volunteering in missions

Usually traveling to the beach or mountains each summer, the Guinn family was looking for a different kind of vacation when mom Sharon searched for a family mission trip on the Internet last February. Despite a collective groan from her family when she told them about going to Kentucky coal-country to do mission work, she signed up the Guinn clan.

"We'd done the same things for summer vacation over the years and I was just burnt out," says Sharon, who drove six hours from their home in Lugoff, South Carolina, to Lynch, Kentucky, with husband, Creig, and their four children, ages 9-16.

The Guinn family's work projects included grass cutting for Creig and park cleanup and weed-eating for Sharon and the kids. Daughter Lydia dressed up as a clown for a Fourth of July block party at a local park. "It was the best vacation we've ever had as a family," says Sharon. "It was a life-changing experience for all of us." It was an eternity-changing experience for Creig, who was led to Christ by another dad during their four days in Lynch. "That was the crowning moment for us," says Sharon, a member of Mt. Olivet Baptist Church in Camden, S.C.

More than 50 families-coming from as far away as Michigan, Wisconsin and even Arizona-participated in NAMB's inaugural Families on Mission experience. Lynch is home of Meridzo Center Ministries, a local ministry run by NAMB Mission Service Corp missionaries Lonnie and Belinda Riley.

Half of every day was spent on family devotionals, prayer, worship, mission awareness and family small-group discussions. Families spent the rest of the day involved in mission projects, including minor home repairs, painting, free car washes, visiting shut-ins, cutting grass and even offering free swimming lessons to local children.

Wendy Goldie grew up as an MK (Missionary Kid) in South Korea. When she and her husband, Reg, heard about the family mission trip, they thought it would be the perfect experience for their kids, Kristen and Kurt. "God has given Reg and me a bigger perspective of the world," says Wendy. "We really wanted our kids to have that perspective and open their eyes to other parts of the world."

The Goldies spent the week painting picnic tables in a local park. Kristen and Kurt were able to interact with the kids in the neighborhood who were curious about their work.

"Not only did we get to do hands-on mission projects, but we got to know the people in the community," says Wendy. "It was a great experience for our family and especially meaningful to me to be back on the mission field with my own family."
To learn more about Family Mission Trips and other mission experiences available through the North American Mission Board, visit www.namb.net/fom.

Raising a cultured kid

By Phillip Connor

It's easy to stay in the dark when it comes to cross-cultural awareness. Perhaps we greet our Hispanic neighbors, we're friendly to the Indian woman serving us our lunch, and we respect the Middle Eastern doctor giving us advice about our health. But do we really seek to know the people who don't look like us? And do we teach our children the importance of knowing about other cultural groups and befriending folk from cultures besides our own. Here are some ways to help raise a more cross-cultural kid:

• Live where they live. Be strategic about where you make your next home. Are you moving into a neighborhood where everyone looks like you, or have you taken note of what ethnicities are represented in your area? Make a habit of seeking culturally diverse areas just as much as you seek good schools and property value.
• Play where they play. Parks are a wonderful place for children to interact with kids from other cultural backgrounds. Strike up a conversation with parents while the kids play. Encourage your children to practice the pronunciation of unique names and research the nativity and cultures of the international people you and your children meet.
• Eat what they eat.  Don't always pick the same old franchise restaurants. Take your kids to Thai or Indian or Eastern European restaurants whenever you get the chance. Also, don't shy away from inviting non-Anglo friends to dinner, and don't shy away from accepting an invitation. Eat what they offer with gratitude and encourage your kids to do the same. Often first generation immigrants are looking for connections with their new culture. Meals are a great opportunity to build bridges.
• Speak what they speak.  Language schools are popping up in urban and suburban areas and language software is being produced in abundance. Even fast food restaurants and children's cartoons are making language learning accessible and fun for children. If you have web access and a telephone, you and your kids can learn a language, or at least be exposed to new languages. Contact your chamber of commerce, local ethnic associations and even educators in your school district to find out more.
• Celebrate what they celebrate. People groups in North America often have festivals and other types of gatherings to celebrate their heritage. Go online or to your local ethnic associations to find some events near your house, put them on your calendar and go. This can be a rich experience. It's a good experience for children to feel like a minority from time to time. This will teach our children that the world holds a multitude of peoples and Christ loves them all.
• Build genuine friendships. It's important not only to experience other cultures, but to have people from other cultures who are true friends. If you find it difficult to go deeper than a token conversation, ask Christ to give you his perspective on your cross-cultural relationships. They may be some of the best you ever have.

