This summer, we have 46 students going on summer mission trips all over the United States. Often times each year I get asked the question: WHERE? Kyle, where are you guys going this year?

As a youth pastor, I always receive brochures and postcards in the mail from short-term mission organizations asking us to bring our teens to their mission trip. And I'm always looking for new and fresh ideas each year. As the leader of short-term youth missions, my first responsibility isn't necessarily the logistical planning of our yearly SWAT Missions. My primary focus is leadership and spiritual development and my desire for each student that attends to truly understand the WHY of mission trips and not just the WHERE.

As a Youth Pastor it's easy to get caught up with the where, when, and how much. But shouldn't it be about the WHY? Of course location is very important as I don’t plan to load our students on a plane headed for Afghanistan to minister to the Taliban hiding in caves (though they need Jesus also). I’m sure I’d have parents knocking down my office door because they want to “have a chat” with me. But location and cost should not be the first and only factor when planning or choosing to go on a SWAT mission trip. We have to consider the WHY!

Recently I had a conversation with a youth leader who told me they're going to Mexico for their youth mission trip in 2011. When I asked why he chose Mexico and why he’s doing a mission trip he told me, “it’s where we always go and all of the youth groups in our denomination go.” Basically he chose the location and the reason why for one reason--it’s what everyone else is doing.

For those parents and students out there who have never gone on a mission trip and may consider next year's trips, here are some good reasons I found to answer the WHY question!

Why should my student...

Why should I...

go on a SWAT mission trip?

Today our students are faced with the tremendous challenge of having to justify their faith and defend themselves each day in school, when they’re with friends, and even family. In fact, many schools today don’t allow any form of ‘religious discussion’ to take place inside the walls of the school. There are countless stories (even here in the fox valley) of how students are kicked out of class or punished simply for respectfully questioning their teachers’ statements regarding their mindset that promotes secular humanism and the new atheism.

At our recent annual meeting, Pastor Harry had asked me to share a bit about the SWAT student missions this past summer. As I was preparing for the annual meeting and asking students for some of their testimonies from their experiences in SWAT, I began thinking about the impact that God has had on the young people at Calvary Bible Church.

It is incredible how many students over the years have come up through C-Team and SWAT and are now living life making an impact for Christ both here in the Fox Valley and even around the world. I hope that you are as encouraged as I am that God is truly moving in the hearts of students. In case you didn't have a chance to read some of the testimonies in our annual report, I wanted to share a few with you to encourage you--God is working!

Enjoy the testimonies,

Pastor Kyle

Eyes inside a Student Mission experience:

Day 1—Saturday, June 12^th

Early rise this morning to head to Chicago-O’Hare from Appleton airport. Everything went smoothly and our flights were on time. We had a short layover in Chicago before heading to Honolulu. We arrived in Honolulu about 1:50pm and half of us hopped on the shuttle to get to our hotel. It was really expensive, so they took all the main luggage with them and the other half of us took the city bus to get to our hotel. The ride was long (about an hour), but we met some nice people who were very helpful in pointing out some cool places and making sure we didn’t miss our stop. I hear the shuttle driver was a pretty swell guy too!

After we got to our hotel, everyone was pretty hungry as we hadn’t eaten since before the Chicago-Honolulu flight (besides snacks). We got on our swimsuits and grabbed our towels and headed toward the beach in hopes of finding a fun restaurant along the way. We stopped at a place called Cheeseburger Beach Walk and had some amazing food—of course we joked that they could double the cheese on our burgers since we were from WisconsinJ. Some of us got some authentic “island burgers” that had pineapple and teriyaki sauce on them. Yum yum!

We finished the walk to the public part of Waikiki beach and went for a swim and many of us were able to go into the Pacific Ocean for the first time. Outside of a few sharp rocks that met our toes, it was a great time and everyone was glad to have some fun after almost 10 hours on the two planes.

On the way back to our hotel, we stopped to look for souvenirs, but didn’t have much luck. Of course we had to hit the hotel pool before cleaning up and doing our devotions for the night and sharing some of our experiences.

All in all, a very good first day. We were super exhausted, as it was now 9pm (2am CST).