On one of Azusa Pacific University’s longer Global Engagement trips, the Philippines team spent one month abroad participating in a variety of ministries. Nursing and honors humanities double major Abigail (Abby) Tam ’26 served as a co-lead on the team. Tam had not applied to be a part of the Philippines trip, but when she got the opportunity to be a co-lead with one of her friends, she decided to give it a chance. In the end, Tam realized that it doesn’t matter where you serve, it only matters that you put your faith into action with humility and obey God’s calling to serve.
Tam’s parents are missionaries that have served around the world. She has always felt called to do similar work, and she fell in love with the Office of Service and Discipleship’s (OSD) genuine love and desire for students to pursue Local and Global Engagement work. Tam applied to be on multiple teams, and already having ties to the Philippines through family and her parents’ ministry efforts, she wanted to try something new. However, after spending time praying about the teams, OSD felt that Tam would be a perfect leader for the Philippines team. At first she was unsure, but the closer the trip came, the more she felt a sense of peace and excitement about the placement.
The Philippines trip is unique because there is no specific ministry focus. Instead, the team had the opportunity to experience a variety of ways to serve including youth ministry, construction, prison ministry, worship, food service, and healthcare. Since half of the team were nursing majors, a healthcare ministry component was available. The female nursing students served at a birthing clinic where they helped with prenatal and postpartum care, witnessed deliveries, and learned how to check up on mothers and babies. The male nursing student helped with emergency services.
Each team that has gone to the Philippines over the years has one ministry that impacts
them the most. For this team, it was working with children in a children’s home. “Each
of the kids had a unique story about how they got to where they are and the emotional
scars and wounds that they have,” she said.
On one of their days at the children’s home, the team witnessed five children being
dropped off from another home. They were all under the age of seven, so it was difficult
for them to understand what was happening. As the weeks went on, they became comfortable
with the team and their new home. “I feel so lucky to have witnessed that and gained
a better understanding of how to love and support children during such drastic transitions.”
Serving in the children’s home was impactful because it had moments of joy and pain. Tam said that the most challenging part of the trip was seeing how poverty affected people. “Seeing people living in this kind of poverty opened the eyes of many of my team members,” she said. There’s a city called Tondo that is built on a trash dump, and many people there live in very poor conditions that are seen as normal. “The local ministry that hosted us focuses on breaking the cycle of poverty through ministering to and supporting the youth,” she said. “They believe that poverty is also a mindset. Those that are born into it believe that’s all they’re worth and are told that they shouldn’t dream big because they can’t achieve it.” The missionaries hosting Tam and her team work to disband this mindset and encourage the youth to see their true worth and identity as children of God. Despite poverty weighing down many people, Tam said that they got to meet some inspirational youth who were able to build themselves better lives while desiring to bring hope and the gospel back to their communities.
Something that stuck with Tam throughout her time in the Philippines was the idea of respecting boundaries and balancing being proactive with serving in ways that may seem small but help long term. “Having grown up with missionary parents, it’s impacted how I interact with local ministries,” she said. “Often, students are passionate about their dreams of bringing change and transformation, and that passion is beautiful, but long term missionaries have been there for years and even generations. There’s a fine line between being proactive and taking initiative while respecting the boundaries of the local missionaries.” Before the trip, Tam and her co-lead talked about how the team could take initiative to help others while not pushing cultural boundaries or disrupting local ministries, and by the end of the trip, their team had served with humility and obedience to the call of God, helping where they could and noting how even small moments are transformative to themselves and those around them.
Tam will begin working with OSD in the fall. She hopes to further brainstorm ways to educate student teams on balancing learning from missionaries, locals, and pastors to respect cultural boundaries while bringing in excitement and energy that allows people to live out their calling to serve others.