The Meet Hope Podcast
The Meet Hope Podcast
122: Why are you going on a Mission Trip? HOPE for Malawi in 2025.
Rick welcomes Katie Barok and Ryan Tomlinson to discuss Hope Church's first mission trip to Malawi, partnering with Urban Promise International to support education initiatives, including the new Longezo University project. Hear why both Katie and Ryan chose to go on a mission trip for the first time, what it means to them as educators, and how you can support the team!
Support HOPE in Motion: meethope.org/motion
Pray for HOPE's Malawi Team! Malawi Trip Dates: June 19-29
Thanks for being a part of the HOPE community as we continue conversations about faith and hope! You can learn more at meethope.org or find us on socials @meethopechurch. Join in for worship on Sundays at meethope.online.church! Have a question? Contact us at podcast@meethope.org.
Enjoy what you heard? Be sure to rate us on Apple Podcasts and click the subscribe button so you don't miss new episodes every Monday!
Welcome to the Meet Hope podcast, where we have conversations about faith and hope. Hope is one church made of people living out their faith through two expressions in person and online. We believe a hybrid faith experience can lead to a growing influence in our community and our world for the sake of others. Welcome to Hope.
Speaker 2:Hello everyone, welcome to another episode of the Meet Hope podcast. My name is Rick and I'm really excited to be here with two of my friends and we're going on a mission trip soon. We're going to talk about that. I'm with Katie Barrick. Katie, hi, hi, rick, how are you doing? I'm great. How are you? You know what I want to say. How long have you been attending Hope?
Speaker 3:Oh, you're putting me on the spot of this question, at least since college. So I'd say five to six years, all right, five or six years, okay All right, good, all right, sorry that was a, I just threw that question in there.
Speaker 2:That's okay it I'm also here with Ryan Tomlinson. Hey, Ryan.
Speaker 4:Hey, how's it going? I'm good. How are you Also doing well?
Speaker 2:Yeah, all right, and how long have you been attending Hope?
Speaker 4:I had the advantage of advance notice, so I've been attending about nine years.
Speaker 2:That's great and together you and I the three of us are part of Hope's first mission team to Malawi. There's 15 people going. We're leaving June 19th until the 29th of June. I had to look at my calendar and make sure I had that date right and I'm excited about that. Are you excited, you?
Speaker 4:guys excited.
Speaker 2:Yeah, totally excited.
Speaker 3:Yeah, I'm really excited. I look forward to it.
Speaker 2:Whenever I throw a question, it isn't on the script. Katie looks at it and shouts out that's not on there.
Speaker 4:It's going to be like this the whole time, right.
Speaker 2:Oh yeah, I never follow it. Sorry, katie, I should have warned you of that too.
Speaker 3:My phone's already shutting. It's fine.
Speaker 2:Back to the script. So have you been on a mission trip before? Who wants to go first?
Speaker 3:So I've been part of the middle school youth trip. The mission trips, oh okay, but one that I personally got on for myself, no, just the middle school ones. Where'd you go? We went to North.
Speaker 2:Carolina, okay, but you do like to travel?
Speaker 3:Yes.
Speaker 2:And you've done some adventuring. Tell us a little bit about your experiences.
Speaker 3:Yeah, I have done some adventuring. So typically this summer I will be spending it going to Malawi and kind of being in the area, but typically I spend it backpacking. Um, so I've backpacked, like the Appalachian trail, I've done the Colorado trail, which is 500 miles, and the last two summers I've spent chipping away at the Pacific Crest Trail, which is 2,650 miles.
Speaker 2:Wow, and how much of that one have you done?
Speaker 3:Um, basically I would say, I completed it.
Speaker 2:Wow.
Speaker 3:There's 160 miles I had to skip last summer because of wildfires, but that's pretty typical.
Speaker 2:Wow. So so you have, you have completed both of those then.
Speaker 3:So how many miles?
Speaker 2:is that total?
Speaker 3:Uh, making me do a math. Uh, probably over like 6,000 miles, probably over like 6,000 miles combined.
Speaker 2:6,000 miles of hiking. Yes, wow, okay, all right. And Ryan, how about you? Have you been on a mission trip?
Speaker 4:You know I have been on some mission trips. The last and, I think, only mission trip I went on as an adult was when I was in college. I went with a group to Rome, okay, and it was a great experience, both personally and spiritually. It was a great experience, both personally and spiritually. Yeah, we partnered up with some staff there who were ministering at La Sapienza, which is a large. It's actually the oldest university in Europe, Wow Founded in the 1300s.
Speaker 2:Okay.
Speaker 4:Yeah, and we did some ministry with college students there and also got to see the city and it was really great.
