by Fred Knip
For 16 years I have been taking a group of high school students to Tijuana, Mexico, to build houses for the impoverished with YWAM’s Homes of Hope. It started out as a church group of twenty or so in 1998. After a few years the high school football team I coach asked if we were too holy for them and wondered why they couldn’t come along. That was a really good question. So, we welcomed the football team and other kids from the local high school. The administration then began to include us in their strategic school plan and over time we began to take more high school kids than local church kids. We ballooned up to 80 – 100 participants – more than 10% of the school’s population! The impact was direct and noticeable. Teens were being transformed and the community and school were being impacted. When we do God’s work, we meet God. The sweet aroma of Christ far outweighs the stench of the world.
All of this came from simply welcoming teens to join us in serving others together.
This year we partnered for the first time with Youth for Christ. They had been asking for years to partner with us, so this year we traveled to Mexico with 53 participants. On our way home we stopped in Lethbridge for a coffee break before trekking the last three and half hours back to Lacombe. My daughter, who attends U of L, met us there. She had been on numerous trips with us and asked if I would put a trip together for Young Adults who have Reading Week in February. So I thought about this.
As I thought about this I realized the March Break trip was in good hands with Youth for Christ. Could we really set up another trip just for Reading Week Young Adults? Because Tijuana is too cold in February, Homes of Hope did not have a Mission Adventure at that time of year. Could we do something else??? I have a friend, Phil Cunningham, who does the same thing we were doing in Tijuana but in Cambodia. He had sent me a newsletter last March so I followed up with him asking if we could bring a group of young adults to Phnom Penh in February to build a house and work among the less fortunate. Before we knew it, we were preparing to take a mission trip to Cambodia in February!
So, what started as a mission trip for teens from our church 16 years ago became a community wide mission trip. Now God has opened the door for us to help engage Young Adults in missions too! This February Zion Christian Fellowship is sponsoring the trip and it is open to anyone who wishes to join us, so we want to invite you to consider it too! The invitation website is www.cambodia2015.com. We would love to help connect with you or any Young Adults you have who may be interested in engaging in these short term missions trips with us. If you’re not able to join us in serving in Cambodia, I still want to encourage you to find ways to engage Teens and Young Adults in Missions. There’s no telling what God can do when we serve Him by serving “the least of these” (Matthew 25:40).
How are you engaging your church and community in Missions this next year? Tell us what are some of the ways that you have found helpful in engaging people at different ages in being involved in missions.
Fred Knip Pastors Zion Christian Fellowship in Ponoka, AB.
