Packing for international travel–especially if it’s a mission trip–is no easy task. But when Christine and Aaron Ferber, members of Immanuel Lutheran Church in St. Charles, Mo., traveled to Honduras to work at a Christian orphanage for five weeks, they decided to take both the Old and New Testament Growing in Christ posters with them.
“We felt the posters had the potential to be a great tool to share the Gospel,” Aaron says.
They weren’t disappointed, he adds.
Christine, a clinical psychologist fluent in Spanish did some traditional counseling work with the children, but, according to Aaron, a lot of her time was spent just being a trustworthy friend. His role on the mission trip was a little different.
“My background is in engineering, and my intent had been to help with several construction projects that the orphanage was beginning,” he says. “However, due to various reasons, the construction projects were at a standstill during our time there, so I served as the resident handyman, hooking up the water pump, working on vehicles, installing bathroom fixtures, etc.
“It’s always a challenge to think of effective ways to share the Gospel, especially when you’re working in a culture other than your own,” Aaron says. “The posters provided an easy and effective way for us to conduct short Bible lessons on a moment’s notice. We used them for an Easter lesson and bedtime readings, and we left the posters at the orphanage to hang on the wall.”
Ferber notes that the children were very interested when the posters were read. “They would often scoot in closer and closer during the reading in order to get a better look at the picture on the front of the poster,” he says. “They even argued over who got to read the posters, so we let them take turns doing it.”
The posters ended up serving a dual purpose. “Several of the children at the orphanage were interested in learning English and would often ask us how to say things,” Ferber says. “We took advantage of the multiple translations on the back of the posters by first reading a paragraph in Spanish and then reading it in English. It was one more element of the posters that intrigued them.”
