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Christianity Today, February, 2008

Missions Boot Camp

As these teens prepare for short-term trips, they learn more about how to talk about Jesus.

Amy Green | posted 2/15/2008 07:26AM

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Jamaal Simmons went to Zambia to wash the feet of AIDS orphans. For nearly a month he slept in tents and bathed out of buckets. It was a humbling experience for the 19-year-old, but the hardships of Zambia were nothing compared to boot camp.

Welcome to Teen Missions International, which offers summer missionary training camps or "boot camps" as rigorous as the name implies. Here there are no s'mores by a cozy campfire. Instead, the camps aim to recreate third-world conditions for young missionaries-in-training, and every year some 700 young people gladly turn out. The teens give up such luxuries as electricity and running water before heading out into the world together to nurture orphans, build granaries, dig wells, and minister in such far-flung places as Tanzania, Mongolia, Indonesia, Belize, and Ukraine.

"Boot camp for me was the culture shock," said Simmons, of Salisbury, Maryland. His trip last summer to Zambia was his first trip out of the United States.

Here campers are stripped of virtually every teenage trapping. There are no cell phones, iPods, or laptops. No candy or soda. Not even electricity or running water. The culture here is entrenched in discipline. Campers sleep in tents and use buckets to bathe, launder clothing, and flush toilets. They bear the Floridian summer heat in long pants and hiking shoes to protect against snakes and bugs. Many wear pajama pants all day, since cotton pants breathe easier and dry quicker than jeans in the stifling heat. The air is thick with mosquitoes, heavy with humidity, and pungent from the smell of sweaty teenagers.

Yet from this stripped-down existence springs an innocent and unbridled passion for one of Christianity's most basic tenets: Jesus' directive that his followers make disciples of all nations. It is a passion untarnished by politics, international tensions, and the cynicism that can come with age. Here the kids are hot, dirty, tired, and happy. They are having fun. They are excited about evangelism, excited to take their religious beliefs with them into the world. It is a youthful exuberance, the kind that nudges a 19-year-old to take his first mission trip and his first trip out of the U.S. into one of the most difficult countries in Africa. And why not? What could go wrong?

"I'm not really nervous about it. It hit me that it's getting closer and closer. … I have no idea what to expect," Simmons said a day before leaving the camp for Africa with his group of about two dozen campers. "I feel God calling me to go. If that's what he wants me to do, then that's what I want to do. It's not about me."

Water Bottle Luxury

Speak clearly and don't chew gum. Rather than listen to you, your audience will watch you chew gum. Be wary of pride. Remember, it's God who saves souls.

At Teen Missions, campers give up virtually their entire summer for evangelism. They spend two weeks in Merritt Island, Florida, learning the work of a missionary before heading into the world in teams of about 25. They are schooled in evangelism, construction, and Bible studies. They don purple construction hats as they work the ground with hoes and wheelbarrows. They practice public speaking and learn to share their faith in ways that transcend linguistic and cultural barriers, such as through puppet shows. After their mission trip, they return to Merritt Island for a few more days to reflect on their experiences before heading home at summer's end.

Teen Missions runs a bare-bones operation on a $3 million annual budget sustained entirely by donors. During the busy summer, some offices are outside, sheltered from the sun by a canopy. Staffers raise their own salaries through donors. Campers also raise their own camp and travel fees, plus enough for another child (from $2,500 to $4,000) that funds 34 international boot camps where, for instance, an African child can train to be a missionary in his or her own country. "Peanut" and "mustard seed" camps also are available to train children ages 4 to 9 for domestic missions. Teen Missions sends adults on trips, too.

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February 2008, Vol. 52, No. 2

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Kim Marshall

February 21, 2008 2:11pm

Thank for the article covering TMI. I'm a former team member from the Malente, Germany team 1983. Both of my sons have gone with TMI. My oldest Wood went on the first foot washing team to Zambia in 2005 & the he went to Wales in 2007. My youngest son Josh went to Tanzania & Mozambique in 2006 & is going to Samoa this up coming summer. All of us have been deeply touch by TMI & my oldest is now planning to be a Missionary where ever God will lead him. He is hoping it is Africa, because he left part of his heart with the AIDS orphans. Thanks for the article. Anyone reading this, please share it with a teen. TMI is an awesome life changing expericence!!!!!!!!!!!! I am grateful for Bob & Bernie Bland's answering the call to start TMI.

Richard

February 17, 2008 1:53pm

As a 12 year old, My daughter went with TMI in 2001 on a trip that stayed within the United States. They evangelized at state fairs. My daughter came back with stories of how the group faced persecution while sharing the Gospel. Sometimes they were spit at and things like that. She said, "We were persecuted for Christ. Isn't that cool?"

H. D. Schmidt

February 16, 2008 6:52am

Is this not really why God allowed America to be "invented" for other than what is going on right now with America, where the most inhumane and horrendous war machinery ever put together is that of America, and with a Christian President whose hero is Jesus, shooting parts of the world to pieces for really no other reason than material gain? Yes, in reality this war making satanic thing, is actually one of the greatest hindrance world wide for the Gospel to be taken to all the world, as ordained by Jesus himself while on his earthly ministry. Yes, the Founding Fathers would be greatly saddened were they to wake. From George Washington: It should be the highest ambition of every American to extend his views beyond himself, and to bear in mind that his conduct will not only affect himself, his country, and his immediate posterity; but that its influence may be co-extensive with the world, and stamp political happiness or misery on ages yet unborn! Yes, my hats off to this Godly ministry!

Ronald M. Tolls, MD, General Surgeon

February 15, 2008 9:35pm

I survived six years as a career missionary in the Congo and at least a dozen short term mission trips. My opinion of short term missions? - They can be of some help if the group goes with the goal of supporting the existing work, both missionary and national, realizing the inherent limitations in projecting 20th century care to third world. - The worst thing the short termers can do is fail to support the existing work, i.e. a sense that those who are there 365 days a year are second class. - Too often I have arrived after considerable expense and time away from family and practice to find that somehow know one on the field seemed to know we were coming! No patients. Frustration. Little accomplished. Surely with the internet this should never happen. - There is a tendency for short termers to want to do as many procedures as possible, their focusing being on numbers and doing procedures that greatly exceed the capabilities of small mission hospitals. Itinerant surgery !!!

February 15, 2008 7:09pm

I have been on both sides of the short-term missions agenda. We received short term groups in the country where we ministered for 14 years and we have been envolved in sending short term groups from churches where we have ministered for 30 years. The key is specific training that involves nationals from the country where the group is going to serve and situations that are as real as they are going to face in the experience. A pre-evaluation of each participant needs to be made by more than one person and a post evaluation period with the whole group together for several days either in the area where they ministered or in a similar spot as where they had the prior training. The local U.S. churches that send the young people must be totally envolved both in the evaluation, training and the follow-up of each person in the group.

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