Montana Missions Trip Report

As the team comes, they're going to give their name and then we're going to sing the theme song that was part of our Bible School last week. I was the left-hand guy. Bob Latour. I was the sign of Latour flight crew.

Elijah Beck. I was the captain. Micah Lowe, co-captain. Chris Wilburn, flight security. Hunter String, flight security. Shannon Rumley, flight crew. Taylor Latour, flight crew.

Logan Latour, mission guide. Let the glory of the Lord forever be our joy, where redemption be the theme of our song. Oh, by grace we have been saved, in my grace we shall proclaim to the orders of the earth that Christ has come. Let the nations be bled, let the people rejoice, for salvation belongs to our God. Let the whole earth be filled with the praises of the Lord, for salvation belongs to our God. Let the nations be glad.

Through the ages gone before, through the trial and the sword, many saints and martyrs conquered, though they died. To be holding out the cross, crossing oceans, suffering loss, shall endure all things to win the crown of life. Let the nations be bled, let the people rejoice, for salvation belongs to our God. Let the whole earth be filled with the praises of the Lord, for salvation belongs to our God.

Let the nations be glad. As your holy church goes forward, in the Holy Spirit's power, with the glories of the gospel to explain. Now we pray your kingdom come, and we pray your will be done, for the honor and the glory of your name. Let the nations be bled, let the people rejoice, for salvation belongs to our God. Let the whole earth be filled with the praises of the Lord, for salvation belongs to our God. Let the nations be glad. Let the nations be bled, let the people rejoice, for salvation belongs to our God. Let the whole earth be filled with the praises of the Lord, for salvation belongs to our God. Let the nations be glad. Well let me first of all thank everyone who gave, and especially those who prayed.

We sensed an unusual spirit of the Lord on this missions trip. I also want to thank you parents, you have raised some awesome young people. The teens and the young adults that went, we could not have asked for more. Also a special thanks to the team itself. They were extremely hard working, totally cooperative. One thing I was truly impressed with, we've always had great teams that would do whatever you ask them to do.

But this team, you didn't have to ask to do. They observed, they took initiative, and took care of things. There were several times that we'd say, guys make sure you do so and so, we've already done it. Trinity for instance finished a job inside and she said, Mima, does Papa have another paint brush? Nobody asked her to go paint, she went to paint.

And just time and time again, that kind of thing took place this week. The kids, they were observant and they were engaged with the children while there. I want to especially thank Erin Wilburn.

She was heartbroken that she couldn't go, and we were heartbroken too. But her presence was very much there. She had planned all the meals, already purchased the groceries for those meals, and then spent the time to write out every one of those menus, and the recipes for each of the menus, so that Barbara just stepped right in and had, all she had to do was follow the directions. And so that was a huge blessing.

And then she had also worked on the Bible verses, which Logan ended up doing, but Erin had set up the PowerPoint, and so she was very much present with us there, though not bodily. The curriculum we used this year, back in 2020, our last missions trip to Montana had been in 2019. And in 2020, we had purchased an Answers in Genesis curriculum that was one God, one race, one family. And I thought, so no need to purchase more curriculum, let's use what we have.

But when I began to examine the curriculum, I realized it just was not going to work in the Montana setting. So it was based around a foot race. But I did take the theme, the one race, one God, and one family, and also the suggested Bible lessons. So my main purpose there was to teach those Bible lessons. But rather than doing a foot race, we took airplane rides. We were an airline.

We were all nations airline. And that we were all nations airline 7910, based on the fact that the verses the children were memorizing were from Revelations 7, 9 through 10. We only had them learn one small portion of the verse, but the larger setting of the verse was important for them to understand what that small section meant.

And there were several children, I don't know, Logan, maybe five or six who actually memorized the entire thing, which they got extra points for. Going back to my task of teaching the Bible lessons, on Monday I taught about creation, Adam and Eve, and the fall, and that there was one promised who was going to come and crush the head of the serpent, Satan. On Tuesday I taught about Noah and the flood and the Tower of Babel, from whom all nations, tribes, and tongues descended. And Jesus is our arc of safety. On Wednesday I taught about Abraham and Isaac, and God's covenant with Isaac, that through his family, all nations of the earth were going to be blessed.