Phillip Connor is Manager of Research Missiology at the North American Mission Board.

sharing Christ

By Carolyn R. Bennett

"I've found that a lot of people will pay for a plane ticket to minister in Peru or some other Latin American country, but they haven't talked to the Latin Americans right down the street in their own cities," says David Lema, a Cuban native and associate director for theological and distance learning for the Florida Baptist Convention. "Did you know that New Orleans, for example, has the third largest number of Hondurans in the world?"

New York City, Los Angeles and Washington, D.C., rank among the top metropolitan cities with large immigrant populations from around the world, but other cities across the United States also are home to large immigrant communities. About 30,000 Somali and 70,000 Hmong refugees settled in Minneapolis and St. Paul in the mid-1990s where they could find jobs requiring little or no English skills. The warm climate in Florida cities like Orlando and Tampa have attracted immigrants from India and other Southeast Asian countries.

Immigrants from the Middle East began to settle in Dearborn, Michigan, when the Ford Motor Company began hiring Arabs in the 1930s. Today, many communities on Dearborn's south and east sides are primarily Islamic, making the city one of the highest Arab populations outside the Middle East. Other cities with high immigrant populations include Boston, Orlando, Cleveland and San Francisco.

Scattered throughout the United States, these immigrant communities provide a wonderful opportunity for Christians to reach other ethnic groups without leaving the country. Many agencies already work within immigrant communities in the U.S. Contact your local Baptist association or State Baptist Convention for ways to volunteer in ministries to immigrants. The North American Mission Board can help you connect with missionaries who are serving immigrant populations across North America. Visit thebridge.namb.net.

Carolyn R. Bennett is the chief editor at Accelerating International Mission Strategies (AIMS) in Virginia Beach, Virginia, where she is a freelance writer and serves her local church.

Glad tidings of joy

By Marilyn Stewart

Picture a child's face as she steps into a very special department store where money isn't accepted and a customer brings only her Christmas shopping list. Or imagine a mother's satisfaction as she leaves a Christmas store bearing free gifts for her children to be placed under an otherwise barren Christmas tree.

Though these churches may differ significantly in size and budget, all of them welcome the Christmas shopping season as an opportunity to share the gospel while giving parents and children in less-than-privileged circumstances the joy of opening gifts from each other on Christmas morning. Here's how you can join these churches in meeting the needs of your community during the Christmas season:

• Identify areas of need. Partner with local schools to identify families with special needs by following district guidelines for charitable organizations. Parents can initiate contact with the church after school administrators identify candidates and distribute the church's information to those homes. By partnering with schools, churches are increasing the quality of life in a school's community and in the school itself. This sends a strong message to both educators and residents, and it assures that no family is overlooked or given too much. A helpful step in this process is to interview families once they're identified. This creates a personal connection and helps determine more specific needs.
• Plan far in advance. Begin planning for next year's event right now. Give yourself eight months to a year to plan the event. This will ensure you've researched families, that all volunteers are in place and that necessary supplies are available. Items in the store can be provided by Sunday School classes who sponsor a specific age and gender group.
• Enlist volunteers with all kinds of skills. Advertise the need for supplies and volunteers. The tasks required and the people being served are varied. The project requires people who can serve as decorators, interpreters, administrators, greeters, shoppers, counselors, handimen and people who don't mind lifting and carrying heavy items. Be sure to include children and teens in the planning stages and during the event.
• Make it a family ministry. Children of church members can shop for toys for other children and take part in wrapping them. Also, invite children from families in need to choose a gift for everyone on their shopping lists, including siblings, parents, grandparents, a teacher, and finally, one for themselves. "Santa's helpers" can escort the children one by one through the department-store setting where toys, clothing, jewelry and other items are available. After the selections have been gift-wrapped, the parents are invited to shop for the children.
• Involve the community. Some churches allow for donations from local businesses, a benefit of the good working relationship maintained with the business community through these churches' many year-round ministry programs. Consider involving other congregations in your local Baptist association or community to provide volunteers and resources for spreading the Christmas cheer.
• Make it an all-day event. Many churches make it an all-day event offering food, fun and crafts for the children as they wait their turn to shop. The church staff visits with families to become better acquainted with their needs, often discovering some that have been overlooked. The important thing is to do what works best for your community.

