"We grasped the world—learning about and loving people,” says Sam Leonor, campus pastor for La Sierra University (LSU). “LSU does not produce the typical student missionary experience. We generate the kind of student who has a holistic view of the gospel. Someone to be proud of who shares the entire message, not just evangelism.”

Ten students and staff went to Bowjan, Thailand, during Christmas break to help complete the construction on a 50-member church. The group finished the cement on the floor, installed the windows and doors, painted, landscaped, did electrical wiring and even built some stairs. The local church funded the project while students raised funds for their travel.

“It was neat that they invited us to eat with them,” says Monica Devi, senior business marketing major from Maryland who went to sing and pray in a local Thai household. “We were only in Bowjan one week, but it seemed like we were there for months because everything was so slow and peaceful. The trip also made me feel God. I prayed and sensed a complete peace, a oneness with God.”

“I have been home for every Christmas of my life,” says Devi. “This was the first time I saw the meaning of Christmas. Thailand had a different environment. It made me see Christmas in a new light.”

“I think life was meant to be the way it was in Thailand,” says Mark Tatum, senior religious education major from California. “Contact with people and work. We get complacent here; the mission trips remind me to rearrange my priorities.”

“The most rewarding was to finish the church on Friday and have church that Sabbath in the new church,” says Tatum. “Over 100 people came to see the new church, and so many were thanking us when we should have thanked them.”

Tired of the gifts and self-indulgence of Christmas, Melisa Reinmuth, a graduate student from Missouri and office administrator for the campus pastor, coordinated the Thailand mission trip. “On Christmas day, we rode elephants and went to an AIDS orphanage to deliver blankets. I want to have my family do this some day to carry on a tradition of better concepts for the holiday season,” says Reinmuth.

“We have deeply spiritual students here at La Sierra University,” says Leonor. “We worked from 6 a.m. until 8 p.m. We ate rice and veggies and took two hours off on Christmas day to go to Pizza Hut.”

“There were no other worries,” said Marni McClain, sophomore social work major from California. “You enjoyed every moment. Everything was simplistic. It was my best Christmas.”

“It was the biggest blessing at Christmas,” added Tatum. “The second week we were in Thailand for a North American Division conference, and it was great motivation to see everyone else’s projects. It was service on a grand scale.”