And we know that blessing was none other than Jesus Christ. On Tuesday I began having some knee pain, didn't really think too much of it, thought I'd slept wrong. By Wednesday my knee was swelling, by Thursday it was a mess. And on Thursday when I went up to teach, and this lesson was going to be about the fulfillment of all of those promises. And one of the things I kept reminding the children of was, God always keeps his promises.

And so the promise of Jesus was what I was to teach. I was sitting up in the room waiting for the children to come. My knee looked like I had a cannonball in it.

And I began getting really lightheaded, a little nauseous, and I thought, oh, Lord please do not let me pass out in front of these kids. And I prayed, Lord give me strength. I need your strength. Because this wasn't something somebody could just jump in and teach your PowerPoint for you.

And so I just prayed, Lord please give me strength. And I have never sensed in all the years of teaching, the strengthening and empowering of the Lord that I did in that lesson. And the children were glued into every word. Anybody who's taught kids, especially when you start teaching about Jesus, Satan brings along the wiggle worm. These kids did not wiggle.

They sat glued in. And at the end of the lesson, and this was a lesson that was about the life of Christ, so we truly raced through the life of Christ from his birth, through his life, through his sinless life, through several of his miracles, through his death, resurrection, and ascension. The last picture I showed was a picture of children from many races. And I reminded them of the verse that we were going to all be a part of that one family of God. And that we were going to be gathered around the throne, crying out with a loud voice, and without any prompt, without any suggestion, they began saying together in unison, salvation belongs to our God who sits on the throne and to the Lamb. And I said, and who is that Lamb? It's Jesus. So that was the culmination of our teaching that week.

We pray the Lord will take the seed that was sown and draw many of these children to himself in salvation. Awesome. So I was in charge of the missions lessons this week. And like she just said, we're on all nations airline.

And so each day we were on a plane ride to a different place around the world. So, let's see. It's not working.

You can just look at the sign. Hell. I got it. So our destinations this week, on day one we went to Zimbabwe, South Africa. We visited Ms. Laverne Waugh and she was able to share with us a lot about the culture there, about their response to the gospel, their openness to the gospel there, and the children really loved that. At the end of each PowerPoint we had a video sent. We're very thankful for that from three missionaries.

And they were able to share with the children through video about their ministry. So day one was Zimbabwe. Day two was Papua New Guinea with Paul Snyder. And that was our longest flight. The kids loved learning how long it would take us to get to each place.

It would have taken us two days to get to Papua New Guinea. And so that was really cool. The kids loved that, especially learning about how Paul Snyder, the work he's done in providing medicine for the people there.

Day three was Paris, France, which is what we're going to talk about today. And then on day four was we went back to Heart View, Montana, where we were serving, and instead of a video that day, we had our missionary in person. So Larry Bunyan was able to present the details of his ministry to the kids. And that was a really, really cool day because the kids, it's a very small town, so they're familiar with Pastor Larry. But he came up to them and he said, a lot of you guys don't know this, but I'm not just a pastor, I'm also a missionary. And the kids were like, whoa, that's crazy. And so that was really cool.

He did a great job with his presentation. So each day, so today we were going to Paris, France. And so they were, like she said, their attentiveness was incredible. They were all in for each aspect of Bible Club, for sure. And so about today's missionaries, you're right, I cannot read that. So basically during this portion of the PowerPoint, I was able to just give a brief summary of who the missionaries were and their ministry there. And also during this slide, I would always say, ask them two questions, and that was what is a missionary and what is the gospel?

And by the end of the week, they had those answers pretty much down. And so we're really thankful for that. I think the whole team would agree that our goal was that in every aspect of Bible Club that we could present the gospel and make it known. And this was a unique opportunity to do that.

So I'll read this. Tim and Ruth Bixby have been serving in France for 16 years. After serving in the church planted by Tim's father for several years, Tim and Ruth then moved to northern France to plant a church near Paris. The Lord has blessed their church, and it has grown, and the Bixby's continue to serve in northern France by sharing the good news of Christ with those who live there. And again, we would go into depth about what that means. What does it mean to share the good news of Christ?

And what is the good news of Christ? And so then when we shared pictures with them of the scenery of where they lived, Paris was definitely a popular one because a lot of the kids, of course, had heard of that place. Sharing pictures of the Bixby family, and then, of course, they loved this part that it would take you nearly 13 hours to fly to Paris, France. And then we had a map of where they were in relation to where France was.

