Missions projects help students grow in Christian walk

When Blake Mayo was called as minister to students at Twelfth Street Baptist Church, Gadsden, in Etowah Baptist Association, there was something in particular he felt God wanted him to do — get young people involved in missions.
   
Mayo said his goal is to have everyone who comes through the church’s student ministry to be involved in missions — and he is moving along in meeting that goal. 
   
It isn’t, however, about reaching a mark, Mayo said. It’s about what happens in the lives of the students along the way. “I’ve seen the difference (missions involvement) has made in my life and other people’s,” he said.
   
Missions trips take students to places where they can really see who God is, Mayo said. 
   
The Bible comes to life for students when they minister in places where people have not heard of Jesus. They see the “big picture” when they go on missions, Mayo said.
   
David Cochran, minister of missions and outreach at Mount Zion Baptist Church, Monrovia, in Madison Baptist Association, estimated that 80 percent of the church’s students in grades seven through 12 have participated in missions. When students get involved in missions, “you can see God reflected in their lives,” he said, and their dependence on the Lord increases.
   
Several Mount Zion Baptist students have gone on to serve on the support staff of missions organizations, some are considering becoming missionaries and others desire to have a missions lifestyle wherever they are, Cochran said.
   
Jim Coskrey, minister of students at Mount Gilead Baptist Church, Dothan, in Columbia Baptist Association, said he has seen young people become less worldly and more appreciative after exposure to missions. He has also seen eyes and hearts opened to full-time ministry.
   
Coskrey, who has spent 29 years in the ministry, believes taking students on missions trips is one of the most important things he does.
   
Missions involvement, he said, develops a heart for the lost as the students actually get out among people and see their need for Christ.
   
Mayo said such involvement fosters a greater commitment to being active in church and creates excitement to go on more missions trips.
   
He has found that positive things happen when young people step out of their comfort zone. Such was the case for 18-year-old Emily Stone, a senior at Westbrook Christian School in Rainbow City and a member of Twelfth Street Baptist.  She participated in a missions trip to the Canary Islands this summer.
   
The missions team was in the resort city of Las Palmas to give packets of Christian literature to the Saharawis, an unreached people group. Mayo said Stone would spot a Saharawi woman, then walk over, sometimes for a good distance, to give the woman a gift packet. Very rarely, if ever, did a Saharawi woman refuse to take a packet when she offered it. “She really flourished out there,” Mayo said.
   
Stone described her missions experience — which includes two international, four North American and numerous local projects — another way: “It energizes me. … I just want to serve the Lord.” The Bible says to “go,” which is a lesson that needs to be learned from an early age, she said.
   
Involvement in missions begins with obedience to the command to go, which, in turn, fosters growth in a person’s walk with the Lord, said Doug Fulton, youth minister at Calvary Baptist Church, Tuscaloosa, in Tuscaloosa Baptist Association. 
   
“Live a life that has an impact,” Fulton said. Through missions, teens learn to build relationships, share the gospel  and see that they were created for a specific purpose. 
   
Keith Loomis, an associate in the office of collegiate and student ministries of the Alabama Baptist State Board of Missions (SBOM), said it was his involvement in missions as a young man that determined his career path, leading to SBOM.
   
Serving in missions provides practical application of the Scripture and the individuals’ faith in the course of meeting the needs of people, he said, noting opportunities for students like Baptist Campus Ministries and MPact Alabama. 
   
MPact Alabama, which was held Oct. 7–9, is a challenge for junior high, high school and college students to have some type of missions experience within their local Baptist association during a specific weekend.
   
Loomis said a well-balanced youth ministry would include some form of missions work — a local, state, national or international endeavor — for students each year.
   
The goal is not to be on mission only one week a year, he added. Rather the aim is to realize that each person is to be on mission where God has planted him or her.  
   
Fulton said many of the youth at Calvary Baptist are engaged in a year-round emphasis on reaching people, taking part in many of the church’s missions activities. One such project involves students partnering with the police department and housing authority, among others, for Kid’s Klub. On Tuesday afternoons, the volunteers assist children in kindergarten through sixth grade with homework and teach them about the Bible.
   
Birmingham Baptist Association (BBA) has also created a means for year-round missions projects. 
   
Butch Henderson, the association’s team leader for equipping congregations/global missions, said the program, called Serve 365, resembles World Changers.
   
The focus of the ministry is construction, specifically repairs on substandard housing, with an evangelistic emphasis, Henderson said. The projects are tailored to participating churches’ interests and time commitments. This is the first year for Serve 365, and more than 1,200 volunteers participated this summer, he reported.