South African Mission Trip: "First Day Part II"

Written by Youth Pastor Scotty Jarrard;

First Day on the Mission Field Part 2

As we pulled up to Beacon Valley Baptist Church, I looked at the surrounding government built housing and was amazed at the location of the church. “What an awesome location for a Church”, run through my mind as I thought of all of the ministry opportunities for the location. Pastor Greg had shared with me earlier how Beacon Valley Baptist Church almost, well, never existed. When God put the vision in Pastor Greg’s heart to start a church in Beacon Valley, there was not a lot of property to choose from. They searched the area for the perfect place and in Pastor Greg’s words, “God led us to this property.” They went to the City Development Authority and put in the petition. After that, out of faith, they started cleaning up the property and praying over it daily. Pastor Greg told me that he had never been so confident in his life that, “This was the property that God was going to give them for Beacon Valley Baptist Church.” If my memory serves me correctly (and it doesn’t always), about a week later, he received a call from the development authority with some heart breaking news. At the time, there was not any property in the area zoned for a Church to be built. The lady from the development authority said that she would do some more research on the area and see what she could find. Pastor Greg told me that he was in utter disbelief. “I started to wonder if I had heard God right the first time.” In his heart, he knew that this was what he was supposed to do but his mind started to doubt and tell him otherwise. So Pastor Greg started to do the only thing he knew to do. He hit his knees and started to ask God to make a way. The next day he got another call. The lady started to confirm everything she had said previously. She told him there was no property in the area that was zoned for a church but, the area was in desperate need of a “Daycare Center.” She went on to tell Pastor Greg that the property he had put in the petition for would work for the “Daycare Center” and once the building was built, (hush, hush) the building could be used for anything, including a church. “God had made a way!” So, they started the construction of “Kideo Kid Educare Centre.” The center would serve the community as a “Christian Based” daycare center through the week and as a Church on Sundays and Tuesdays. This story still blows me away cause there has been so many times in my life that I have thought that I heard God wrong and sadly, just gave up. It kind of makes me wonder, what may of happened if I would have had more FAITH in God and not listened to the doubt in my head. Now, back to the mission work.

There were about sixty or so kids when we got to the church, and man, were these kids loving. We had kids who had never met us before, running up to us, jumping in our laps and asking us hundreds of questions. When we started the program, my heart leaped from my chest to see the churches older youth taking a lead role in the “Holiday Bible Club” (what we call VBS). As the youth started leading the children in some songs and worship, kids kept filing in through the doors of the Church. By the time the worship was over, we went from around 60 kids to 150+. There are churches here in the U.S. that are much bigger than Beacon Valley and they don’t have half the kids in their VBS’s that they did. It was almost as if God was saying to me at this point that, “I don’t care about the size of the Church, I care about the heart of the Church.” If there is anything that I can say about Beacon Valley Baptist Church it is, This Church Loves God and They Love Kids. This Church was not worried about their size, the curriculum they were going to us, or how they were going to pay to feed all of these kids. The only thing they were worried about was showing the love to others that Christ had showed to them. People, we can learn a lot from this. We think that it is about having the coolest program, the best music, and the biggest “jump houses” we can find to draw in all the kids we can when the kids could really care less about this stuff. Why are we running to all of these things when the best thing that we have to “draw in the crowds” is the “Love of Christ?” Think about it, at the end of most VBS, kids can’t remember half of the activities they did from the week but, they will always remember that teacher who took the time to love on them and open up God’s Word with them. They won’t remember what craft they built last year but, they will remember the people who simply noticed they were there. They won’t remember the songs that they sang on “Commencement Night” but, they will always remember that Deacon who took time off work to pick them up and bring them to church. How did our priorities get so out of whack? When it all comes down to it, these kids just wanted to be loved and know they matter. I think that in the U.S., we have come to the point that people would rather give their money to help fund the program and get someone else to actually do it but I guess you could say the same about missions. Don’t get me wrong, giving your money is important and God tells us to give (and if you don’t believe that, I have a verse for ya!). But, which is more important to you, your money or your time? Here’s how you tell, do you spend more time at work, or more time with your family? (Not trying to get in your business, just trying to tell ya what God showed me.) Two people that really stood out to me at Beacon Valley were Kurt and Morgan. These two men both took time off work just to help run this Holiday Bible Club. (Remember how few jobs I told you there were in the last post.) These two men really knew what mattered in life. Kurt has a job with the government and is going to school to be a social worker. Kurt grew up in the area and he knew the obstacles these kids were going to have to cross in their life, but he also knew they would not be able to do it unless they had someone to encourage them along the way. Morgan was a man, who like many, grew up in church and in his teen years, strayed away. Morgan told me they he got away from church when the world started being a bigger influence in his life than the church (think about that). One of his biggest fears was the kids in the area going down the same path that he had. Both of these men took time off from work to pour their life into these kids. They knew the importance of time because someone had taken the time to show them that they mattered and now it was time to give back. For all of us, it is time to give back. If every one of you will think about it, you can think of someone in your life who took the time to show you that you mattered too. There is a world of children who are hungry for attention and my question to you is, “Will you give your Time?” If the Church does not spend time with these children, the world will and all of the money in the world won’t get them back.

Kinda went off on a rant but thats what God showed me.
More to come (minus the rants)