Kind of flying through this. Of course, they recognized the Eiffel Tower, which is really cool. And I think up there in the top left you see their youth group gathering together and then a fellowship meal below that. But able to share pictures of their congregation with the kids. And here, like she said, our theme was one God, one race, one family. And the very unique thing about the Bixbys and their ministry is that, and he will share this in the video, that their congregation consists of many different ethnicities and races and people that have come from many different nations. And so that was a really cool example to the kids of how we are all part of one family.

And so then we have a video from Tim Bixby that we'll share with you now. Bonjour! Je vous nous à paris!

Welcome, all of you children from Montana. You have just arrived on All Nations Airlines to Paris, France. We're actually just north of the city, not too far from the large airport. It's called Charles de Gaulle. And we're in a northern suburb of Paris from out in the road.

You can even see the Eiffel Tower at a distance. And in this city, there are people from all over the world. Within just two or three square miles, we have people from a hundred different nations. And right here in our church, we have people from all over the world.

People that come from Haiti or South Korea or Algeria or different countries in Africa or Eastern Europe. And yet they come here and we love each other because Christ has united us in the Gospel. So this is where we meet on Sunday mornings and also during the week. And then if you look right outside this window here, you see a glimpse of just one part of our city. See all those big apartment blocks? All those people can literally walk to our church from where they live. And some of our church members live in those apartments. There are many people from Turkey in those apartments.

And there are also many Jews that live in our city. So we want to thank you, first of all, for coming to the Vacation Bible School. But thank you also for praying for us and thinking about us.

We pray that God will do great things in your lives this week. I echo what Jane said about the effort on the part of the teens. They were a joy.

This mission strip really was bittersweet for us because it probably will be the last that we lead. I'll mention this now as we get into the PowerPoint that I have for you. When I first met Larry Bunyan on the field, we exchanged polite handshakes. And when we left Friday, we exchanged hugs.

When you work together for eight different times, you get to know each other a little bit better. And you really get to appreciate a whole lot more what missionaries endure often. This morning we sang a song in our morning worship service, not to us. I want to read the last verse of it before we get into the PowerPoint. It says, Christ has claimed a chosen race for the glory of His grace. But He can praise His claim.

Who boasts such a matchless name? We whose song will never cease, long to fade, and Christ increase. Not to us, but to our King. Honor, praise, and glory bring.

I say that because I made the comment while we were out there to the group and having devotions. The duty is ours. The results are God's.

The duty is ours. The results are God's. And truly the Gospel was presented to those young people. And they were extremely attentive, as Jane said, and we need to just pray.

Please continue to pray that the Lord will work in their lives. I want to say many thanks to Walt and Pam Atkins for coming to Beacon at 4 a.m. on Friday, July 7th to take us to the airport. And for retrieving us from the airport at 11.15 p.m. on Friday, July 14th. By the time we got back to church and then people got to their various homes, it was one in the morning on Saturday. Also a big thank you to the Bunions and Jane for prep work that began weeks before we ever went out there.

It always does take weeks to prepare. Larry and Carol Bunyan have this on their website. Honoring the Lord, expounding the Word, affection for others, reaching lost, and teaching believers. And you can see the acrostic going down the word heart.

They also have this on their website. At Whitetail Baptist Church, we strive to be a Bible-believing, God-honoring, family-oriented fellowship. We promote personal faith in the Lord Jesus Christ and a lifestyle that pleases the one who died for our sins. Our passion is to have a heart for God and others. Wally, if you've been here before, you've got an idea of where HeartView is if you're new to the church.

And have not seen our presentation, that's it. The upper corner of Montana. One town that we go to, Browning, I believe Larry said it, is 40 miles from the Canadian border. So it's very close. This is a picture from what they call the heart. HeartView is the town. There is a HeartView mountain.

I guess some seniors went up on this hill behind the church and painted a heart or put stones out in the form of a heart. And I show you that because you'll see three arrows. When we do the canvassing, there are three different parts of the town. The middle part of the town is the largest. And then down the road to the left is the second largest. To the right, the right arrow, is just probably eight to ten cabins, log cabins. All of them have one thing in common, and that is dogs. They also have on their website concerning the church, it's a place of warmth and friendship with a passion for God and His word.

