Missionaries “Come Alive” in India

A team of Global Expeditions missionaries serving in India traveled from their home base to 3 hours away. It was a region they had never been before – a place where farmers and shepherds were making their living and raising their families.

The group was told ahead of time about a previous missionary who had come from England to this village and who had given his life to reach the people living there, but when they arrived there were only a handful of Christians.

This team of student missionaries were normally enthusiastic and full of passion, but because of the intense travel and the fact that they’d been in India for 18 days already, the team was tired, short on energy and had even forgotten the chord needed to plug the their ipod into the sound box for their drama presentation of the Gospel.  They arrived frustrated and,  without even realizing it, had their expectations set pretty low.

Despite how they felt, the team rallied together and pushed through their feelings. They gathered the people in the village together and something incredible happened when they shared the Gospel! The team “came alive” and “caught on fire” as they explained the love and power of God to the people.

In that village over 80 adults and 15 children raised their hands to signify they wanted to put their trust in Christ and then came forward to let the students know that they would be declaring from that day on they would choose to follow Jesus Christ the One True God and Him alone!

Many of our missionaries had used their money to purchase Bibles, so they were able to leave the pastor with 15 new Bibles for all the people to begin to learn more about Christ.

Next to the pastor’s house sat the foundation for a future church which he, by faith, had sold his goats to complete the foundations and walls. With some more savings he had also purchased a large amount of sand and the church building was basically waiting for a reason to be finished. Well, they needed it now!!!

The team left that place confident God would do even greater things in that village in the days to come. Their faith had grown and as they had put aside their own tiredness to share the message of hope, and God had honored their obedience and used them to change the world!

Have you ever been on a mission trip where you had to push through your own “tiredness” in order to share your faith? If so, how did you do it and what happened?

Our Divine Valentine’s Day – Come to Africa

Impact India Stop Human Trafficking

Our chapel speaker this week at Teen Mania Ministries inspired us to make building God’s Kingdom a priority in our lives. As he is getting ready to make an impact during Fashion Week in India, Global Expeditions is right now preparing to also go to India this summer – and you could choose India and prepare to go there too!

We must all recognize that human trafficking is one of many signs that the human condition is born sinful and degraded…and that ultimately, only the message of Christ and the power of Jesus can make a difference. We MUST bring the gospel to India – where right now there are over 100,000 villages in India that are considered “unreached” – In these places there is no one representing Christ, the gospel is unknown and sin is unchecked.

Check out the India trip at www.globalexpeditions.com/India2012 and apply today at www.globalexpeditions.com/apply/.

You Unlocked My Heart

Honor Academy Intern and Global Expeditions Representative, Lauren Houtz

NO MATTER WHAT I Love and trust you Lord

What Is A Real Mission Trip?

The intention of Teen Mania’s Global Expeditions “short-term” missions trips designed for teenagers, adults, youth pastors and parents is to embed in their hearts that their priority…our priority…for the rest of our lives is to take the life-giving message of Jesus to the ends of the earth. We believe “missions” is more than an event; it is our divine purpose.

We will not allow the sacred responsibility of preaching the Good News to become a task to check off of our imaginary “Christian to-do list” – where reaching out is a social activity intended to soothe our conscience.

We will not invade another culture to half-heartedly or self-righteously pass out tracts in exchange for pictures of ourselves hugging children cloaked in poverty, just so we can post them on Facebook and advertise that we helped someone.

So how do you know you’re ready for a mission trip with Teen Mania’s Global Expeditions?

If you only want to do “missions” when it’s easy and if money can magically fall from the sky without prayer and hard work, you might want to look for a different option.

If you need to have guaranteed agreeable sleeping arrangements, enjoyable food, and warm showers daily…we suggest you pass.

Our goal is to serve others in a way that prioritizes their needs above our own and sometimes that means ministering in a way that demands we let go of our own plans and agendas.

Are you ready for that?

If they answer is ‘yes,’ then you’re ready for us…and we’re ready for YOU!

The Atmosphere of Confrontation

Confrontation is an essential part of leadership, but it is also probably the least enjoyable time as a leader. We never think of confronting someone for change and get excited about how easy the conversation is going to be. However, there are a couple key ingredients to a successful confrontation.

As an effective leader, you really should spend a moment to think about the location and environment of where you will bring confrontation. This tends to be one of the most overlooked aspects and then we find ourselves bewildered, looking for somewhere to have this awkward conversation. You see, as the leader, it is our responsibility to create the safe environment where healthy confrontation can take place. When you create a safe zone, you will eliminate any unnecessary challenges in having a serious conversation.

