Why Missions Camp?

Here I was—ready to be a missionary, or so I thought. The first day of camp, we campers got into a bus with no schedule for the entire camp. Our bus dropped us off on a street where we were told to bring heavy water jugs and other heavy items to some “Indian Bible Conference.” We trekked up and down a street with our overloaded packs about two hours till we were exhausted. The bus dropped us off again somewhere in town and we were supposed to walk to the railway tracks with our heavy items, but eventually had to be picked up again after waiting for a pastor who never showed up. At a park, we hiked the perimeter seven times after some good exercise. We loaded on the bus and headed toward somewhere. Of course, the bus had some mechanical problems. We ended up pushing the bus into a Rebel Checkpoint on the border of “Pakistan and India.” Our packs were ripped apart, and all of our snacks and shoes were taken from us. After some confusion, we hiked down a gravel path with cardboard shoes to a barn, where we slept in the loft. That was the first day. Some of us doubted if we could make it the rest of the camp.

This, my friends, is the mission field. In our blessed American comforts, we live so differently from many third world countries where many missionaries barely last for a year. These people live in poverty, hunger, fear, dangers, and wars that bring the value of life slightly to that above dirt. Nobody protects them. There is nobody to love them. No one cares if they were to die tomorrow. Yet these are the people, the countries that we missionaries have been called to reach. What we need is a wake up call to the cultural shock of the mission field. Missions Camp is strategically designed to stun young missionaries in training, so that the shock of the Mission field will already be felt before they get there.

So what about you? Missions Camp will force you to realize that the mission field is literally impossible to do in your own strength. If you don’t have Jesus, you won’t have anything. If you don’t know Jesus, you won’t know anything. If you don’t love Jesus, you won’t love anyone. You can fake your Christianity in America, but it is not going to happen on the Mission Field. You are now one of Satan’s biggest targets, and you will rapidly find out what kind of spirituality you have. How much are you willing to love God? How much are you willing to love others? How long will you last on the mission field? Come to Missions Camp and find out.