids

caseyagusta — 2024-09-26 08:11:16 UTC

Lastly, it was the final day of my mission journey. Yet, I still felt stiff and discouraged after what happened yesterday at the Abhimata orphanage. It took me many hours and support from my mother to strengthen my spirit for the last and final day. But I didn't know that there was going to be a disaster before we even arrived at the place. Me and my friends had a transportation problem so I had to take the grab car with one of my friends, Hans to Zoe's house. I told him to meet me near a place but as I arrived at the destination, I couldn't spot him. Seconds turned into minutes as I was running around trying to find him. My friends were even panicking since we would be late to arrive at the orphanage. After 30 minutes, I had finally found him and thankfully the grab driver was considerate and patient to wait for me to find him. My head was a mess after the disaster happened but as we continued to drive, I took a few breaths to calm down. At some time, we arrived at the place and it was filled with the sounds of children playing. We had decided to arrive late so the children had already come home from school. Since we had a miscommunication yesterday, we decided to just play around with the children without starting a proper event. Spending time with them was still counted as a service because the children loved it when we made time for them to talk, play around, and express their feelings to us without any tension. I took the camera from Zoe's grip and took pictures of the children who were playing bubbles around their garden and they looked happy. Especially Freynt, Hans, Jovan, Zoe, and Ananda, I didn't expect my group members to be so dedicated to the service. Ananda was playing basketball with the kids, Jovan was carrying and playing around with the toddlers, Freynt made jokes with the toddlers and even carried a beautiful child named Elya, he loved her because she had a cute face, and Zoe made conversations with the girls there, they enjoyed talking girls stuff with Zoe. It made my heart fill up with joy because I was worried that we wouldn't be acknowledged like yesterday. I learned that everything happened because of God's plan. All that we can do is spread God's love to many people, especially the children that we spend time with for 5 days. Lastly, we prepared some goodie bags and a couple of foods for the children. After some bonding time, we cleaned the place and prepared to leave. I was finally finished with my mission journey and it was amazing to work with 5 of my friends for a week. But we didn't just leave and went separate ways, we went to Zoe's house to finally take a rest and spend time with them. Thank you for all the hard work, my friends

My Reflection From My Mission Journey

caseyagusta — 2024-09-26 15:27:03 UTC

After 5 hectic days, I was relieved that I'd finished my journey. My body was exhausted but I didn't feel any dreadful feeling but more of a relieved passionate and joyful feeling. Because I finished my journey that left a positive impact on the children. The letters that I received made my eyes were filled with tears. The letter was from a kid from the BCC kids named Ivan, he said: "You are my favorite person, and thank you for teaching us". The thank you letter and a drawing from one of the kids were worth more than money. I learned that "being thankful" is always going to be the lesson after the mission service because it is indeed important for us who have a better life, education, and family than them. But we don't just be "thankful", we need to keep on continuing to service and help others and make them feel loved. This mission journey made me understand that even some simple events like spending time, eating together, learning together, and being next to them could make them very happy and feel cared for. I thank God that He has made me understand God's love for His people by helping each one another and giving them as much love as much as we have. For me, I would continue doing this mission journey and doing it truly because my heart and God says so.