Here are a couple of keys to winning in this area:

• Confront in private – people will shut down and shut up when they are embarrassed and/or humiliated.
• Make sure to have a relaxed tone and body language – chances are, if you come across tense and uncomfortable, they will feel that too.
• Remember to keep your hands to yourself – there is no need to place your hands on someone to be throwing the “accusing” finger around. No one likes the image of the boss shoving their finger in someone’s face.

The next time you need to confront someone, think about the location of where you are going to be confronting them. Is it quiet enough? Is it private enough that they will not be embarrassed? Does it create a “safe zone”?

Remember, successful confrontations do not happen by accident.

Aaron Beeler has served at Teen Mania Min­istries for over 3 years as an Event Man­ager with Acquire the Fire and now the Lead­er­ship &  Train­ing Man­ager for Global Expe­di­tions. He has served in lead­er­ship on 7 mis­sion trips all over the world, and has a pas­sion to reach and teach people.

Heart of Service- A Life that Makes a Difference

As parents, some of us know the incredible gift of self-less giving, and once in a while, children get to experience this amazing soul-transforming blessing as well. Hopefully, when they do, it unlocks the priceless treasure of true happiness that only comes from giving love and acts of service.

A genuine spirit of love and service resides within each one of us and can be cultured in our children. We know the world is changed by this kind of love and our children can be some of the happy few that learn how serving and giving produces a miracle of peace inside their own hearts.

This month our four daughters experienced just such a gift, a mission trip. Under the guidance of some dedicated and wonderful youth leaders, this year the children of the church youth group have planned, raised money, washed cars, served dinners, and put on concerts to raise funds for a youth mission trip to a Navajo reservation. As the time approached for lift-off, the four sisters had really no way of realizing how their ever so experienced lives of 13 to 16 years would be changed by this experience.

This might be a good time to explain to you that 3 of these girls have been involved in various acts of service activities throughout their young lives, with my hopes, as a parent, of cultivating a good crop of little women who have a heart of service. For the most part, they really were not aware that trust and development of a giving heart of service was going on, so when the mission trip came up, it seemed like the natural progression of things. They knew it would be wonderful, but had little idea that they would be the recipients of such a great gift, and absolutely no idea of the amazing effect on their new sister Jordan.

Operation Mission 2006 commenced and in my heart I knew these little women would be changed and I couldn’t wait to hear about every detail. Every day, I got calls with more news, amazing bits of information and voices. Those voices with certain tones, tones of sadness, thankfulness, amazement, joy and tenderness. Somehow, I could hear years of maturity over the phone lines in just days. How can this be? The truth is this can be, because this is what we were created to do. When we operate in love and service to other human beings we grow, we are happy, and most importantly we are fulfilling one of our greatest purposes. As these girls served and learned to love and see other children of God living in a different world, their hearts became aware, thankful, and for a time, self-less and focused on the greater good. We as listening parents could tell, we could hear, and we could feel what was developing.

When all the girls arrived home, I was not disappointed. They were all tired, but filled with stories and changed hearts. We all made drinks, downloaded pictures, and listened to stories of children who didn’t feel loved, struggles for daily necessities, lived in houses with no roof and covered in graffiti. They were touched by seeing siblings of 4 and 5 caring for another of 1 or 2 years of age, struggling parents and hurting relationships. But most of all we heard of love, appreciation, and the opportunity of wanting to do more. Then we saw tears. Not tears of anger or disappointment coming from a need not being met, but tears for other souls, tears for children needing a better hope and a promising future. And so I knew my prayers were answered and the seeds were being cultivated and the crop was growing.

These young people got to experience the joy that only a heart of service can give with a knowing about individual “purpose” that can become a way of life when we serve. It is my hope that we can all live a life that makes a difference and our children can experience the joy filled heart of having a giving soul.

–Ton­jua Shep­herd is the GE Direc­tor of Mar­ket­ing, a mom and a wife and a darn great per­son who loves mis­sions and has devoted her life to
empow­er­ing young peo­ple to impact the world with the mes­sage of Christ.

Leadership Sandwich

What is it about “Confrontation” that scares most of us?

There was a time when I had to correct someone for something they had done: we were in the airport in Guatemala and we were catching our flight back to the States. One of the individuals on the team had decided to wait to come through security and it was getting near to the time of boarding our plane. Eventually, we were able to get him on the phone and let him now that he needed to come through security, now!

This was going to be a great opportunity for a leadership sandwich.

A what? You ask.

