This video is from our South Dallas mission trip (“The Jerusalem Project”) in 2009.
Each summer our youth ministry goes on 2 mission trips. Before going someplace far away (this summer we are going to an orphanage in Guatemala), we first go on a week long “mission trip” to… Dallas. Our home town. We pack our bags, load up the vans, and drive 15 minutes down the road to South Dallas, where circumstances are very different than what we are used to up here in cozy North Dallas.
The point of all of this is to demonstrate that 1) Missions is not that once-per-year trip you go on to someplace far away; missions is what we could be and should be doing every day, and 2) You don’t have to leave your home town to do the things that you do on a mission trip; there’s TONS of opportunities and needs that need to be met right where you are, and its time for us to open our eyes, get out of our comfort zones, and meet those needs.
We call this trip “The Jerusalem Project.” In Acts 1:8, Jesus sends out the apostles to go make disciples of the whole world. But first, he says, “You will be my witnesses in Jerusalem, then Judea and Samaria, and then in all of the ends of the earth.” In other words, Jesus says, you’re gonna start here. Right where you are. In Jerusalem. Home base. Then extend and move out to the world. But step one is home.
Pray for our trip. We’re just 2 weeks away: June 12-19.
(To watch last year's video, click here.)
