2010-2011 Mission Projects
Project Hunger Relief
There are so many ways to do hunger relief mission projects you can almost take your pick. But remember, the purpose of this mission project includes the opportunity to share the gospel. So while canned food drives and fundraisers are great, the goal of this project is to tie the effort to a true mission outreach. One way to do that is to identify needs within your community and meet those needs directly. This calls for coordination and sensitivity, but your Challengers can make it happen.
Gear Up
Work with your church, local charity, or food bank to identify a family or families that need assistance. Communicate with the family and determine their food needs.
Go!
Set up a time to meet with the family prior to delivering food. This helps your Challengers to establish a relationship with the family. Determine what the family needs and the best time to deliver it. Obtaining the food may require working with your church or food bank, or purchasing the food directly. This is where a fundraiser may be a legitimate part of this mission project.
Set the delivery date and take as many Challengers as possible to deliver the food. Prepare Challengers to interact and play with the children in the family and neighbors. Plan to spend time getting to know the family better. Delivery of the food should seem like an afterthought compared to the care and concern the Challengers show the family members. Make sure the family knows the Challengers had a part in obtaining the food and that their actions demonstrate their love for Christ and their care for the family.
Plan any follow ups and be prepared to have the Challengers invite the family to church activities or a church service. Ask if the children would like to participate in a future Challengers meeting. Make sure Challengers are prepared to share their faith if given the opportunity.
Review
If the majority of your Challengers participated in the delivery, do an immediate debrief as you travel home or back to the church. Identify areas where follow up is needed. How did the Challengers feel about the experience? What did they learn from it? Did they have opportunity to talk about spiritual things with anyone? Did they have the opportunity to share the gospel? What would they do differently next time? What worked and what did not? What are your next steps in outreach to the family?
Community Garden
For obvious reasons this is a long-term mission project. The idea is to secure a site where Challengers take responsibility for a community garden. Challengers do not have to do all the work, but they are required to make sure the garden is established, supplied, and worked when necessary. Hopefully the garden will truly become part of the community.
Gear Up
One of the most challenging aspects of this project will be securing the location. For some groups this may be a practical impossibility and will not be a viable option. But don’t give up just because the church, or no members have available property. You may discover a creative solution that may not initially seem obvious.
Allow older Challengers to assist with the discovery and permission process of the site selection. Obtain a written agreement with the property owner spelling out the use, duration, access and permissions for the garden. In addition to finding suitable property, obtain proper permission from the appropriate governing authority. Work out irrigation and other practical issues for the scope and size of the garden, soil, seeds, tools, etc. Allow the Challengers to help through all of these decisions.
Go!
Depending on the scope of the project you may want to publicize the community garden. If not, invite area residents to use it. Schedule work days to prepare the garden and then schedule a planting day. To build relationships, invite area residents to participate in every work day. Prepare your Challengers to be ready to do all the work, but to be flexible and allow volunteers to do whatever amount of work they want to do to. This will help foster a sense of ownership in the garden by community members and help build relationships to share the gospel.
Irrigation and tending will require the most physical work, but build in time to allow the Challengers to interact with residents.
Harvest days should be big events and include as many church members as possible to continue building relationships with area residents. Challengers should establish the lead in these days.
Review
How did this project help Challengers grow together? What were their favorite parts? What were their least favorite parts? Were Challengers able to build meaningful relationships? How can those grow? Did Challengers have opportunities to share their faith? How can those efforts be improved? What could other groups in your church learn from your Challengers’ experience?
Project Mom’s Little Helpers
Challengers contact a single mother and discover a practical project they can accomplish to help her. It may be watching her children for a couple of hours, washing her car, or whatever she needs that the Challengers can safely and effectively do for her.
Obviously this project requires planning, communication, and coordination. As the relationship with the mom and the Challengers progresses, be prepared to establish contact between her and members of the church’s WMU or women’s ministry.
Gear Up
This project requires coordination with your church outreach director to identify a single mother who is not a member of your church. The woman should be contacted by the appropriate church or staff member and asked if she would like the assistance of a group of young men to help her with any tasks. Challengers can certainly assist under the proper supervision of the appropriate church representative. Another area of preparation that may prove helpful is American Red Cross first aid and CPR training. Additionally, if the Challengers will be spending time with children, their completion of a child care course will provide peace of mind to the mom. The American Red Cross the 4-H offer this training.
Go!
Once communication is established, and a desire is expressed by the single mom to receive assistance, match the scope of the task with the ability of the Challengers. This type of project can be coordinated with members of your Baptist Men’s group. Once the project is identified, estimate the time necessary to complete it, and then agree on the project date and time. Communicate and confirm all details to involved participants.
The project also requires that no less than three Challengers participate in each visit to the woman’s home. Under no circumstance should a Challenger go alone to her home. Additionally, no Challenger leader should go to the home alone.
Review
How has the relationship between the single mom, her family, and the Challengers progressed? Has anyone had the opportunity to share the gospel with her? Has she been able to attend any church events or services? Has she initiated any communication with the church? Has she been in contact with any one from the church’s WMU or Women’s Ministry? How do your Challengers assess their relationship with the mom and her children? What have they learned from the experience? Do they want to continue the relationship? Do they want to reach out to other single moms in the community? Are they being intentional about finding opportunities to share the gospel?
