RICHMOND, Va. (BP)–In an effort to mobilize more youth around the country for worldwide missions, the International Mission Board is partnering with LifeWay Christian Resources’ rapidly expanding camp programs.
Since 1979, Centrifuge camps have ministered to thousands of youth around the country. Through the years, LifeWay has added new camp programs -– such as (Mission) M-Fuge and M-Fuge International -– that provide students with mission projects, training and opportunities to give to missions.
Now, through a new partnership with the International Mission Board, all “Fuge” campers can track where their mission gifts go -– even following them straight to the field.
“We want to go a little deeper,” said Joe Palmer, director of the student events department for LifeWay Christian Resources.
“They actually go and do ministry in the same place where their money [goes].”
Palmer announced the partnership Nov. 15 in a chapel service at the International Mission Board.
The partnership involves a three- to five-year commitment through which students plug into a specific region and strategy, Palmer said. Campers will be updated each year on its progress. The partnership likely will involve a people group in Central and Eastern Europe with little access to the Gospel, Palmer said. He noted how young people in the United States are hungry for opportunities to make a difference in their world. It’s up to Southern Baptists to help provide opportunities for them.
“The younger generations want to serve,” Palmer. “They want to be there, to be able to get their hands dirty in ministry. And for a lot of them, it’s the first time.”
Through this effort, Palmer hopes to be able to tell future campers, “[It] is an offering you gave that made this possible.”
Since the early 1980s, the “Fuge” camps have taken up offerings for missions. This past summer, campers gave nearly $500,000 to international missions.
In the last three years, the camps have given more than $2 million for both domestic and international missions. During that time, more than 250,000 young people attended the camps. Last year there were more than 84,000 campers.
Palmer also noted that out of last year’s numbers, at least 2,223 accepted Christ and another 938 young people accepted God’s call to some type of mission work.
‘A BIGGER AUDIENCE’
These are exciting numbers for Kelly Davis, strategist with student mobilization at the International Mission Board. Last year, the mission board helped mobilize more than 6,000 young people for volunteer mission work around the globe. Through this new partnership, the opportunity to send young people overseas has expanded.
Davis and other IMB strategists expect the partnership to boost student missions and increase the number of young people volunteering for overseas missions. In recent years, Davis explained, the numbers of young people volunteering have been “stagnant.”
“Numbers have dropped,” he said. “We’re almost 1,500 less than last year [youth and college combined].”
But among some of the organization’s student mission efforts, there has been some growth.
“International World Changers has had incremental growth,” Davis added. “We had our highest year yet this year.”
He described the state of student mission involvement through the Fuge camps as busting out of the “box.” Students who felt limited to giving and watching now have more opportunities to give and go.
“The new design is ‘OK, let’s … partner with [the IMB] strategically to follow them,’” he said. “We want to tailor the going of these students even more strategically to the needs on the field.”
Palmer added that no matter where these young people end up, he prays they will have a passion for missions.
“I hope the Lord calls them overseas,” Palmer said. “But … wherever they’re planted … [I hope] they will always have that heart that beats missions.”
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