Larry was a little concerned because of it being summer. He knew of three or four families that were going to be gone. There's one family in particular, I just mentioned the dad's first name, Joe, a relatively young man.

I think he has a daughter and two sons. I just connected with him, enjoyed fellowshipping with him, and I was pleasantly surprised and overjoyed to see them walk through the door on Sunday morning. They decided to come. They were out of town. In February of 2022, they had a situation come up where a storm blew off part of the roof. They had some men come in and cover it so it wouldn't be damaged and got a new metal roof put on. I do want to show you some of the stuff that they put up with them. It's nice out there in the summer, it was 70 to 80 degrees.

It can be a little bit cooler in January or February. They also have guests every now and then. They have range horses. They belong to someone.

They're branded, but they just run loose. This picture has 200. I've seen as many as seven or eight in front of the church. As we get closer to our view, you'll see this statue, Blackfeet Sentinel's sculpture, just made out of metal. It's very colorful and catches your eye. The Blackfeet Nation has a very rich heritage.

These are just pictures from the past, but they do have a very rich heritage. The setting, and I sometimes hesitate to show this, you're going to know that it's a beautiful place to go to, but that really should be the cherry on the sundae, if you will. You shouldn't be going just to see a different part of the country or a different part of the world. That does not end up in the Lord. Can you be excited about what you see?

Certainly, because God's creation is marvelous and wonderful, and yet it shouldn't be the primary reason for you going. But again, you'll see herds of horses, herds of black Angus, some herds of red Angus. I'll say a little bit more about that in a moment. Buffalo basically are raised by the herd. They do not roam their pasture lands, vast pasture lands, but they are a resource for the tribe. A couple other slides of the type of landscape that you would see. These are just different places that we went. The bottom picture shows a river. I don't remember the name of that one, but the irony of it is you'll be going along, driving, thinking. You're on flat land, when in reality, I guess you're on a plateau because you'll go down into this river bottom.

It's a very, very steep drive down and a steep drive out. I put this picture on because the government housing is very, very poor. You wonder how some people could survive. Carolyn Leary mentioned that tons of money go into the reservation. I don't know how much of that is actually given to the Blackfeet Indians. I did notice that several of the houses had new metal roofs, which was good.

But the housing overall is very poor. This is a picture of the team on Sunday morning just before we had the service. During that Sunday school time, we had testimonies. Micah gave a testimony in Logan, and then Pastor Strength preached. All three did a very good job. It lasted about 40 minutes, and they have a coffee time of fellowship in between services downstairs.

We've done this before, not every year, but we had a fellowship lunch. You notice the name Vera. I'm not even going to get a chance to point out it.

Yeah, I think I can. Vera is right here in the short story with Vera. She had been praying for years that God would send someone to start a church in Heart Butte.

It's amazing to see how the Lord worked and moved in Larry and Carol's hearts. They visited several different places and traveled across Montana. At some point, they looked at each other and said something to the effect, I think we found the place we were looking for.

They've been there many, many decades. But we did have a luncheon, and that was a blessed time of fellowship and renewed friendship. The next thing on the docket was canvassing, which is an adventure. We did that on Sunday afternoon because that's when most of the folk would tend to be home. Later that evening after canvassing, we went to the Indian Days parade. They probably had 150 horses in that thing and then every other kind of truck and whatever you imagine. I just put a couple of pictures up, but we did enjoy that.

Then we get into other parts of Indian Days. This is actually a picture that I used last year, the last time we won, I should say. The reason I used it again, they built a new structure for $2 million. The Indians, the Blackfeet, who were playing the drums, I couldn't even see in this structure. But again, if you're close enough to the building, you can actually feel the vibration of the drums from a distance.

Just amazing. They have competitive dancing. I went to it and watched, I guess, four or five different competitions. The women compete in various categories and then the men. The women's fancy dance, what they call a fancy dance, they're very athletic.

I don't know, I would guess it lasts four to five minutes of constant movement. The men are flat out athletic. They do all kinds of moves during that and are judged. Larry says the ones that are very, very good would earn enough prize money to pay for their trip. This next slide we did not go to is called the Indian Relay Race. They could have any number of teams, I guess. Each young man has three or four horses.

He races around the track. Coming in fourth was not bad for my first time. The projects, we did several. This shows the guys putting metal around the foundation of the building. None of them had ever done that and the Lord really blessed their efforts. It looked very, very good when they were done. I had to dig down about 16 inches and then put the metal in, fasten it to the building.

