A record number of persons participated in World Changers missions projects
this summer – but even those inflated numbers do not reflect the true impact
of the annual emphasis.
A record number of persons participated in World Changers missions projects
this summer – but even those inflated numbers do not reflect the true impact
of the annual emphasis.
Overall, 19,245 individuals participated in World Changers
missions projects, an increase of almost 14 percent from last year, Southern
Baptist North American Mission Board leaders report. Their impact reached far.
In Portland, Maine, students left a trail of handprints on
the wheelchair ramp they had built for one resident.
In Youngstown, Ohio, students visited an area prison, touching
lives with music, laughter and conversation.
In Montreal, Quebec, volunteers participated in a concert of
prayer over the city from the top of Mount Royal.
And in Nashville, Tenn., a man showed up one morning at a World
Changers site looking for construction work. After talking with him for some
time, students learned the man had lost his job, his family had left him, and
he had contemplated suicide the night before in a nearby park. By the end of
the week, the man had accepted Christ, gotten a job and begun work on restoring
his family.
“At first I was worried about the roof and the construction
on the house, but I know now the real reason why we came was for people like
Anthony,” says Brodie Downs, a student from Warrenton, Va.
Since 1990, World Changers has allowed students to live out
their faith by rehabilitating substandard housing and participating in other
community missions efforts. Most of this years 66 projects in the United
States, Canada and Puerto Rico involved roofing, painting and other repairs
on homes – a total of 1,365 work sites. Other projects included a broad
array of efforts at 190 sites in association with local churches and other ministry
groups.
In addition, 14 International World Changers projects in 10
countries were conducted in association with the Southern Baptist International
Mission Board.
A total of 1,596 professions of faith were recorded this summer
– including 224 World Changers participants. The others came as volunteers
interacted with neighborhood residents and through non-construction ministry
efforts.
Nearly 13,000 local volunteers, in addition to the 19,245 participants,
also were involved in the projects.
While those numbers are significant, World Changers also is
geared toward making an impact even beyond the neighborhoods they touch during
the summer.
“We have said since the beginning of World Changers that
the world we seek to change is the world of the participant,” says Keith
Loomis, a student volunteer mobilization associate for the North American Mission
Board. “And when the world of the participant is changed, then lots of
other worlds get changed.”
University of California-Irving student Janice Abria who participated
in a project in Beaumont, Calif., noted the spiritual hothouse environment of
World Changers – where work done in the name of Christ is followed by dynamic
worship each night and personal and group Bible study.
“If this could be my whole life it would be awesome, because
its like youre in a bubble,” Abria notes. “You have your
Christian fellowship, you have the worship, youre out helping other people.
You cant help but think about God and his work in your life.”
Indeed, World Changers serves as a stepping-stone to longer-term
missions service for many participants. This year, 504 students made commitments
to service as summer or semester missionaries. Almost that many, 498, made commitments
to vocational ministry.
“I think the week opens their eyes to possibilities,”
Loomis says. “They are exposed to what it means to be on mission. And for
many students, being out of their comfort zones doing hands-on missions is the
right environment for God to get in their heads and hearts and challenge them:
Ive got your attention for one week; what are you going to do with
the rest of your life. ”
Richard Ross agrees. “I believe God is calling out a flood
of students who want to go to the front lines of missions,” explains Ross,
a professor of youth ministry at Southwestern Baptist Theological Seminary.
“We must respond by quickly expanding the opportunities for service both
nationwide and worldwide.” (BP)