Finding your place in the Kingdom

While most people were enjoying some time off work or being with family between Christmas and New Year's, I joined over 11,000 students at URBANA, a large triennial missions conference put on by Intervarsity Christian Fellowship in St. Louis, Missouri. Five of TEAM's coaches (missions mobilizers), myself, and two other TEAM missionaries interacted personally with over 200 individuals that came to our booth to learn about TEAM.

Our group at URBANA

At the end of one seminar on creation care put on by some colleagues, I was able to share about how students can use their gifts and interests and environmental degrees for missions. In fact, one young woman, Emily, sat next to me and said she went to a Bible college but grew up on an organic farm her family owns in western PA. She has a love for the lost, and a passion to work the land, but just didn't know how she could use her non-science degree to help with environmental stewardship and reaching the lost. I couldn't keep from smiling when she mentioned this!

Another young woman came to our booth curious about creation care and missions. She's finishing up her Environmental Science degree in California, but wants to somehow use it in missions to reach the lost. She thought she would have to go back to school to get a Bible degree.

These young ladies are one reason why God has me in the place I am today with TEAM--helping people like them realize they can use their skills as well as environmental degrees for missions.

My response to both of these young ladies was to encourage them with their God-given interests/skills, and to give them specific opportunities to serve with TEAM in environmental missions, or creation care.

Two trips that are going to happen as a result of our conversations are what I call "scouting trips". Their purpose is to research and discover areas of critical environmental degradation that need to be addressed by followers of Jesus. Those who go on these trips will understand the role the church has to play in caring for creation and will develop initial plans to address those issues in appropriate ways that help TEAM accomplish its vision of starting churches. One is planned for the last two weeks of June, 2019 in Guatemala, and one in North Africa in January 2020. If you or someone you know is interested in one of these trips, please let me know. Here are the links to descriptions of the trips: Guatemala, and North Africa.

What a privilege to serve the Lord and His Kingdom here on earth right now, and to make a difference in real communities suffering from real problems.