I put one up that you might be a little bit surprised, but Logan, bless her heart, ironed everyone's clothing that we would have to wear for either Sunday or Bible Club. The center picture is me painting the deck and then Trinity helped also, which is much appreciated. This is a picture of the building when it's done.

From a distance you can see the dark brown. The other thing that we did, we didn't have time to paint the whole building, just the deck and do that steel work. The other thing that we ended up doing is feathering the snow line.

The snow will come up so high and you might not be able to do the whole building, but where the snow comes it's definitely lighter, the stain is bleached off. By painting the bottom and then feathering it, it tends to give the appearance that the whole building was done. Our meal makers, Barb did most of our meals, all of the breakfasts, all of the supper, and helped the ladies with the luncheon that we ended up doing for the kits, which was new.

I have a thank you to Erin for doing the menu, as Jane said, and Vera is pictured in this. I don't remember the other lady's name, Carol was there in the center. This was interesting. We found out after the fact, really after we left, the reason behind this, this is a church right up the road. I don't know how much money they put into that. It's been there every year I've been, but there are 17 cars parked there. Larry and Carol found out that they put a poster up after we put our poster up, and they plan to have a summer session for their young people. The good part, from our perspective, there were 17 cars there, but we noticed a couple of them leave there, drive down, and pull into Whitetail. So we garnered some of their audience, and then after that first day, I didn't, maybe one car, but that could have been, we put up with competition from other groups many, many years.

And then anticipation, this is just before the first Bible Club. And then registration, our young people registered all the kids. By registering the kids, Larry and Carol can follow up.

I would make an edit of myself. I try to give you one of their names, but they're unusual. Wind comes softly or something like that, beautiful names. But they get those names down and then end up following up on them.

Jane mentioned this. As part of our decorations, we had a world map that covered one whole wall. This picture right here shows the adventure awaits, and we had the flags of all the countries that were represented here too. We had some on the other wall as well.

And then one god, one race, one family. Little bracelets made up that they could wear as a reminder. This is the flight crew on the left and then our hostess now boarding. That was so cool because they'd have to walk in the door and up the steps. And one little girl got there a little later. I don't know if somebody dreamed up the idea the front seats were first class. The front seats were first class. Well, she got there too late to get a seat. She said, oh, I wanted first class.

It was very, very cute, very effective. The enforcer, Caleb, he did a good job as far as dismissing them for lunch, and it never was mass pandemonium as we've had sometimes. Our captain, co-captain, we won't comment on the landings and takeoffs. That's just song time. Larry played the guitar. Carol normally played the piano, but because we had lunch and she went down to help with that, she wasn't able to play the piano. But Larry did a wonderful job on the guitar.

Jane helped with some of the songs that have emotions to them. And then we have break time. We had them go outside. They thought it was pretty hot in the 80s. And what, 37% humidity? Chris and a couple of the guys said, I'd love to work in this kind of weather. And we mentioned it was 95 and whatever percentage humidity back home.

But we did give them a break and some frozen Popsicle-type things, and that went over well also. Jane mentioned this, the four different days, creation and the fall. Day one, the flood and babble. Day two, Abraham and the promised nation. Day three, and then Jesus' promises fulfilled. Those are the themes of the Bible lesson. Logan did a great job with the verse and with the missions. You notice fight 7910 is a spinoff, Revelation 7910.

Salvation belongs to our God who sits on the throne and to the Lamb. This was the missionary story and the videos that she showed you tonight, one of them. They were great. They just did a great job.

Larry did not do a video. He did his in person because obviously he was there. But it went over very well. Points and prizes, Larry explained how they could get points for bringing people, for being there, for memorizing their verses. And then we had what they call the grab bag.

If someone said the verse, they could reach in, and as much as you could get one grab, it was yours. And that went over real well. This is just a slide showing very attentive kids, and they were the best ever. Chris and Caleb were in charge of the games.

All the guys and gals helped, but they were in charge of them. That's a picture of Chris with, I think, three way tug of war. And then Ken is doing a small game with some of the kids. Believe it or not, kickball was a big hit. That's so basic, I didn't know how well that would go, but it did.