Speaker 2:That's awesome, yeah, wow. And you haven't hiked the Appalachian Trail though, have you?
Speaker 4:You know, I haven't no. Although I will say, in Rome we stayed at a hostel and that was an interesting experience and we ate a lot of gelato, I don't know.
Speaker 2:That's kind of like the AT, I think they have that on the AT a little fancy and then gelato in north carolina too probably.
Speaker 3:Yeah, yeah, so that's good yeah um, but you mentioned, college actually went on two alternative spring breaks with my sorority so we went down to florida and we were able to volunteer at like a children's home. So the first year it was like a new program, similar to what we're doing, where I no one had ever been, and and then the second year I returned and then I was kind of like an unofficial leader, to like a mentor to the girls who it was their first time going.
Speaker 2:Oh, that's neat. Yeah, cool, right. Well, so you guys have had some experience traveling, you've been on some trips. What made you decide to join Hope's first Malawi team, ryan, why don't you tell us, yeah, I mean, I'm I'm super excited to be going to Malawi team Ryan, why don't you tell us?
Speaker 4:Yeah, I mean, I'm super excited to be going to Malawi and been interested in going to Malawi for some time. Actually, hope set a partnership with Urban Promise for many years and one of the great things about that partnership is we get to hear from their international fellows and we've had several speakers come in from Malawi and, in particular, I was really impacted by Hamilton Banda, who came and gave a talk here so many years ago and got me interested in Malawi and what's going on there and trying to have an impact there, and so when the trip came, it was obvious that I just really wanted to go.
Speaker 4:I really wanted to be there and be part of what was going on. Unfortunately, I'm not very good with timelines, emails or keeping up with dates, and so I realized that it was the night before you were supposed to sign up when I finally emailed Dave and said hey, I'm in, and luckily he agreed to let me join at the last minute. So, it worked out great.
Speaker 2:Yeah, those dates that Dave sets, I think, I don't think they're real.
Speaker 4:I agree.
Speaker 3:I'm going to add to that and I also agree that they're not real because, um, I was a late joiner. I was originally interested in going on the Bahamas trip in February and just being a teacher, that's logistically more challenging to take a week off. Um, and when Dave kind of approached me at one of the Tuesday dinners and he was like, hey, like we're going to Malawi like the end of June, like end of school, like you interested, so I was already kind of captivated by the idea of taking time to attend a mission trip, so once it just felt like it aligned more because it was right at the end of school year and I was like, okay, like we can make this work and it was just a yes. After, that.
Speaker 2:So that was kind of your process. Did you have like a process to decide, or were you uh, it's, we're going to Malawi, I'm in.
Speaker 4:Uh yeah, that was the short process. Um, I also need to run it by my wife to make sure that she'd be okay with it and she's very supportive of the trip and of me as well, so I appreciate that.
Speaker 2:Yeah, so you guys are kind of the jump in the pool kind of. You know, you don't walk down the steps, you just dive right in.
Speaker 3:Yeah, yeah, pretty much Divers. Head first.
Speaker 2:That's good so, but knowing that going on a trip like this requires some sacrifice and some commitment. You guys have been having to pay for the trip or raising money for the trip, and it's a commitment for you and the people close to you. Ryan, you had mentioned that it was a decision that your family had to make together Time away from your work.
Speaker 3:I can answer that. So I want to go on the trip to Malawi because I've been on mission trips to first the students, to support the students and see that impact that it has. And I am choosing to go because I want to experience that for myself and I just look forward by growing my relationship with God and just being pushed out of my comfort zone, because I know when you're put in those uncomfortable situations, that's when you grow the most.
Speaker 2:Yeah, good.
Speaker 4:Yeah, I'm really excited about the trip because I think it's a really nice partnership of the Hope in Motion campaign and Hope Church with Urban Promise International, church with Urban Promise International and the university, new University. Going is a way to experience the culture, meet people and become part of the project and really what going means, you know. I think it's a reasonable question to say like you know, why don't you just send money? Or you know, isn't it expensive to fly a team all the way to Malawi? What are you guys going to do there? Anyway, it is, and you know I think we should be financially supporting the trip and the campaign and the university.
Speaker 4:But going on, the trip itself really demonstrates our commitment as hope and, you know, as emissaries of hope that we're. That you know. We want to have an experience that we can rally around, not just for time but for our commitment, and we also are creating effects in our community here by going, by doing something, we show our commitment, but also we have impact on people in our community. So I was actually I was thinking about this earlier A lot of us got yellow fever vaccines from the same person yes, you're right and that person who I don't even know their name, but the lady at Walgreens shout out Walgreens Sponsor us.
