Project Friendship Part 1: Take Off

Team #3 at LAX
Team #3 at LAX |

Team #3 at LAX
(Photo : Yongtae Kim (Christianity Daily))
Team #3 at LAX

On May 27th, KCCC (Korea Campus Crusade for Christ) sent out its very first of around 16 short term summer mission teams. Team #3, which composed of 6 male students, 4 female students and 1 full time KCCC staff, departed for Mongolia on schedule to start the campus ministry in the capital city of Ulanbaataar.

Even up to the morning of departure, team #3 was heavily short on ministry funds. All participants of the KCCC summer missions project had to raise around 3400 dollars on average. In the case of the Mongolia team, each student had to raise 3900 dollars.

Overall the team had many difficulties in raising such a large sum of money in such a short period of time. For one thing, 4 of the 10 students were going on missions for the first time and had no experience with looking for ministry partners and financial supporters. The leaders of KCCC were considering asking at least half the students to leave the team.

However, none of the students failed to meet their quota. A male student from the University of Southern California was short on 2000 dollars on the week of their departure. However, with the help of his team mates and support from relatives that he claimed he even had no idea they even knew him, succeeded in raising the funds.

Another female student, a freshman from San Jose State University joined the Mongolia mission team a month after the departure time, which was far later than the recommended time of registration and even until the week of departure, still lacked around 3000 dollars. Likewise she was able to find ministry partners who were able to provide her with the funds and in the end had to worry more about registering for her fall semester classes before leaving California.

The Mongolia team left from LAX (Los Angeles International Airport) at midnight and arrived in Ulanbaataar almost 24 hours after take-off and a 12 hour layover at Incheon International Airport in South Korea. The next day, the first wave East Asia team left from Los Angeles along with 10 other first wave mission teams from the Chicago, Atlanta, Norcal, Boston and New York KCCC regions to countries including Japan, Indonesia and Switzerland.

Read more of our coverage on the Mongolia mission trip:
Project Friendship Part 1
Project Friendship Part 2
Project Friendship Part 3
Project Friendship Part 4
Project Friendship Part 5
Project Friendship Part 6
Project Friendship Part 7
Project Friendship Part 8
Project Friendship Part 9