It shows Elijah and Zion pass the strike. A very important, very important part of missions is engaging the kids, doing more than playing games with them, but having conversations with them. This group did an excellent job, and they did an excellent job. And I want to insert here, I might mention it later, time is getting away from me, but what time I have left, and then I share a couple of thoughts with you.

Larry made the comment that I think we just need to be reminded. A missions trip is not camp. You know, when the kids go to the wilds, they go to get. Hopefully spiritually, sure, but they go to get. A fellowship, a good time. When you go on a missions trip, you go to give. And you have to constantly be reminding yourself, this is not a matter of getting. Will you get?

Yes, you will get a blessing if you go with the right heart attitude. Primarily go to give and not to get. That's some of our folks engaging the kids. Lunch was a new twist.

They had great meals for them. Hot dogs, I thought spaghetti was going to be pandemonium, but it went well. One cute little girl, I didn't put her on here, said, phooey on the fork. Just grabbed it, but when you're that age and that cute, you get away with it.

I get slapped on the wrist when I try it. We did go to Glacier National Park. Larry had to go all the way back to Great Falls because they left an important piece of the metal out pieces, a kind of a cap. And so we were stuck. And he did not get back until probably 4ish, I think, something like that, 334. So we had never been to Glacier National Park that late.

It had always been early afternoon. We were rewarded. We saw a mountain sheep, a mountain goat, a bear, a long way off, thank the Lord. Anything else?

I don't know. That's more than we've ever seen. And the mountain goats, I thought they were just beautiful. Behind the scenes, the grill master, Chris, did hamburgers one night. I think chicken and other guys helped by watching and giving advice, I guess. Pastor Strength was our IT guy and made sure that the videos of the missionaries were shown. You have to ask yourself the question, what kind of impact did this have because it is not cheap.

It is not cheap. By the time you buy the plane tickets, by the time the church gets vans, and I need to insert something here, we had a good deal of opposition planning this trip. It just seemed like one thing after another.

I won't get into all the nitty-gritty, but it took hours because of obstacles. And we get on the plane while it was Johnny on the spot, got us there in plenty of time, get on the plane. The pilot says, I need to make an announcement. They broke the hitch on the tractor that pushes the plane out, so we're going to have to repair that.

It will be a few minutes. And then the next announcement, why this is important, when we got to Houston, we had 40 minutes to get to the other plane. So when we touched down, we had 40 minutes to get to the other plane. He gets on and says, we're going to have to check the front of the plane to make sure it's not damaged before we take off. We took off 30 minutes later than what we were supposed to, and we had 40 minutes initially to get to the next plane. I'm thinking in my mind, we're going to be spending the night in Houston Airport or something. We got there and took two trams, two trams, and got to the next flight and made it out of there. I honestly think the Lord probably sent a tailwind.

I mean, there's no explanation other than his blessing. On top of that, I did a little research on what vans have the most storage room, what seven passenger vans have the most storage room, because we had luggage for 12 people. It is the Chrysler Pacifica. So I ordered two Chrysler Pacificas. Fortunately, in God's grace, I didn't pay for them. I just said, I want to reserve two. So we got there and she says, we don't have any. The guy over here didn't have any vans for a month. She says, I can give you a Ford Expedition and a Chevy Suburban.

I said, what's that going to do to the price, and she said, nothing. So we went from Chrysler Pacificas to a Ford Expedition. I could get used to that vehicle. And then the Chevy Suburban. And any of the team will tell you, if we had not had those large vehicles, we would not have gotten everything in, especially coming back.

So that said, what impact? Now, these are unfaithful. This one lady, Tara Blastar, says, my daughter, Briley, went to the White Hill Baptist Church the last two days. She's already singing the songs. I grew up going to the bunions, and it was always an enjoyable place to be learning about God and Jesus with songs, stories, and even games. And then this gal replied, this is Winona Spoonhunter. She said, that's so awesome. They still do that. I love the bunions. I love the bunions. Even after all these years and all the kids they've seen come and go, they still remember all of us, Winona Spoonhunter.

