WORLDVIEW: 2003: Time to let teens step out of 9/11's shadow
RICHMOND, Va. (BP)--Have Southern Baptists finally emerged from the long, fearful shadows of Sept. 11?
One answer to that question will come in the next few months, when our own missionaries around the world begin finding out whether we're willing to send our young people to help them spread the gospel.
Southern Baptist missionaries worldwide have requested more than 4,000 high school students to serve alongside them in 35-plus projects next year -- primarily through M-Fuge International and International World Changers, the youth mission programs coordinated by LifeWay Christian Resources and the International Mission Board.
The students -- if they sign up -- will go to Latin America, Europe, Russia, Africa, Asia, the Middle East. They'll serve on "the front lines of lostness, utilizing their gifts, abilities and eagerness to find and create ways to communicate the message of Jesus," says Kelly Davis, IMB consultant for youth mobilization. "Missionaries have identified strategic ways that high school students can assist them to reach the people that God has called them to."
In Ecuador, youth volunteers will distribute medical kits, hold kids' clubs and use sports ministry to reach out to the Quechua people. In Moscow, students will hold a youth camp for Russian teenagers. In Jordan and Lebanon, they will teach English and use creative ministries to reach specific communities with the message of Jesus. In Western Europe, they'll seek to reach some of the millions of immigrants from North Africa and the Middle East -- people who have little access to the gospel in their home countries.
Youth involvement in international mission projects nearly doubled in the year before 9/11, from 2,200 teen volunteers in the year 2000 to 4,200 last year (mostly in the pre-9/11 spring and summer). But after the attacks, numerous projects were cancelled for lack of participation. This year's international teen volunteers will total around 2,000, Davis projects.
Thank God for each one of those 2,000 faithful young followers. Thank God for the courage and trust it took for their parents and churches to send them into a world seemingly filled with new threats and dangers. But how many youth volunteers stayed home -- not necessarily because of their own post-9/11 anxieties, but because of the concerns of their elders?
None of the youth mission projects shelved in the aftermath of the terrorist attacks was cancelled by a missionary concerned about the security or safety of young volunteers, Davis says. The stop signs went up much closer to home. As one youth pastor put it, his church had "joined the masses of other churches that have chosen to live in fear instead of by faith."
"Even in the most 'tense' locations overseas, missionaries were still saying, 'Y'all come,'" Davis reports. But they ran up against media-fueled perceptions in the United States that entire global regions were unsafe because of events in a few specific locations.
Such perceptions are "almost impossible to battle," Davis says. "It's like telling someone not to go to Idaho because there was an explosion in New York."
That's not to say that safety is guaranteed. It isn't, anywhere -- not overseas, not at home.
"We're in perilous times," admits LifeWay's Mark Robbins, who coordinates M-Fuge International projects. "But if the Great Commission is to be fulfilled, we will have to be risk-takers. This is not the time to be worried about what 'might happen' if we go. We need to be more worried about what might happen if we fail to go. We have thousands of risk-takers -- missionaries -- around the world who have gone to serve and represent us. They are asking that we send our students. Will we heed the call?"
More than 40 percent of the world's population is under age 25. In some countries, particularly in the developing world, the under-25 cohort tops 60 percent. Who better to reach them for Christ, ask Robbins and Davis, than young people who know him?
"This generation of high school students is not content to sit on the sidelines and hear the stories of others doing ministry," Robbins says. "Youth know no boundaries and see no barriers. They are idealistic. This is why I believe youth are a major key to world evangelization. The doors are open. Missionaries are asking for young people. Youth ministers are eager to go and the students that they lead will follow courageously.
"What we need now are parents, churches and pastors willing to support and encourage their involvement."
Your youth probably have come to terms with 9/11. Have you?
For information about 2003 projects with International World Changers and M-Fuge International, call 800-999-3113, ext. 1355, or visit www.thetask.org\youth.
