Missions Events

Our 6th-8th Grade Youth Group participated in a 40 Hour Sit-out to raise money and awareness for homelessness in our area. Prior to the event we collected large boxes (washer/dryer – range size) and we prepared them in “shanty” type homes. We started the event on 5:00 PM (Friday) and lived outside in the boxes until Sunday @ 9:00 AM. We stayed out even in the rain. We had collected plastic and old tarps to cover us in the rain. We took pledges and donations from our church members and we had a lot of community people stop by to see what we were doing. We were on a main road in town and lots of people would pull up just to donate money because they had seen the segment on the Friday evening news. Members of our church also signed up to bring us food to eat for our meals (you can keep this from the kids, so they might start to wonder where their next meal is coming from.)

While this is only a glimpse into the life of homeless person, it made quite a large impact on our kids and adults too (we had lots of “security guards”). The total money raised was then donated to our local Gospel Mission. You can do many things with this concept, and while it’s a lot of work, God rewards those involved with a feeling of accomplishment. **you could incorporate the Shanty town idea on EGAD! with this event**

We have a very successful plan of raising money for missionaries.
We select a different missionary, evangelist, or an organization that we feel that is need of help. (Such as Problem Pregnancy Center, Orphanages, Clothe a Child)
We divide the children’s church into teams, Boys against Girls.
We have 2 baskets one for girls and the other for the boys. It is a good idea to label these baskets.
We have designed a wooden scarecrow, with 2 arms that are set like weights.
Whoever has the most money by weight. The arms of this guy will move down.
We call this guy, ” Cheeri-O” He represents the cheerful giver.
After each month we collect the change and count it and send a check to whom we support. Of course the kids are anxious to find out how much they have given to help people in need.
The kids love it especially when they receive a letter back from the missions. It makes them feel like they had a part of helping others.
Another incentive to help bring in the money : Which ever teams wins, their names are put in a basket and one person from the team can win a prize.
Another funny idea: If the boys win, The Youth Pastor squirts Ms. Youth Pastor with a super soaker and if the girls win, Ms. Youth Pastor soaks Mr. Youth Pastor. The kids love it.
This has been a lot of fun, and we have supported several missions. We have about 25 kids in Children’s church and they bring in over $100 a month.

Our Youth group spent a night outdoors as homeless people in order to raise money to support homeless people. Since I am from Hawaii there is quite a number of homeless people. Well we spent the night in our church yard from 6 at night to 6 in the morning. Here’s the catch… we only were allowed to bring news paper for our blanket and a cardboard box for our shelter and for dinner, our church served us mush. It was a great experience and a great thing for raising money for a good cause.

Like most churches we hold a VBS and the youth participate. But we took it a step further. We have an X-Treme Team, which is a group of youth who come in on Sunday evening and stay through until the end of the Friday night program. They live at the church as a missionary team. They cook their own meals, clean up after themselves, and serve preping the materials for the next day. During the VBS they work directly with the children. When the VBS is over, the X-Treme team goes swimming (our church does not have showers) and gets clean. After swimming and lunch, the Team spends the afternoon and evening being discipled. We visit local areas that have devotional qualities (museums, rock-climbing, historical sites, parks, natural attractions) We incorporate all of the ideas of a mission trip (daily quiet times, worship times, teachings) plus we address feedback we get from the adult helpers at the VBS.

Since we are still at church we have youth group as normal and have lots of hang time with our students. We are going to be exhausted by VBS anyway so we thought why not make it a Youth mission as well.

Secure the use of a bowling alley and set up a bowling tournament or just an evening of bowling with your young people. Pledges are taken from adults and businessmen in the community. Each kid enlists the help of sponsors who pledge 5 cents or more for each point scored while bowling. Each kid bowls three games and the total number of the points score determines the amount of the sponsors’ pledge. In a tourney, the “winners” continue scoring more points, therefore collecting more money for the cause. Money can go to Wing the Word or ERDO, or some other World Missions project.