ABOUT ARON
Aron is the son of Associate Pastor Keven Newsome and his wife DeAnna. He is 18 and will be attending USC Upstate in the fall, majoring in commercial music. He is a composer and has released four albums to date. (You can find him anywhere music is sold under the stage name "Kairuku.") He volunteers at our church as an Audio Tech.
At five years old, Aron and his family moved to the campus of the New Orleans Baptist Theological Seminary, where they lived for almost four years. While there, Aron grew close with several children from Korean families in their apartment building. He grew to love Korean and Asian culture.
Aron wants to go to Japan to learn more about ministry in Asian cultures. A successful experience in Japan might lead to a future mission opportunity in South Korea, where he hopes to reunite with one of his childhood friends. Through this experience he also hopes to grow in his faith and to push himself to step out of his comfort zone to follow Christ.
ABOUT THE MISSION TRIP
This summer, Aron will be joining an IMB short-term mission trip to Kobe, Japan. During this summer trip, mission team members will support and supplement IMB Kobe field missionaries mainly through Entry and Evangelism functions. This includes 5-minute conversations on the streets inviting people to language cafes (English conversation and discussion) or international party events. This will occur both in the downtown/east side of the Kobe, and in the west part of the city, "Gakuentoshi" or "College Town," where there are several universities clustered together. At these events, they plant Gospel seeds, with the intention of having spiritual conversations to discern who has interest in the Gospel. Field missionaries actively pursue those promising relationships through further events and private conversations. Those who trust Christ, are discipled and plugged into local churches for further discipleship. The IMB Kobe field team's vision statement is simply to 'reach next generation Japanese.' As it is, college students are some of the most open to receiving the Gospel, given the proper context and time invested into relationship.
The summer team will also join with the Kobe field team by prayer-walking various areas of the city, knowing that prayer is their most powerful weapon and that through prayer God lays the foundation for personal interactions.
Finally, summer team members may have the opportunity to help local partner churches with outreach efforts or other needs, time permitting.
The base cost of the trip through IMB is $2,200. This does not include airfare, insurance, or pocket money. Airfare is expected to be around $1,500-$2,000. He is hoping to raise between $4,000-$5,000 to cover all the expenses.
MISSION SUMMARY
Destination: Kobe, Japan
Affiliation: The International Mission Board
Dates: June 26, 2022 - July 10, 2022
Support Goal - $4,000-$5,000