Ive been to youth camp after youth camp and youth retreat after youth retreat, but this is the first time Ive actually done missions rather than just talked about it! Those words still ring in my ear, because they came from our teenage daughter, Ashley, during my first year as president of the North American Mission Board.
After we joined a local church, we jumped in and got involved. Though my travel schedule is always hectic, I decided some priorities had to take precedence over work, especially shared experiences with my family. We thought it would be great to do something on mission together.
World Changers is one of the most effective ministries at NAMB. World Changers will involve more than 25,000 students and adults from churches all over the continent who will participate in 87 summer mission projects in 73 cities in 2002. Students make a difference in peoples lives by repairing homes in low-income neighborhoods and by participating in community ministries like sports camps and Vacation Bible School.
You may think a week away together as a family would be a time to relax and be lazy, but World Changers is just the opposite. Paying their own way, church groups travel to a city where they stay in churches or school buildingsoften not air-conditioned. Thats where they eat and sleep during the short nights before they return each morning to resume painting and roofing houses, dismantling and rebuilding porches, plus other ways to help residents living in the hearts of our cities.
My wife, Cheryl, Ashley and I joined our church in traveling to Jackson, Michigan. We thought it would be a cool and comfortable climate to do such grueling work. Not so that year! Jackson had its worst heat wave in history, and all of us felt it.
But every morning we jumped up early, headed to our respective assignments (all three of us were on different work teams) and put in a full days workand then some.
That weeks experience for the Lord accomplished something in our lives that nothing else could have done. As we gave ourselves away in less than ideal circumstances, God allowed us to experience doing it for one of the least of these brothers of mine (Matthew 25:40). Most important, we had the privilege of seeing people we were serving come to know Jesus Christ as Saviorright in the middle of a work project.
As I look back, I realize one of the most incredible experiences of my life was to share that mission trip with my youngest daughter. I wish Id had the privilege of doing that with my other children.
Last summer, our churchs mission trip to Canada was another opportunity for families to participate together. We worked with a newly planted church in one of Canadas major cities, and the results were amazing. Our friend Janet Knight told me the most powerful ingredient was to watch three generations of her family working side by side to help a church in another country. The trip made them a closer family, plus they returned with a shared understanding of what it means to be on mission for God. Carol Stables and her son, Jeffrey, traveled together on their first international mission trip. Carol said they were stunned by the spiritual dryness of a country steeped in human secularism and a whats-in-it-for-me culture. Carol and Jeffrey now pray for missions around the world because of their shared experience in North America.
I learned a lot from those experiences:
Missions in ministry is more effectively caught than taught. Our children need to see us doing it, not just hear us talking about it.
Everything in life is not of equal priority. As families we must decide how were going to spend our time. I recommend making time to share a mission experience.
Our kids will remember not what they hear us talk about but what they see us do and experience together as a family. A mission trip can change your kids lives...and yours too!
Bob Reccord is president of the North American Mission Board, SBC, and author of Beneath the Surface: Steering Clear of Dangers that Could Leave You Shipwrecked and Forged by Fire: How God Shapes Those He Loves (Broadman & Holman, 2002 and 2000).