Last slide. Moreover, it's required in stewards that one be found faithful, and Larry and Carol certainly have been that. I do not have time to go over the challenge that I have, but I do want to give you the main points, and I want to say that if you're interested in a short-term mission, talk with us about it in plenty of time. It's not an automatic thing, and I'll give you some insights on that real quickly. I do want to read the key verses of what I read early in the service, 1 Corinthians 3, 16-18. Nevertheless, when one turns to the Lord, when one turns to the Lord, that is life, spiritual life. When one turns to the Lord, the veil is taken away. Now the Lord is the Spirit, and where the Spirit of the Lord is, there is liberty. But we all, with unveiled face, beholding as an emir, the glory of the Lord, being transformed into the same image, that's the likeness of Christ, from glory to glory, just as by the Spirit of the Lord.

How do we apply this very quickly in about five minutes? How do we apply this to short-term missions? I've got seven headings, and I'm not going to say much under each. Who should participate in short-term missions? Any Christian who's burdened for the lost, and who can share the Gospel, and be used to the Lord to do that. Why should they participate in short-term missions? There are probably more reasons than this, but I can think of three. It's an opportunity to give. It's an opportunity to glow.

We are to be light. It's an opportunity to grow. Missions will reveal to you your strengths and your weaknesses.

Your strengths and your weaknesses. Third, how can a person participate in short-term missions? If they can't go, they can give and support, and several of you did, as Jane mentioned, that helped people tremendously.

Don't underestimate the value of that. They need to be prepared to share the Gospel wherever they are, wherever they are. They might do work projects that are in line with their skill set, and those work projects have to be missionary directed. You don't get out there and give the missionary an idea. The missionary looks at what he needs and gives you the idea. And the Lord blesses that.

Like I said, none of our guys had done putting metal on the building before. When should they participate in short-term missions? When they're of an age where they understand the responsibilities that accompany being part of a short-term mission team. When they get old enough to understand what it means.

This is not camp. We are going for a couple of purposes to share the Gospel and encourage the missionaries. Secondly, not only age, but when they've demonstrated a serious mindedness, hear about the things of God. Hear in the church.

Number five out of seven, where should they participate? Through Beacon, your local church outreach. It could be a sporting missionary. We went through one of our missionaries and we had missions to Mexico. We had missions to Quebec. We had a mission to New Jersey, came to New Jersey.

We've had several trips out to Montana. What should be their objectives in short-term missions? To evangelize unsaved people by sharing the Gospel. And you need to be praying that God would give you a growing understanding of how to explain the Gospel to an elementary kid, elementary age, as well as older people.

But as far as Montana, elementary. Pray for God to soften hearts and enable individuals to receive the Word. Pray that God would keep before you your dependence upon His grace as you serve. So you go to evangelize, but two out of three, you go to edify the believers who are there, the believers in the Whitetail Baptist Church. And then finally to encourage the host missionaries. We have this as a policy that I trust will go forward in the future.

I know it will. How do you encourage the missionaries? One way is before we depart Whitetail Baptist Church, it is ready for Sunday services. It does not need to be vacuumed because it has been vacuumed. The bathrooms don't have to be cleaned because they have been cleaned.

If the floor needs mopping, it doesn't need mopping because it has been mopped. And I think you get my drift. They appreciate that. I've been involved in situations where the event is over, everybody leaves, and I'm stuck cleaning up alone.

And you know how that is. We're with a small, faithful group of people. So one of the things that we have always tried to do is to leave the facilities looking the way we found them. And then finally, how should you pursue short-term missions?

Talk with the pastors, and in the case of young people, you need to be talking with your parents as well. And if all three believe that you're ready at this point for this opportunity, begin praying for support and raising support. At this time, I want to make one announcement, and then Greg is going to come and lead us in our last song.

But following our closing prayer tonight, the benediction will conduct our monthly congregational meeting, and that will be for members and their children sitting with them. I hope that the PowerPoint and Jane and Logan, what they shared, the song that was sang, I hope that you are encouraged by what was done. It's an investment.

It is an investment. And I, like others have said, I have never seen a group of kids as attentive as this group was. Please pray that the seeds that have been sown, the Lord will bring forth His harvest. Let me pray, and then Greg is going to come. Father, as we come before you, we do pray that you'd give a harvest of your choosing. How thankful we are that salvation is of Thee. Lord, we do pray for the bunions, that you'd continue to encourage them, encourage the folks at White Tail Baptist Church. Lord, I pray that you'd give them the people and the resources that you'd have them to have. We not only pray that for them, but for all of our missionaries. I thank you that Beacon Baptist Church is missionary-minded. We praise you for what you do in our church and through our church. In Christ's name, Amen.