Tuesday, June 10, 2008

Mission Trip Training

People have so many different views of what mission trips are all about. To some, a mission trip is nothing but a vacation with a few bits of Christian service thrown in on the side. To others, it is a time of hard-core, selfless service for the Lord, with no thought for themselves.

I guess by the nature of the place we are going this summer, our trip to Ocean City will hopefully be a good mix of fun and ministry, with the emphasis on ministry. We have been training for months for this trip. Back in March, the youth began an evangelism training course called “The Way of the Master.” This is not a sugar-coated, let’s hold hands and sing kum-by-ya method by any means. I can’t wait to see how the Lord uses our youth to witness for Him on this trip.

Besides evangelism training, we also had a training session on how to effectively teach children. This will be especially helpful, since the main thrust of our ministry will be “Surf and Sand Clubs” for children in local campgrounds each morning. Mr. Bruce Hoover from Child Evangelism Fellowship was with us one Wednesday night to train us in this area. He provided us with many helpful tips and methods that I’m sure will be incredibly useful while we’re there.

There are also many organizational and logistic-related items that we have been taking care of. Without the right guidance, this task could be a nightmare, but Pastor Baker and Amy Lamb have been doing an awesome job of getting everything together and organizing everything. “Parent’s Night Out” takes the most planning and organization while we are there, but the budgeting and arrangements that have been taking place for months leading up to the trip are also frustrating and time consuming…so much goes into a trip like this, both in the “spotlight” and behind the scenes.

Well, we leave next Saturday. Please pray for us as we go, and pray for the people that we will encounter. Pray that God will already be preparing their hearts to hear what He has to say through us.

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