fcaministers by Fred Knip
Pre-Building Prayer
For 16 years I have been taking a group of high school students to Tijuana, Mexico, to build houses for the impoverished with YWAM’s Homes of Hope. It started out as a church group of twenty or so in 1998. After a few years the high school football team I coach asked if we were too holy for them and wondered why they couldn’t come along. That was a really good question. So, we welcomed the football team and other kids from the local high school. The administration then began to include us in their strategic school plan and over time we began to take more high school kids than local church kids. We ballooned up to 80 – 100 participants – more than 10% of the school’s population! The impact was direct and noticeable. Teens were being transformed and the community and school were being impacted. When we do God’s work, we meet God. The sweet aroma of Christ far outweighs the stench of the world.
All of this came from simply welcoming teens to join us in serving others together.
This year we partnered for the first time with Youth for Christ. They had been asking for years to partner with us, so this year we traveled to Mexico with 53 participants. On our way home we stopped in Lethbridge for a coffee break before trekking the last three and half hours back to Lacombe. My daughter, who attends U of L, met us there. She had been on numerous trips with us and asked if I would put a trip together for Young Adults who have Reading Week in February. So I thought about this.
As I thought about this I realized the March Break trip was in good hands with Youth for Christ. Could we really set up another trip just for Reading Week Young Adults? Because Tijuana is too cold in February, Homes of Hope did not have a Mission Adventure at that time of year. Could we do something else??? I have a friend, Phil Cunningham, who does the same thing we were doing in Tijuana but in Cambodia. He had sent me a newsletter last March so I followed up with him asking if we could bring a group of young adults to Phnom Penh in February to build a house and work among the less fortunate. Before we knew it, we were preparing to take a mission trip to Cambodia in February!
So, what started as a mission trip for teens from our church 16 years ago became a community wide mission trip. Now God has opened the door for us to help engage Young Adults in missions too! This February Zion Christian Fellowship is sponsoring the trip and it is open to anyone who wishes to join us, so we want to invite you to consider it too! The invitation website is www.cambodia2015.com. We would love to help connect with you or any Young Adults you have who may be interested in engaging in these short term missions trips with us. If you’re not able to join us in serving in Cambodia, I still want to encourage you to find ways to engage Teens and Young Adults in Missions. There’s no telling what God can do when we serve Him by serving “the least of these” (Matthew 25:40).
How are you engaging your church and community in Missions this next year? Tell us what are some of the ways that you have found helpful in engaging people at different ages in being involved in missions.
Fred Knip Pastors Zion Christian Fellowship in Ponoka, AB.
Thanks for the information on missions. I would like to serve with you guys in the future. This is a great ministry building homes and blessing others in Jesus name. My wife and I recently came back from a Peru Mission trip from June to September. We were helping at the Peru Christian Church. I was able to do some esl English classes with lessons from the Bible. It was very exciting. God Bless Jeremy from riversidechristianassembly.com check out our blog at http://www.eslteacherintheusa.blogspot.com
Hello Jeremy – good to hear from you. Where did you go in Peru? I tried to find it on your blog, but may have missed it. We have two Peruvians staying with us on an exchange program. They are from Palca, Peru. We are in Lacombe, Alberta, Canada. Today it was -21 degrees. So being in Peru was very appealing. Love to work with you in the future somehow. God bless you, brother. Fred Knip
Very interesting. Nice to hear all of the people that have been able to participate. You mention that “the impact was direct and noticable.” Can you tell us what you noticed?
Also you only mention impact on the teens. What impact was there in the Mexican communities? Were there any ongoing relationships between teens and Mexicans especially with trips over 16 years?
Also interested in – How did the mission trip change when it was a school activity instead of just church? so all of the missionaries were no longer Christians? were those they were ministering to Christians? Did some of the Mexican Christians minister to the non-Christian teens?
Thanks!
Thank you, Steven, for your reply. The direct and noticeable impact we saw among the students was a change in their disposition. Many were fairly self-centered; however, after a few days into the trip, I noticed the “me-myself-and-I” edge was softening and a “how-can-I-help-you” attitude appeared. We have had “Gothic” kids – everything black from hair to nails to clothes and piercings. After three – four days the black went: hair, nails, clothes, jewelry, and the attitude was much more amicable and not so rancorous. Hard hearts became more flesh-like and less stone-like. One unbelieving young man, who lost his dad to cancer the year before, was very bitter and angry towards God. Sometime during the week he turned to me and said that he was starting to forgive God for taking his dad. I was not about to enter into a theological discussion about forgiving God; I was glad that he had made some movement towards a loving, heavenly Father from his bitter, acrimonious and resentful position.
Steven, you ask what impact was there in the Mexican communities. Were there any ongoing relationships between teens and Mexicans especially with trips over 16 years? May I answer this in two parts? In so doing the second part, I will expose some of my vulnerabilities, and not everyone will agree. It may become an entire different discussion; however, I am willing to lay it on the table.
Part one: the obvious. If the family we are building for has teens or when we are involved with the local church in the area with a youth group, short-term relationships naturally just evolve. You can’t stop kids from being kids. Playing soccer, jamming instruments, building the house together, etc. We have done joint worship sessions. There is an excitement from both groups to include the other. Non-believers who play guitar, drums, etc. quickly pick up the cords or the rhythm and join in. Inclusion is important. It breaks the barriers. They want to know why we have come. For believers the question is easy to answer. For the non-Christian youth, the answer is more nuanced, as they look for a new-found believing friend from the bus for help with a reply.
