Each summer, for the past 17 years, I’ve led two-week international mission trips. I use Big World Ventures in Tulsa, Oklahoma, to custom design each trip. Steve Goley, president of BWV, has never failed to hit a homerun. He takes care of the business end of things (international travel, lodging, lining up the ministry and work projects we’ll be involved in and applications) so I can devote my focus on the students and ministry to them.
Where have we gone?
Bolivia, Costa Rica, Brazil, Venezuela, Peru, Ecuador, Panama and Guatemala.
Who do we take?
What age does a student need to be?
How do we spread the Gospel?
We bring in a professional drama training team from Tulsa, Oklahoma, who train the students before leaving the United States. We train in Miami and learn a 22-minute pantomime called “Toymaker & Son.” This mime is set to Spanish narration and musical background, so no one has to learn a foreign language to perform the drama. Each team has their own portable, battery-operated sound system they take with them each day on ministry. This allows them to perform the drama anywhere imaginable. But we give each team designated places to minister each morning when they leave on their bus.
Is it safe?
There’s always a risk in international travel, but we serve a GIANT God who has always kept us from danger. Of course, safety is our top priority, and we go overboard to make sure things are extremely safe. For example, we don’t use public transportation. Instead, we charter our own buses.
Students aren’t allowed to go anywhere without an adult. And our adult/student ratio is usually one adult per six students.
We stay at higher end hotels because of the safety factor (usually a gated area), and because we need a place big enough to accommodate our large group (at least 200 each summer), feed us quickly, has a ballroom big enough for us to have our own evening services, and a parking lot large enough to accommodate a fleet of chartered buses each morning.
What about communication?
We rent computers and set up our own internet café within the hotel. This way students can be in daily contact with their parents. We also provide parents the phone numbers of our hotel in Miami during training time—as well as the international hotel we stay in during the trip internationally.
What’s the cost?
The cost varies a bit from year to year—depending on air fares, gasoline prices and hotel costs. But it’s generally around $2,400.
Why “Never the Same”?
Because, truly, you are NEVER THE SAME after participating on one of these trips! It’s like no other missions experience you’ll ever have. In fact, it’s a great mixture of adventure, missions, old-fashioned revival and church camp.
Each student is placed on a team of about 30. This team becomes a closely-knit family for two weeks. Each morning the team has breakfast and devotions together, spend the day ministering together, and then return to the hotel for dinner together.
After dinner everyone meets together for our evening service that we call FUAGNEM: Fired Up And Going Nuts Every Minute! Susie Shellenberger (and other special speakers) bring a message to the group, testimonies are shared, students engage in praise and worship and lives are truly changed.
Why is missions important?
It’s extremely easy for students to become involved in their own world and forget that Christianity is bigger than their youth group or their church. A missions trip enlarges their world view, it places them in a situation where it’s easy to hear God’s call toward missions, and it deepens their dependence on Christ because they’re out of their comfort zone.
When a student leads someone to Christ, it’s an automatic confidence booster! There’s nothing bigger or more important than leading someone into the throne room of heaven. Also, by getting students away from familiarity, they have a greater opportunity to rearrange priorities, discern God’s voice and draw into deeper intimacy with Him.
When students are faced with true poverty and see families living in a cardboard box, see children who have no idea where their next meal will come from, it’s likely they’ll return home and never again complain about what Mom has prepared for dinner or not having the right labels on their clothing.
Web Site:
We have an entire Web site set up just for this missions trip. So to apply for the trip, or to simply get more information, please go to: neverthesamemissions.org
Susie Shellenberger attends each missions trip and does much of the speaking in the evenings, but she often brings in contemporary Christian artists, authors and other speakers who minister to the participants as well.
