connect locally

Being Intentional

I watched the fuse spark to life in the murky shadows of the camp hallway. In seconds, our Missions Camp "firemen" had set off several smoke bombs and activated the fire alarm. It was 5:00 am. Sleeping campers awoke to the shouts of their counselors and the firement to grab their sleeping bags and get out quickly. Minutes later, 47 campers sat on the grass in the soccer field. They now were refugees. Kids Missions Camp was off to another great start!

So, how do you develop people—young and old—to understand and catch God's heart for the nations?

If I've learned anything in my years as a pastor and missions leader, it (at least) has to be intentional. After five days of interactive learning and plain old camp fun, we had 47 campers who understood something of what it means to be a refugee, to have God as one's refuge and who admitted that the week had changed them in a big way.

Kids Missions Camp is just one of the tools WorldVenture uses to develop people for missions. That priority has been the foundation for other programs like Journey Corps and our missionary candidate mentoring program called, "Skills, Knowledge and Character: A Church Based Approach to Missionary Candidate Preparation." Training for the "SKC" mentoring will be available for interested churches here in the Northwest in October.

And, we'll do the Kids Missions Camp again next summer. No, the campers won't get evacuated, but we will mess with their hearts once more. It's all a part of developing people... God's heart for the nations becoming their own!

Doug Hazen
Northwest Regional Mission Director