Speaker 4:Yeah, she gave us a lot of shots, and I must have been one of the last ones through, because when I sat down for my vaccine, she says oh, you're with that church group, aren't you? And I said oh yeah, I am with the church group, and so we talked a little bit about the project and about hope, and who knows where that kind of conversation will lead Right, yeah, yeah, that's neat.
Speaker 2:That's what I think.
Speaker 2:For me, personally, what I like about this is I experienced it with our first trip to Haiti, I experienced it with the first trip to Cuba is there are people who are going to watch your experience and hear about your experience and they're going to decide to go on the next trip, and so, while they couldn't make the strip or they weren't inspired, they may be inspired just by the stories from the, from what you guys share, when, when we come home and so that's so, then it becomes something that we're not just doing, it's not a one and done experience, it's a partnership I think you used that word already that we can have for the, you know, for the next decade, potentially, and I think that's that's for me, that's the most exciting thing is to see the potential of this.
Speaker 2:One trip will turn into a ripple effect across Hope, across our community and the impact we could have in Malawi. So tell me. So. Those are all those things that make us excited, but there's also a part of the trip that can give anxiety or concern. Do you guys have any of that?
Speaker 4:I mean, there's obviously some unknowns with going to a country you've never been to before. I've been a lot of places, but I haven't been to Africa yet. So I'm not going to mention any communicable diseases, because that seems like a bad idea. So I'm going to say that one of the things that I am sure I'm going to stumble upon is not being able to pronounce things correctly. So I'm just admitting that I'm going to say it wrong. So that's you know. There you go.
Speaker 2:Yep, that's a good, that's a good one, yeah.
Speaker 3:For me, I would say there's a little bit of anxiety just for traveling I've never done international travel and that almost everyone on the team has global, has chosen to do global entry and I chose chosen to do global entry and I chose not to do global entry. So if I'm traveling kind of on that realm of things solo, there may be some higher anxiety levels.
Speaker 4:We'll get you the global entry. Okay, we're going to get you there.
Speaker 2:And listeners. We teased her that we're going to leave her behind, since Katie's the only one who didn't get global entry, but that is not true. My wife already said that we would not do that to you, so there you go, okay thank you. So I'm going to have to wait because Kelly's making me wait.
Speaker 3:Team Kelly for the win there you go, I'm gone.
Speaker 2:And maybe we answered this already, but what are you most looking?
Speaker 3:forward to?
Speaker 3:Is there anything that you haven't shared about that's your most looking forward to, about going on this trip and this trip experience?
Speaker 3:Oh well, I would say that I was just really captivated by having Urban Promise come and speak on one of our Sunday services and then, as a mission trip team, we had the privilege of having a gentleman who his name is Am Amaro and he came and spoke to us about um he's a fellow about his, his life growing up in Malawi.
Speaker 3:So, just like it just really takes like a self reflection on your own life and like, wow, like I'm so privileged, like even though, like I might work two jobs or you know, I have my own apartment or my car, like I have so we're so privileged, like how much we have at our fingertips, and to hear his story of how he has grown up, and then see the idea behind what Urban Promise is doing with building the university and just being an educator and knowing, like how important education is, and even though I teach the young ones and you know they you build that foundation for the rest of their education and then these are looking at impacting high school students that can go on to university, I just feel like it's super powerful to be able to be there to impact them Good, good Ryan, anything.
Speaker 4:Yeah, I mean I'm really looking forward to the trip and, you know, getting to meet people on the ground and interact with others, meet some of the people that you know, fellows that have gone back to Malawi I think would be really exciting. One of the things I'm really grateful for is, you know, being able to just kind of show up, get involved, excited to not have to do too much planning. We're just kind of the hands and feet here, so we get to just meet folks and be flexible, look for opportunities. I think that'll be a lot of fun.
Speaker 2:Yeah, for me. I look forward to those things that you guys said. I'm looking forward to seeing all the different ministry sites that Urban Promise is going to take us to see, looking forward to seeing the university project, and I personally always look forward to the team time afterward, where we get to, because there's so many sets of eyes and so many different hearts there, and so the different experiences that we'll share together is, for me, is always inspiring. It's challenging, yeah. So I look forward to the team Because as often as we've had team meetings and we've gotten to know each other, you're going to know each other so well in this experience and by the end of the week it's so close. There's this companionship that we develop and create and it's just. I look forward to that. I always enjoy it. I always miss everybody when we get home. The first couple of days is kind of weird.
Speaker 2:You're like, oh wait, I don't have to share the bathroom with anybody right, it's just or you know, but not because it's inconvenient, it's just different, right. So I'm looking forward to that part, yeah.
