September 9, 2002

Families on mission: All ages travel to Juarez
___JUAREZ, Mexico (BP)--When members of Memorial Baptist Church in Grapevine traveled to Juarez for mission work, they brought along an unusual bonus--their own children.
___The group of 30 volunteers from North Texas included children as young as 8. Trip organizers said every team member, from the youngest to the oldest, played an important role in sharing faith in the Hipodramo colonia, where they worked with Iglesia Bautista Nueva Jerusalen.
___The Grapevine families worked alongside Southern Baptist Convention missionaries Allen and Rebecca Alexander.
___The experience fulfilled a longtime desire of Alexander's--to involve not just adults or youth groups in missions but to engage whole families. Yet even he was skeptical that such a plan actually would run smoothly.
___"I have a pet peeve of my own: We separate families too much in church," the missionary explained. Nevertheless, he required that each child be accompanied by an adult.
___And by the end of the week, he was convinced of the success of the family missions approach.
___The eight Grapevine families shared the gospel with 240 people and helped breath new life into a struggling church.
___The families distributed gospel portions, taught Vacation Bible School, played with babies and ministered to men and women. The VBS drew 180 children and 40 adults--more people than the church's pastor ever had seen on the church grounds.
___Learning to expect big things from God was just one lesson the children and their parents learned in Juarez.
___The children also learned to be comfortable in a culture unlike their own--with the security of having parents close at hand.
___Eleven-year-old Bethany Reynolds formed a close bond with a pre-schooler. By the end of the first day, the child refused to be held by anyone else.
___"I'm mostly a stay-home person," Reynolds said. "But here it's really fun. It's a family trip, and my friends are here."
___Other children taught classes and learned they weren't too young to share their faith. Ten-year-old Travis Blake, for example, led a question-and-answer quiz with the children's group he directed one day.
___"Our kids are capable of sharing and doing more than we think they can," concluded his mother, Kendra Blake.
___Dad Steve Blake saw the trip as a spiritual marker, a time he hopes his children will recall during future times of difficulty.
___Helping the children--at such young ages--understand their responsibility to carry out the Great Commission drove Angelia Hines, minister to preschoolers, and many of the other parents to organize the Juarez project.
___"Our generation has not done it. Maybe we can instill in them a heart to share the gospel as we model it," Hines said.
___Ten-year-old Travis Blake (above) sweeps a children's classroom as Mexican and American families begin to mingle outside the church. At far left, 14-year-old Alyssa Atkeisson paints the fingernails of a Mexican child she befriended. Lori Atkeisson (left) applies clown makeup on her 11-year-old daughter, Amy, as they prepare for the last night of Vacation Bible School.
___ Morris Abernathy/BP

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