PIU Yap Ministry Team #5 – Grace Neth

  The 5th interview in our Yap ministry trip series is with Grace Neth. Grace is a 3rd year student who just finished an AA degree in biblical studies and is now in the BA in liberal studies program at PIU. She is Chuukese but born and raised in Hawaii. This is Grace’s first time to go to Yap with the ministry team but she was on the Voices of Micronesia team that toured the USA in 2010. Grace was a Resident Assistant in the women’s dorm last year and participated in the work-education program as a library worker. During the ministry trip she led devotions and discussion groups with the young ladies there. She was also VBS and retreat leader and helped organize the program and music.

Grace’s favorite part of the trip was “actually having the opportunity to speak in front of churches and youth groups. I have never experienced that before. It was a new thing to speak and lead discussion in front of such a big group. Speaking in front of a group is a very different thing than singing in front of a big group.” She also enjoyed building relationships with the Yapese girls, “I was afraid that I wouldn’t be able to talk to people because it was my first time to Yap but lots of girls came and talked and joked around with me. By the end of the trip I knew some of them well enough to be ‘promise sisters.’” She also appreciated that though the team was a “group of strong personalities, everyone got along.” 

The greatest challenge on the trip for Grace was “learning humility.” "She says, “ I need humility. Sometimes I need to be quiet and listen, but I would say, ‘No! We need to do this.’ She also struggled with “last minute changes.” “Flexibility is one thing, but I didn’t want to be so last minute.” She stressed the importance of “being an example to do what we are preaching in the retreat programs, that we would be warm after God and sharing it by loving our team members and those around me.”

Grace is thankful that her experience as an RA at PIU taught her to “speak into the lives of people from different cultures” and prepared her to “live cross-culturally.” In her Field Education courses she “saw a lot of different ministries.” At the time she wondered, “Why do I need to do this?” but she “got a good taste of ministry.” Now “ministry is familiar to me and easier. I know I can do this, this, or this!” I found that “when I bless others, people bless my life.” “I can do ministry even though I don’t have white hair yet.”