Mission Opportunities

Shovels. Paintbrushes. Buckets. Songs. Sand. Cement. Laughter. Paint. Bricks. Fun.

Working as a team on a construction project is not only a great way to help build the physical church, but also to build a spirit of team work and togetherness. Everyone can help with a construction project, from the youngest to the oldest, the strongest to the weakest, the most experienced to the least.

We are currently working on three different projects: building a church building in Toco, finishing our church building in Campoo, and finishing a new accommodation section at our retreat centre.

One of our strategies for starting new churches is by doing VBS or Bible club in a village. We find a place in the village where we can have VBS, usually in someone’s yard and we walk around the village inviting children. We sing songs, do drama and puppet shows, teach Bible lessons, play games and do crafts. Once we get to know the children, it is easier for us to meet and get to know their parents.

We currently work with 5 different orphan homes, with the number of children at each home ranging from 15 – 120. We present dramas and puppet shows telling the Good News of Jesus, we do crafts and sing songs with the kids, we play with them and read to them. We also offer material assistance when appropriate.

The government of Trinidad and Tobago considers religion a compulsory part of every child’s education. They therefore allow any religious group to go into schools to share their faith. We visit many primary and secondary schools, sharing the gospel and teaching the children about Jesus. We do this through drama, singing, puppet shows, testimonies and Bible lessons.

The rehab centre with which we work is a government institution for those recovering from drug and alcohol addictions. The patients love for us to come visit with them, sing with them, and share our stories and the love of Jesus with them.

Sports are a great avenue for connecting with other athletes. Your team will not only have the chance to play against local teams, you will also be able to spend time getting to know the other team and sharing the gospel with them.

We have a special need for a baseball team. Baseball is not a popular sport in Trinidad…in fact the only team on the island is at the prison for young men. They would love to have a baseball team come and spend a week teaching them and playing with them and sharing with them. If you have a baseball team this would be an amazing ministry opportunity.

Our vision is to see a church in every village and community of Trinidad and then the entire Caribbean. So far our ministry has helped to start 22 churches in Trinidad.

When the Lord leads us to a village where we believe He would like to start a church, we begin by talking to some of the people in the village and asking for permission to have a Bible club for the children in someone’s yard or garage. We invite the children to come and we sing songs, play games, do crafts, and most importantly, share the good news of Jesus with them. After we have built a trusting relationship with the children and some of their parents, we will set up a tent in the village and have a week of nightly evangelistic services. When the time is right, we will start having weekly church services.

Mission teams have proven very effective in helping us plant churches. After a recent survey, we learned that about half the people who are attending our churches were lead to the Lord by short term missionaries.

In April of 2003, we began ministering on a regular basis at the Youth Training Centre (YTC), which is the national prison for men aged 18 and under. We spend Tuesday, Wednesday, and Thursday afternoons each week from 1:30 – 3:30 teaching Bible class to the young men who are being held while they await trial (remand lads). We have seen a great number of these lads accept Christ or rededicate their lives to Him.

Goals:

1. To share with the remand lads the good news of salvation through faith in Christ’s redemptive work on the cross and His victory over death.
2. To teach the remand lads how to read and write so that they can read the Bible and other books and function in society.
3. To build a strong and trusting relationship with the remand lads in order to build their confidence and self-esteem and to influence them to desire to live a life pleasing unto God.
4. To teach the remand lads what it means to live their lives for Christ once they have accepted His gift of forgiveness and eternal life.

How we go about trying to meet our goals:

Regular Class Days

The remand lads are separated into three dormitories of about 20-30 guys each. We spend one day every week with each group. Everyone has to come to our class whether he wants to or not, so we have very diverse classes made up of Hindus, Muslims, Catholics, Christians, and others. YTC has an extensive program of schooling, vocational training, and sports/extracurricular activities for the lads once they are convicted, but the boys in remand have no program, which is why the government allows us to come and spend time teaching them. Some of the lads we teach have been in remand for up to two years. Others are there for only a few days.

We begin each class with prayer. Then we pass back papers from the last week and start the new lesson. Each lad gets a print-out of the Bible text and we read through the text as a group. We define words and explain the context and elaborate on the text. We bring pictures and maps to help the lads understand the lesson. So far we have studied the gospel of John, the gospel of Mark, heroes of the faith, including Joseph, Daniel, and Paul, and we’ve looked in depth at the Christmas and Easter stories. No matter what lesson we are studying, we always work in the gospel message of salvation through faith in Christ’s death and resurrection, because there are always lads who are in our class only once before they get released or sentenced.

Once we’ve thoroughly discussed the lesson, the lads break into groups to do the questions we’ve prepared. Each lad gets a pencil and a sheet of questions to answer. We encourage the lads to write out their answers in complete sentences with proper grammar and correct spelling, which is a challenge for most of them, as many have dropped out of school or never even went to school. We notice that the young men who are better at reading and writing help out those who have more difficulty.

After the lads finish their lessons, we spend a lot of time just talking to them, asking questions about their families, their beliefs and their plans for the future. They ask us questions about Jesus and different religions and life in general. We have had many very meaningful discussions with the lads, and many of them ask us to pray with them.

Special Events

On special occasions we are able to get all three of our classes together in the gym. On these days we share dramas, music, testimonies and Bible lessons with the lads. These sessions often end with small group discussions. Sometimes we even get to play soccer or basketball with the guys. The lads have especially enjoyed a few concerts that we’ve had when we invited local Christian musical artists to come share their talents and words of wisdom with the young men.