• What is a Kid Mission?
A Kid Mission is a short-term missionary trip to some foreign land (other than the U.S) where the ministry emphasis is strategically focused upon children. For me it is a partnership. I look for a team who can be trained and prepared to share the gospel using creative methods. We are trying to share our light in darker places, using existing in-country ministries and missionaries to allow for more natural and maximum follow-up. A Kid Mission is not “child’s play,” or a “vacation.”
A Kid Mission, for me, is serious strategic ministry. These missions require lots of work and support. There are numerous things to coordinate and prepare for each time. We have to trust the Lord for the needed funds. We are concentrating on countries in the “10-40 Window.” This is the global window of mission opportunity that lies across Africa and Asia from 10 degrees latitude north of the equator to 40 degrees latitude north of the equator. (However, I have viewed this window more loosely, as a continuous belt around the equator.) This global belt or window has lots of children and has the least amount of Christian ministry to children. Further, these countries have little or no Christian resources for kids.
For years, it has been my plan to have a global ministry to children, but early on, my wife (Sharon) and I made a decision to be more focused on our own children, while they were in the home. At that time, I was hearing about several Godly men that were being used of God around the world. The success and travel of their ministry, unfortunately meant the neglect of their own children. So we resolved to concentrate on our four children and gain needed experience in evangelistic ministries closer to home. Now that our children are grown and “launched from the nest,” I am now available to go farther from home, with the support of my family. In 2000, I felt it was time that I selectively form partnerships and venture into children’s ministries abroad. I am learning as I go and our church is encouraging and supporting my vision. God is now sending me and using me in other countries. I still feel I am “a work in progress,” I am learning much with each trip. So here is my growing “short list” of the Kid-Mission countries, where I have now ministered, with some success.
In 2002, I conducted a Kid Mission in the Republic of Vanuatu (this used to be the New Hebrides Islands when France and Britain both claimed these islands) in the South Pacific (between Fiji Islands and Australia). There we lead training events and conducted an evening Kid’s Crusade in Luganville, on the Island of Espiritu Santo (Holy Spirit). We visited the schools during day and shared the gospel with the new kids every night. Wow! What a first trip! No one had ever come there just to speak to the children. There were hundreds of decisions for Christ.
I have taken two summer Kid Missions to Estonia in 2003 and 2004 (a formerly Russian occupied country that also recently declared their independence). Estonia is located near Finland. It is one of the Baltic States. The first trip was a vision trip with seven from my church. On the second trip, I was part of a team of thirty-three that built a playground for the children in Tartu, Estonia. However, this time I was involved with more leadership training and speaking opportunities for children, with contacts I made from the previous year. It was another great experience learning about another culture and getting a vision for helping churches reach out to the children.
Then, I joined a three-member team from my church and traveled to Pakistan for Kid Mission in May of 2005, just before the summer earthquake, in an area where we were. We served with the Christian Missionary Alliance Missionaries there. We visited many of the ministry venues of the CMA and ministered to children in their sponsored ministries. I began getting a burden to help the poor and taking my little light to darker places.
In 2006 and 2007 I teamed up with the Bread of Life Church in Torrance who organizes medical-mission trips to Mexico and Latin America with the 4 Christ Mission out of San Diego. I have been involved with this partnership for two years as the Children’s Evangelist and Children’s-Ministry Team Trainer. By the end of 2007 I will have completed eleven Kid-Mission trips with them. I will have made nine one-two day trips in the Baja region of Mexico. Not only do we help churches, but we have been involved with reaching children in the jails. The mothers bring the children when they visit their incarcerated husbands. Also Bread of Life Church sponsors a longer one-week trip in the summer. I went with this team deeper into Mexico to the Los Mochis region for one week in the summer of 2006.
The Bread of Life Church organized another one-week Kid Mission to Panama this July, 2007. Seventy of us flew to Panama, then traveled in three buses down the Pan American Highway into the Darian Jungle. Hundreds of children heard the gospel from our trained children’s team. One highlight for me was working with the Embera Puru Indian Tribe, this group is converting to Christ in large numbers, especially the children. No one has worked with before. A church is now being built for them.
My most recent trip was a seventeen-day India-Kid Mission in August of 2007. It was a vision trip with some ministry to children and leaders. However, I spoke 30 times to over 4,000 children. My focus was getting exposed to two national missionary/evangelists and preparing for a future trip. Hundreds of decisions were made among the children. All the trips have effected me, but this recent Indian-Kid Mission has challenged me the most. I am eager to see what the Lord will do with this experience. I will be sharing more about India in the future blogs.
God has been at work in these short-term Kid-Mission trips. I will be posting some of the exciting stories from these ministries.
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