Marilyn Stewart is a writer living in New Orleans, Louisiana.

volunteering in missions

Operation NOAH Rebuild

The tragedy of Katrina has opened a floodgate of volunteers helping New Orleans recover from the loss incurred more than a year ago. Housed and headquartered in the World Trade Center in downtown New Orleans, a band ?of nearly 1,000 volunteers cycle in and out ?of the area offering their skills in carpentry, electrical work, flooring and just about any other service required for renovation of a thousand homes. This is Operation NOAH Rebuild, a two-year project funded by the North American Mission Board and fueled by volunteer labor from congregations and State Conventions throughout North America. For more information on how you and your church can bring light to the New Orleans area, visit www.namb.net/noah.

starting churches

New Church

Keystone Baptist Church
Kennesaw, Georgia

Pastor: Terry Nelson

Location: Harrison High School

Attendance:  about 100

Pastor's path: A former executive for the mortgage company HomeBanc, Terry Nelson has served 25 years in a variety of ministries. He studied at Mercer University in Atlanta and at Southwestern Baptist Theological Seminary.

A brief history: Keystone started more than a year ago meeting with a core group of about 40 in another church's facilities just south of Kennesaw. Now they meet in the auditorium and classrooms of a local high school where they seek to reach a niche of people interested in more traditional ways of doing church and more traditional values. "We want to be relevant, but we also want to appreciate the tradition where we find our roots," Terry says. "We want everyone to feel welcome regardless of their background."

Top Picks

	Why the Nativity? (Tyndale, 2006) by David Jeremiah provides a response to "The Nativity Story," a film about the birth of Jesus and the historical events surrounding it. To be released in 3,000 theaters nationwide December 1, 2006, the movie is expected to raise questions that'll spark an interest in our Faith. Jeremiah provides answers to some of the questions movie-goers might raise, and helps believers prepare for those divine appointments.
	Share (Tyndale, 2006) by Greg Stier is a user-friendly field guide for students on the go. Testimonies from students who've shared their faith interspersed throughout offer wisdom from those who've gone before. The chapters are packed with inspiration, evangelism styles for every personality type, good conversation starters, ways for helping new believers grow and ways for understanding and confronting different worldviews.
	Woman of Influence (IVP, 2006) by Pam Farrel instructs women on becoming more intentional and influential leaders in their homes, jobs, churches and communities. From finding your calling to being a more contagious Christian, Farrel outlines the characteristics of godly, influential women and discusses how women can grow in those areas. With devotional and group discussion questions, this resource is good for group or individual study.
	The Costly Call (Kregel, 2006) by Emir Fethi Caner and H. Edward Pruitt tells the stories of Muslims all over the world who have converted to Christianity. It recounts how they came to faith in Christ, how that decision changed their lives personally and communally and, most important, how the decision has influenced the lives of those around them.
	The Next Mile Goer Guide (Authentic, 2006) by Brian Heerwagen is the perfect resource for planning, going on and involving the whole church in the process of a short-term mission trip in North America and internationally. With insights from 20 missions agencies and a mentor guide for mission team coaches, The Next Mile is a well-rounded resource for engaging people in the act of missions.
	The Way of the Master Basic Training Course (Genesis, 2006) by Kirk Cameron and Ray Comfort includes CDs, workbooks and accessories for starting an outreach ministry that engages people with truth and incites a response as people realize and accept their need for a Savior.
	Trolls and Truth (New Hope, 2006) by Jimmy Dorrell is the story of The Church Under the Bridge in Waco, Texas, a congregation of people from all walks of life who meet beneath an interstate bridge for church. Told through the eyes of church members, this is the story of Christ building lives and community among people who might never have met.
	STR.ORG is the website for Stand To Reason, the organization of Christian apologist and radio personality Greg Koukl. This site offers a variety of resources from articles by leading Christian scholars to evangelism and apologetics tactics to podcasts of lectures and radio programs aimed at helping believers share their faith with more confidence.