Here's some feedback from those who joined us for our recent trip in April 2019:

Basil – Tauranga   What a wonderful thrill to meet the pastors of three or four churches and spend time in fellowship with them. What lovely, friendly congregations and wonderful young adults, some of whom are sponsored by Starfish Ministries. They are so bright and such godly young men and women. I was so blessed to spend time with them and the delightful young children at the DVBS (Daily Vacation Bible School) we helped with. We had a great week with Agape folks and a big thank you to Gina for your hospitality. Last, but not least, our few days spent at the Word of Life camps just blew me away. They are wonderful camps with amazing facilities and outlooks. We loved the opportunity to have this experience.

Kylie - Tauranga   Visiting our past and new sponsor girls and their families, and staying with one of them was a real highlight. Getting to know them better and living their lifestyle for a while and being involved in special family events was really humbling and special.

Kris – Te Awamutu  For me, the trip had it’s great points and some difficult points. The struggles of the heat and sleeping , sometimes, in close quarters among 6 or 7 others with the only toilet in the next door house. I also struggled at times with the language and couldn’t understand or be understood. But being together as a team, under a great leader who gave us strength to convey the word of Christ and see the enjoyment and encouragement gained by the people as we visited and joined in with them made a huge impact. We experienced lots of different things and situations and a saying that was often used was, “that’s the way it is”. It was really just something
amazing and yet something so different from what we were used to.
Would I go again? Yes I would!

Phoebe - Auckland  Seeing the church workers, parents and youth tirelessly serving in their churches or ministries are inspirational. Some of these people have very little but serve diligently with what they have. It reminds me and challenges me to serve the church or community with whatever (resources, time, talents) I have. Whenever I look back on this trip, it's the memories of people that warms my heart. A worthwhile trip.

Thinking of joining us in the Philippines next year but don't know what to expect? Hear what some past missions trip attendees have said afterwards

2018 will be a major milestone for us at Starfish. It marks 10 years since we began in 2008 and we think it is worth celebrating. We are still in the early stages of planning but we are hoping to organise a celebration dinner in Hamilton on Saturday April 28th and we would love you to join us. More details will be released nearer the time. 
We are inviting some overseas guests to join us so it should be a great night.

Starfish recently was able to sponsor 11 students to attend CTC camp in Bulacan in the Philippines. CTC camp is a 2 week discipleship training camp held in the summer holidays for young people. They learn many things such as Doctrine, Christian Growth, New Testament Survey, teaching Kids, and Evangelism.
Here's what some of them had to say:

For me the hardest subject is Doctrine because you need to study even the smallest part of the verse. But, I really love this because we proof the certain thing in the Bible and also sometimes we are having debate, we are acting as the other religion and we always lose because we are defending the wrong even we know the truth. In Christian Growth we study about those things that we need to do in Christian living. It includes baptism, breaking of bread, obedience, and other. And in New Testament Survey it quite bit hard for me because the Study Bible in this subject is very useful and I don't have that but, there’s a lot of things that I learn. In Teaching Kids I learn some strategies to catch the attention of the children. Also they teach how to do a lesson plan for VBS (Vacation Bible School). The last subject is Evangelism. I will never forget the things that I've experience in this subject. We go outside the campsite and we evangelize some people and after that I'm very relax and I want to evangelize people that I will see.
We also have sports time. Some sport I don't know how to play but in Basketball we reach the final game but lose hahaha. And in Volleyball we also reach the final and boom we are the champion hahaha and even we don't have trophy at least we have a food price and I think I gain weight....

Being a first term camper, I learned a lot their in the camp. Like one of the subject give the activity to do to survey of 10 books in the bible. That was give me a challenge for being a first term. That's why I am so thankful for all of you kuya who are willing help others to have an experience the love of God

It's very good... I have a lot of thing I know... Thank again Kuya