Speaker 4:Well, one thing that listeners may not be aware of is that the mission trip ends up being kind of a bit of a small group. So we've been meeting regularly for some time now, I think since January, and so you know, it's not like just a bunch of people showed up, got in a van and went to Malawi. So we've had some time to kind of pregame and talk to each other and get to know each other and plan and think and dream, and so then we have the experience and then we come back.
Speaker 2:Yeah, and, like I said, you're gonna have such good friendships, like there are people who I still am close to because of the first time I met them was when they joined a mission team. So it's just this great experience. So, let me, we're gonna wrap up here, but just a couple more questions that I think our listeners would love to hear. Is so, katie, you're a kindergarten teacher? Yes, and you've been teaching for since you said you graduated college five or six years ago.
Speaker 3:Oh no, before that. I've been teaching for nine years.
Speaker 2:Nine years Okay, I'm sorry. Nine years of teaching. Yeah, where did I get the five or six? Okay?
Speaker 3:Because I said I was going to hope for like five or six years.
Speaker 2:Oh, that's right.
Speaker 3:Maybe my math is wrong. Okay, maybe it's eight or nine years Kindergarten math yeah.
Speaker 2:That's what it is Okay, and Ryan, you are a university professor.
Speaker 4:That's right, that correct, all right. And and what do you teach? So I teach tissue engineering and regenerative medicine.
Speaker 2:And.
Speaker 4:I also teach a course in the medical school called foundations of medicine.
Speaker 2:All right, all right, interesting. We could have a whole podcast about that. We probably shouldn't, though. Yeah.
Speaker 4:I think they would turn us off.
Speaker 2:So we're going to Langeza University. We're also going to see some of Urban Promise's schools that they've started. What specifically do you see what role in your? How much? Let me say that again how specifically do you see your roles in education playing into your participation on the Malawi team?
Speaker 4:So you know, as a professor, the trip is centered around this Langeza University, and so that's a project that's very close to my heart.
Speaker 4:I'm very passionate about education generally, but in particular higher education.
Speaker 4:One of the things about education is that it opens doors and it can really change the trajectory of your life.
Speaker 4:I know that was the case for me and the case for a lot of people, but right now in Malawi a lot of people don't have an opportunity for higher education and it closes a lot of doors and it prevents progress personally, but also on a bigger level, on a societal level, and so I'm really excited about going and being able to get kind of in on the ground floor and develop some relationships and hopefully we can provide a real sense to, you know, students that are already on the ground there and getting ready to be enrolled, and maybe administrators who are kind of doing logistics or community activists who are getting involved in supporting university, that we're here and we want to support you, and we're not just saying we want to support you, we're coming here and we're here, we're physically present, it's not just like we're here in spirit, it's not just here's some money, it's we want to support you and you know we're in this for the long haul, so I think that's really very meaningful and lets us have a big impact.
Speaker 4:That kind of impact is challenging to find here in the States. You know we have a lot of universities, a lot of opportunity, and it's even hard to fathom a scenario where Malawi's at right now, and so getting able to have an impact there, I think would be really powerful.
Speaker 2:Yeah, you know, I was in when we saw the video on LaGesia University that Bruce May was narrating and at the end he talked about changing the country. And I'm like, oh, I'm in, Like I've never been a part of something where I could change a country, so I'm in right. What an opportunity. Yeah, katie, how about you?
Speaker 3:I would say we've had kind of the privilege to shape and mold this trip to like cater to our team who's going to the mission trip. So aside from us being educators, there's a few other educators on the team that are also going. So one of the nice things is as some of the things that we planned hopefully do is there's a newer elementary school there and that's full of kindergarten students and I hang out with kindergartners all day.
Speaker 3:So I'm just super excited to share that energy and that knowledge and maybe teach them new songs and new games and things like that. And there's other opportunities to just build connections throughout the community, whether it's going to like a foster care home and us women that are going on the trip are allowed to interact with the girls, or if they go to the boy side, you know the men can interact with the boys.
Speaker 3:So I'm just really looking forward to using those skills that I use every day to just kind of like, shape and mold the lives and be. You know, that's one of the reasons why I became a teacher was to interact and, like, make a difference in kids' life, and I feel like, I feel strongly that even the smallest amount of time and attention that we give to these kids is going to make the greatest impact on their lives.
Speaker 2:Yeah, that's great, yeah, so so you know, I want to wrap us, wrap this up, but I do want to ask you guys so what do you think God may have planned for you If it's in addition to what you already shared? You guys already shared some things that we know that God's part of that, but what do you think God may have planned for you in going on this trip?