We interact with the Mexican youth in our “cross-cultural” church service on Sunday and then we ask them to do a concert or lead our music during the week while we are there. There is great excitement as kids make new friends.
Many kids exchange Facebook or Instagram addresses and stay in touch. As many of the Mexican youth have some English ability, they want to practice speaking to our youth. Some of our youth have a smidgen of Spanish and try to speak back to the Mexicans in their mother language.
There have been one or two long term relationships between the two youth groups; however, these were more because some of our youth had decided to do a Discipleship Training School (DTS) in Tijuana with YWAM and then developed a relationship with Mexican youth during that time.
In the space of seven days we have seen the effect, enthusiasm and excitement on the local Mexican youth. The local Mexican youth have an increased vigor to let their light shine. There is strength in numbers. They are emboldened while we are there and that lasts for a period. We are an encouragement to the local Mexican group and they encourage and love us. Certainly, this is a very real aspect to the mission trip.
Part two: allow me to be vulnerable with, perhaps, another view. Years ago I read a book by Guy Dowd, called “Molder of Dreams.” He was awarded the USA National Teacher of the Year award by President Reagan. He mentioned that he did not teach English; he taught students. English happened to be his avenue. I sort of adopted that philosophy when I coach football. I don’t coach football; I coach kids, and football happens to be the avenue. I try to monitor success on the football field not so much in the destination (trophies, medals, etc.) as much as in the journey (relationships). The two are intricately, inseparably, intertwined. In concentrating on the journey, often the destination takes care of itself.
As a result of this athletic allegory, I concentrate less on the destination (house building, learning Spanish, local families and youth) and more on the journey (the local kids on the bus with us, reaching out after the trip). The 20 – 100 kids on any given mission trip will be in my face for years to come. The house building, local families and local youth groups in Mexico will be in Tijuana for years to come. YWAM has an elaborate, detailed, ministry to follow up with the families, their new homes, and the local congregation in the area.
I can’t be there for the local Mexican aspect. However, the kids on the bus in my face are kids I concentrate on more – whether they are on the football team, or I meet them at the mall, etc.
I understand that it may be more enjoyable and effective if I could speak Spanish and get deeply involved with the local Mexicans, but I need to concentrate on what I do best (getting the kids on the bus, lining up accommodations, getting the house built, etc.) in order to achieve the goals God has laid before me.
I understand there are different philosophies out there, but this has worked for me.
I don’t think the mission trip changed when it was a school activity instead of just church. When we went initially as a church, I did not assume all the kids were believers. Not all of them had made a decision to follow Jesus. Many were wonderful “Sunday Morning Club Members”. The trip was to get out of the house for ten – eleven days.
The barometer of success was not in the destination as much as it was in the journey. If it was in the destination, then, yes, there would have to be changes that would have to be made. The school saw the value of the trip in the differences it made in the students when they returned: less selfish, more studious, more caring, less disruptive, etc. I was right up front with them that this is a Christian trip.
I am a believer and most of the chaperones were believers and roughly 20% of the kids were believers. The non-believers respected that. We live in frigid Alberta. By the time March break comes around, kids like the idea of going to Mexico to get out of the house for ten to eleven days and to warm up. They don’t care if it is a Mission trip. I don’t either, because the mission is the trip. And Mexico in March sounds really good. God has used this and still is using this to get cold Albertan students to go to a warm Mexico to build a house. In the process they meet God!
All of those who go, go as builders. They are not all Christians. When it is time for ministry in speaking, preaching, or testimonies, believers step up to the plate. Non-believers do not. In the process of building, we are ministering to those who have a need, specifically the families who receive a house. Some are Christians, and some are not; however, there is a very, very strong presentation of the gospel – in terms of a gift by grace – that all, believers and non-believers hear the good news. Definitely, some of the Mexican Christians minister to our non-Christian teens. It is so powerful to see this happen. The non-Christian teens see that Jesus is real. What is as effective is the YWAM staff and volunteers who love-on our teens. No words can explain the love of Christ as much as when it is acted out over the time of the week that we are there.
Our Cambodia venture did not pan out as well as we thought it would. There was not as much interest as I thought there might be. It did not happen. I did return to Tijuana this year in May. Likely we will take another bus load of kids to Tijuana in March 2016. Youth for Christ is appealing to wider spectrum of youth and will likely be going to Ensenada in March 2016. It is exciting.
Fred Knip
Thanks so much for your good response, Fred. I think you have found a very good ministry. I think we need to expand our paradigms to understand it. It seems to me that the missionaries are the Mexicans who minister to these kids by giving them warm sunshine and a sense of purpose and meaning for a week. (to get a funny version of this see radiaid yoututbe video on “Now its Africa for Norway). More importantly you (adn some of the Canadian Christian youth?) are a missionary to these kids and you have found what i think is the key: ongoing ministry and relationship after the trip – not with the supposed mission field/recipients – but with the real recipients: the youth. As you say…
“I concentrate less on the destination (house building, learning Spanish,
local families and youth) and more on the journey (the local kids on
the bus with us, reaching out after the trip). The 20 – 100 kids on any
given mission trip will be in my face for years to come.”
I have seen similar things work where secular Brits come to Tanzania and the British missionary dentist who hosts them makes sure they are paired to work with dedicated Christian Tanzanians. But as I said, our paradigms should be honest and say that we are going from North America to be ministered to, encouraged and warmed by others appreciation and hospitality and faith in Jesus.
So may God continue to bless you as you give these kids, meaning, learning, and Jesus.