9 Month Mission Trips

Getting a crew of people excited to travel to an unreached people in a far away exotic location takes leadership, planning and execution. Anyone who has lead a trip knows the intentional effort necessary to make a missions trip happen. We lead in order to reach people who may not know Jesus, we plan to overcome potential obstacles, and the execution can only happen through intentional coaching.

The same can be said about reaching those who haven't heard about Jesus in our communities.

One man who is working hard to equip students to reach their schools is Travis Deans. He is the Western PA Coordinator for NNYM. Travis says, "We work in 10 counties around the Pittsburgh region. We have 250,000 students in that region that we consider our mission field. We have students leading campus ministries at around 50 schools." They have named the initiative 9 Month Mission Trips.

The 9 Month Mission Trip is a great place to help give your students resources, but good resources aren't enough. Here are a few things that your community will need to do for a successful outreach through the school year.

1. Training - every missions team needs to be taught how to act and what is culturally acceptable. Check out www.9monthmissiontrip.com for outreach ideas, step by step ideas to start a campus ministry and encouraging stories!
2. Regular Coaching - the students who are leading these clubs are going to experience spiritual battle. They have stepped onto the front lines and they need, not only one youth worker to cheer them on... they need a "GREAT cloud of witnesses" to help keep them going. If your network does encourage Christian clubs, designate someone to regularly connect with those leaders. 
3. Telling their student's stories - It's no secret that students do not communicate well! Coaches need to help get the word out about the mission of the school.  

Reaching our communities takes the same type of leadership, planning and execution of any out of town mission trip. And feel free to think as creatively as you would on a missions trip! If you find something that works, let us know! We'll get the word out.

Connect with Travis Deans on Twitter @TDeans or go to 9monthmissiontrip.com for resources!