Speaker 4:Honestly, you know, I don't know. I'm looking forward to finding out. I'm looking forward to finding out, so I think I shared that. You know I've been looking forward to being involved in the ministry that Hope has been partnering with in Malawi for some time, and so when this trip materialized, it was just such a perfect blend of this passion for Malawi and my professional interest in the university. I knew that God had something planned for me here. So I'm not really sure where it's going to go, but I'm looking forward to establishing a long-term relationship with Malawi and with Longeso University.
Speaker 2:Let me ask you a follow-up, Ryan how do you measure success for a trip like this?
Speaker 4:Yeah, I mean, it's challenging. I'm not sure if I necessarily buy into the concept of success. I think that success is showing up, it's having an open mind, an open heart, but nonetheless, you know, I'd like to come back with a sense of you know, here are the next steps, here's what I can do next, rather than just you know, I've been there and I've done that Right, and so if I come back with that kind of sense, then I'll consider that a success. Great, that's awesome, that's a great answer, Katie.
Speaker 2:how about you? What do you think God might have planned for you?
Speaker 3:Yeah, so one of the things you mentioned earlier was just about how our team of 15, it's not just 15, because we have the support of the people- of the church behind us and you know our families who are supporting us and going on this, our coworkers and things like that.
Speaker 3:Um. So I just think, like God is kind of using us to help expose and support um in that way, like at, for example, amaro is actually coming to my school to speak to the fourth and fifth graders later this month. Um, because his story ties into our curriculum curriculum. And then also, um, our student council is working on fundraising some of the supplies for the schools, like notebooks and pens and pencils and things like that.
Speaker 3:So, like these fifth graders that I get to speak with later this week, don't even know about it, you know like they've. They've grown up with grass and things like that and having access to all these things, so just opening their eyes to other things around um the world, like you know, happening around the world. But I also, like, as Ryan said, like still open to seeing what the trip has in store for me and my purpose there. But I think um just kind of taking how I'm impacting others now and using those gifts over there by kind of leaving my thumbprint of like just showing kindness and compassion to these people over there.
Speaker 2:Yeah, and you, you, you have a community of people behind you in this, don't you? Your whole school is um, is is partnering with you.
Speaker 3:Yes, yeah. So, um, we're all kind of working together hopefully to bring over the supplies and they kind of like heard what I was doing and they were like we want to help you, we want to support you and I was like that's crazy. I was like, cause I, this is a new school to me. I have been in the same district but moved to a different school.
Speaker 3:So these are all new people and this was in December and you know I'd only been teaching there for a few months, so it was really awesome to have that team like behind me.
Speaker 2:That's really, that's really exciting. So I'm going to wrap up here. How can people pray for you? How can people pay for the team?
Speaker 4:Yeah, I think something you said earlier was, you know, something we can be praying for is the team having open eyes and looking for opportunities and being able to seize upon them, being at the right place when God's moving. You know, I think that's what we should be praying for Obviously, for the success of the university and for Urban Promise and, you know, the Greater Hope in Motion campaign, but I think that those are the important bits. Yeah, yeah.
Speaker 3:I would agree with Ryan and I would also add, just, you know, safe travels and things like that Financial burdens, because it is a commitment definitely to attend a mission trip, but also that it's just like that, this trip. I just ask for prayers that this is a successful trip, like a stepping stone to build this relationship over there, so that way, future, we can pave the path, so that way more people behind us can attend Malawi and get interested and want to be as interested as we are to help, also just make a greater difference.
Speaker 2:Yeah, that's good. Hey, listen guys. Thanks so much for for doing this. I hope I've had a greater difference. Yeah, that's good. Hey, listen guys. Thanks so much for doing this. I've had a good time. I hope you guys have.
Speaker 2:And listen I hope you've enjoyed it as well. Just a couple of things just to reiterate. If you could pray for the team, as Katie mentioned, pray for logistics as we travel. It's a couple of different plane flights and even a couple different flights for the team, so getting us all there, uh, we won't all be together until we're in Africa, um, so, so that's a logistic that we're uh need prayers for. Uh, do pray for our, our hearts, pray for our families while we're away, and then, uh, and and again, ryan's mentioned a few times, but if, if anyone wants more information about the Hope in Motion campaign, there'll be a link to it in the show notes so that you can get more details about that. And if you haven't had a chance to support that and you'd like to do that, we would love for you to do that and even mention the podcast.
Speaker 1:Thanks for being a part of the Hope community as we continue our conversations about faith and hope. If you don't already, please join us for worship on Sundays or on demand. You can learn more at meethopeorg or find us on socials at meethopechurch thanks so much and you guys have a great day.