Have Southern Baptists finally emerged from the long, fearful
shadows cast on September 11, 2001?
One sign will come in the next few months, when missionaries
around the world begin finding out if Southern Baptist churches and parents
are willing to send their youth to help them spread the gospel.
Have Southern Baptists finally emerged from the long, fearful
shadows cast on September 11, 2001?
One sign will come in the next few months, when missionaries
around the world begin finding out if Southern Baptist churches and parents
are willing to send their youth to help them spread the gospel.
Southern Baptist missionaries worldwide have requested more
than 4,000 high school students to serve alongside them in 35-plus projects
next year – primarily through the M-Fuge International and International
World Changers programs.
The students who sign up will go to Latin America, Europe,
Russia, Africa, Asia, the Middle East. They will serve on “the front lines
of lostness” to find and create ways to communicate the gospel, said Kelly
Davis, consultant for youth mobilization with the Southern Baptist International
Mission Board. “Missionaries have identified strategic ways that high school
students can assist them to reach the people that God has called them to.”
In Ecuador, youth volunteers will distribute medical kits,
hold kids clubs and use sports ministry to reach out to others.
In Moscow, students will hold a youth camp for Russian teenagers.
In Jordan and Lebanon, they will teach English and use creative
ministries to reach specific communities with the gospel.
Youth involvement in international mission projects nearly
doubled in the year before Sept. 11, from 2,200 teenage volunteers in the year
2000 to 4,200 last year (mostly in the pre-Sept. 11 months).
However, after the attacks, numerous projects were cancelled
for lack of participation, missions leaders note. This years international
teenage volunteers will total around 2,000, Davis said.
Davis and others thank God for each of that 2,000.
But they say they also wonder how many youth volunteers stayed
home – not necessarily because of their own post-Sept. 11 anxieties but
because of the concerns of their elders?
None of the youth mission projects shelved in the aftermath
of the terrorist attacks last year was cancelled by a missionary concerned about
the security or safety of young volunteers, Davis said. The stop signs went
up much closer to home.
“Even in the most tense locations overseas,
missionaries were still saying, Yall come,” Davis reported.
However, perceptions among many is that entire global locations
are unsafe.
Of course, Davis agreed that safety cannot be guaranteed –
not overseas, not at home.
“Were in perilous times,” added Mark Robbins,
who leads M-Fuge International projects for LifeWay Christian Resources of the
Southern Baptist Convention. “But if the Great Commission is to be fulfilled,
we will have to be risk-takers. This is not the time to be worried about what
might happen if we go. We need to be more worried about what might
happen if we fail to go.
“We have thousands of risk-takers – missionaries
– around the world who have gone to serve and represent us,” Robbins
pointed out. “They are asking that we send our students. Will we heed the
call?”
More than 40 percent of the worlds population is under
age 25, Robbins added. In some countries, the under-25 cohort tops 60 percent.
Missions leaders ask – who better to reach them for Christ than young people
who know him?
“Youth are a major key to world evangelization,”
Robbins said. “The doors are open. Missionaries are asking for young people.
Youth ministers are eager to go, and the students that they lead will follow.
…
“What we need now are parents, churches and pastors willing
to support and encourage their involvement.” (BP)
(For information about 2003 projects with International World Changers and
M-Fuge International, persons should call 800-999-3113, ext. 1355, or visit
www.thetask.org\youth)