Tuesday, May 1, 2018

Have You Taken Your Child on a Mission Trip?

I recall my first mission trip. It was Haiti, 1995. It was transformational. It changed my life forever. So much so, I would eventually become a full-time missionary.

Flash forward 22 years.

My 14-year old daughter and I will be going on a 1-week mission trip next month. It’s one of the dozens of Jesus Film Mission Trips offered to the public each year. This family friendly trip is available for kids 14 and older if accompanied by a parent.

My daughter is very excited and I’m thrilled I get to be a part of this experience with her. This particular trip to London focuses on a certain group of religious people from the Middle East who vacation in England each year.

More than 200,000 of these individuals flood into the country to sightsee. So we will have the opportunity to meet this friendly people group, form relationships and share our passion for making Jesus the center of our lives.

What I love about Jesus Film Mission Trips is the care they offer you as a trip participant and the training you get for this outreach.

If you go, you and your child will receive training on the religious beliefs of these unreached people. And you’ll learn how to find common ground in what you know and believe is actually true about God. Finding common ground, rather than arguing over truth and heresy obviously builds trust and friendship rather than building walls that separate and alienate you--making it easier to share your faith.

As part of our in-country training, my daughter and I will also learn some basic conversational Arabic! How cool is that? This also helps create bridges and build relationships to more effectively share the gospel. Part of our role (and yours too) will include distribution of the “JESUS” film and copies of the New Testament.

I’m confident my daughter will return from this trip changed forever. After speaking with the trip leader on the phone, my daughter is already so excited she’s mentioned switching her future career plans for being a lawyer, to being a missionary.

Wow! And we haven’t even left yet.

If you’d like to know more about how you and your kids can experience a life-changing mission trip go to www.JesusFilmMissionTrips.org.