A leadership sandwich is exactly like it sounds. You start off the confrontation with a little affirmation (bread slice number one), then you move to the source of your confrontation-what needs to be corrected (the meat), and then finish it off with a little more affirmation (bread slice number two).

It’s important that when you confront someone, they understand that you are addressing an action they may have done, and that you are not targeting them as a person. When you do this, you will create an atmosphere for growth because the individual walks away still feeling motivated and a part of the team.

Here is my challenge to you: think of a time when you had to confront something in someone’s life. Now consider this, how did it go? Could it have been better using the leadership sandwich?

The next time that you realize something that needs to be confronted, I encourage you to consider the technique of the leadership sandwich.

Aaron Beeler has served at Teen Mania Ministries for over 3 years as an Event Manager with Acquire the Fire and now the Leadership &  Training Manager for Global Expeditions. He has served in leadership on 7 mission trips all over the world, and has a passion to reach and teach people.

Coffee!

I love coffee, a lot! If only you could see my desk right now, it’s arranged with many coffee cups, proving that I just finished studying for a final and then had a large dose of caffeine before class this morning. Coffee is a beautiful thing. I love coffee so much that im surprised that its not written about in the bible. I mean, after all why wouldn’t Jesus drink coffee? Jesus and coffee… they just go together. So I started going through the bible looking for a verse that might have something to do with coffee or caffeine, honestly I did! I didn’t find a verse about coffee or even a hint about caffeine. But I did find this passage, and I thought about coffee when I read it. Check it out.

I know all the things you do, that you are neither hot nor cold. I wish that you were one or the other!  But since you are like lukewarm water, neither hot nor cold, I will spit you out of my mouth! -Revelations 3:15-16

Have you ever grabbed that cup of coffee and taken a big gulp only to discover that it was room temperature? Oh my gosh, I hate that. I start looking for the trash, a plant, somebody’s shoe, anywhere I can spit it. That’s got to be the worst thing ever. I like to have my coffee hot or in an iced form! Room temperature isn’t even on the menu!

It’s the same thing Gods saying here in Revelations.
He knows everything we do. In other words, He knows how we live our life, he knows our life, and what we’re doing with it.

The lukewarm coffee/ lifestyle: This is exactly where you are if you say you are a Christian, you might go to church, lift your hands during the worship service, and maybe even go on a mission’s trip. But then you go and live like you don’t even know anything about Christ.

But here’s the thing, you need to get in or get out. If you say you are a follower, then go hard and full on living for Christ! Be hot!! He wants full on followers who want to live out a passionate lifestyle for Him.

Alexandria Ball is a passionate worshiper who loves to write music for the guitar and loves to write poetry and journal entries. She is from Perry, Ohio and has a twin sister who she would lay down her life for. Alee works hard for Global Expeditions by calling teenagers everyday to assist them get on the mission field.

Correcting Confrontation

What do you think of when you consider “confrontation”?

Do you think of the mother in the grocery store yelling at her kids, the boss who embarrassingly scolds an employee in front of the whole store, or maybe you think of the fear of having to be the one who confronts someone yourself?

If we are truly honest with ourselves, no one really WANTS to confront someone, but as leaders we MUST confront when the circumstances call for it.

However, how does effective confrontation look?

To look at confrontation, let’s look at the core of what confrontation really is. Confrontation is really just a face-to-face meeting where a good leader has the opportunity to provide life-changing feedback. Here is the key; “life-changing”. Individuals rarely grow from confrontation when they are threatened or driven to fear because of their actions. True, threatening an employee underneath me may get the behavior modification that I am looking for, but I will also burn the relationship and trust bridges at the same time. In essence, they will change out of fear, but they will miss out on the why behind the behavior correction.

As stated earlier, we as leaders MUST bring confrontation when necessary, but we MUST also understand the responsibility to bring restoration for that individual in the midst of a failure or mistake. Our confrontation can be an excellent tool for growth, resolution, and maturity, when done with the right heart. Our motivation is not to show them our lordship over them, but out of a desire to see that person win and grow.

I challenge you to think of circumstances in your own life where you may need to confront someone.

Now, think of how you will handle it differently understanding that you have the potential to manipulate them or bring real change for them.

Which are you going to choose?

Aaron Beeler has served at Teen Mania Min­istries for over 3 years as an Event Man­ager with Acquire the Fire and now the Lead­er­ship &  Train­ing Man­ager for Global Expe­di­tions. He has served in lead­er­ship on 7 mis­sion trips all over the world, and has a pas­sion to reach and teach people.