January 28 to February 28 is what I would consider our one-month window! Over the next month we’re praying that God provides many “Harvest Workers” for the fields he is preparing throughout the U.S.A, Canada, Mexico and Costa Rica.

Just last night I received this instant message from a college Freshman in Oregon:

“Brian, are you doing a spring retreat again?  That training and all the prep for and the actual mission to Alaska completely changed the direction of my life, I want to help at this years retreat if I can so that others get it too!“

Many Youth Pastors have already chosen a mission trip, but the sad reality is that most groups don’t do much with training these teams.  To me, “sign-up and show-up” mission trips must stop, these are nothing more than “Christian Experiences.”  I believe the real blessing in mission is the “get it” moment when students (and adults) realize that mission is not just there and not just here–mission is anywhere!

Regardless of whether a team has a mission in mind; we want teams trained for Mission51.  Will you do Youthmark a big favor?  Help us get the word out about Mission51–training for the 51 weeks beyond the mission.  If you know of a youth group doing a mission ask the Youth Pastor what he or she is doing to get the team ready for after the trip.  Reaching our own Jerusalem is part of the mandate.  In fact, I’d argue that God did not release the Apostles to “anywhere” (read: uttermost) until they were effective at reaching Jerusalem.

We’ve released a quick three-minute video that explains Youthmark Mission Ventures and the Mission51 training.  It can be found at the Youthmark homepage here or on Youtube below.

Spread the word, we’re hoping to see a large increase in the number of teams using some training books, attending one of our Together, Spring Retreats or getting copies of Merge for after their mission experience.  Of course, we still want many Youthmark teams as well, the full benefit of all the training at the most affordable prices for a mission.

We’d love it if you would send emails with links to this blog or Youthmark.com, post on Facebook, do whatever you can; get the word out, let’s use this one-month window where Youth Pastors are making big decisions to spark Mission51!  Will you?

Grace,

Brian