Adopt A Grandparent
This project is straight forward. Challengers adopt an older person who needs contact with people in his or her life. This project will be tough to find an evangelistic connection if the adopted grandparent is a Christian. If they are not, Challengers establish a relationship and when appropriate share their testimony with their adopted grandparent. If they are a Christian, have your Challengers discover people in their adopted grandparent’s life who are not Christians. Challengers commit to pray for them and look for opportunities to build relationships to share the gospel.
Gear Up
Work with your church or a local assisted living center to identify older members or residents who do not have family in the area or who do not receive visitors. Ask the appropriate person if it is permissible to attempt to establish a relationship with the individual. Once permission is secured, contact family members and help them understand what the Challengers will be attempting.
Go!
Once all of that communication is done, take the Challengers adopting the grandparent to meet them and make sure they are OK with the relationship. If so, help Challengers explore ways to get to know their newly adopted grandparent and help them foster that relationship. The first meeting should be brief. Set up a time to come back for a longer time to get to know the person. The number of people you adopt depends on your number of Challengers. A good ratio is two Challengers to each adopted grandparent. This will cut down on too much time elapsing between visits.
Regularly remind Challengers to ask if it is acceptable for them to read to their adopted grandparents from the Bible or devotional books. Find things the adopted grandparents like to do, and make plans to spend time doing that as well. At some point, have Challengers ask if they can share their testimony with their adopted grandparents. This may take several visits.
If the adopted grandparent is a Christian, help Challengers establish a time when they can meet with both their adopted grandparent and a person in their life who is not a Christian. Help the Challengers lead the adopted grandparent to share their testimony during this visit. Challengers can follow up as appropriate. This will also take time.
Review
How would Challengers describe their relationship with their adopted grandparent? What have they learned from the experience? Did any of the Challengers have the opportunity to share their testimony? How did the experience go? Did any of the Challengers have the opportunity to visit when their adopted grandparent shared their testimony with someone who was not a Christian? How did that experience go? What would Challengers tell other students about their experience? How do Challengers think this experience will help them in the future?
Sports Camp
There are so many ways to do mission sport camps, your Challengers may only need to choose the sport. But remember, this is not intended to teach church kids how to play soccer, this is intended to reach kids who do not have a relationship with Christ and build relationships that allow Challengers to share their faith.
Gear Up
So, choose your sport. Choose a sport that at least some of your Challengers are proficient in. This is not a requirement, but it will make the experience better for everyone. Once you have chosen your sport, work with your church or association to find a location that a sports camp could be used as community outreach. Consider location, permission for use of your venue, the equipment you will need, first aid, water, gospel tracts, etc. To overstate the obvious, choose a location near unchurched children. Allow your Challengers to work in all aspects of the planning and preparation.
Publicize your sports camp in a way that is most effective in the community you are attempting to reach. Your church staff may be able to help you here, too. Recruit the appropriate amount of adult volunteers and coaches to handle the expected number of participants.
Go!
Pick your sport, location, date and time, publicize it, and go. Allow the Challengers to work out a schedule and plan of action for the camp. Encourage them to build in a time to share a sports testimony and gospel presentation. Make sure the Challengers are prepared to serve as counselors to share the gospel and talk about spiritual issues with the participants. Be prepared to invite participants to other church activities and services.
Challengers should take a lead role in the training exercises and activities on the day of the camp.
Review
Did Challengers find it easier to share their faith while they were engaged in the sports camp? Why or why not? Are there other activities the Challengers are involved in that lend themselves to evangelistic outreach? What did they like about the sports camp? What would they change if they did the event again? How can they use this experience to help their church’s other outreach efforts?
Create Your Own Mission Project
You and your Challengers can create your own mission project. It really is not as hard as it sounds. Use something that your Challengers are interested in and help them build a plan and guide them to put it into action.
Gear Up
What do your Challengers like to do as a group? Is there a way to use that activity for a mission project? If so, explore that and make it happen. If not, here are some ideas to help you find a project that your Challengers can take on.
- Volunteer in a tutoring program or after school program.
- Volunteer at a ministry center.
- Volunteer for the job that no one else wants at a local event or festival—clean-up, parking lot attendants, wherever volunteers are needed, but are in short supply.
- Gather trash bags and gloves. Head out to a local playground or park and pick up trash. Whatever aluminum cans you find, cash in and donate the money to your church’s mission fund. Tell your Challengers to be ready to engage people in conversations and share the gospel as they have opportunity.
- Host a Backyard Bible Club.
Go!
Help your Challengers take leadership roles in planning and putting your project into action. Make sure the appropriate communication and preparation has taken place. Help them be successful, but allow them to learn from their mistakes. Encourage them to adapt and be flexible—two of the primary characteristics vital to successful missionary efforts. Whatever your plan, help your Challengers be fully committed and engaged.
Review
What did your Challengers learn from planning and participating in your customized mission project? Did they like it enough to do it again? Did it spark discussion or thought about other types of mission projects your group can explore? How could you have made this experience better? What steps will you and your Challengers take to improve on the experience? Let your church know about what your Challengers accomplished.