Vol. 1, No. 3 – September-October 2006

Mission Camp

Crossing Borders Camp in Texas, Mexico

By Lee Berger

Corey Schuler, 19 years old, was deeply affected by the children, saying, "I didn't know I could love someone before meeting them, until I met the children."   Looking back at the experience, Cathlena Conrad testified, "If you think that a week is too short to change one's life, then think again.  Mission work is a heart-breaking experience, but it is the best heart-breaking experience that anyone could go through."   Camp Chaplain Rodney Schuler had been to Mexico before, but remarked about this camp: "This was--and is--a life-changing experience.  We saw third-world conditions, and were welcomed at every level.  We saw that God works miracles and we were part of the solution as God aroused in us a greater worldview to the needs out there."   Acknowledging the usefulness of the Crossing Borders camp experience, Consuelo Orduno took some important lessons home with her:  "This mission trip has opened a door for those God is calling to be missionaries abroad.  But more importantly, it helped me see and understand on a deeper level the great need there is in our own communities, and that it doesn't take much to make a difference in the lives of others.  Just use the gifts and talents God has given you right where you are."

Performing drama as part of outdoor revival

Amateur carpenters building bunk bed frames

Pedro Orduno and new friend, Angel

Tony Raney and friend

Worshipers at outdoor revival

The one-week Crossing Borders mission training camp in Mexico ended June 25, and I can surely say that the lives of none of the attendees will ever be the same. Our promotion for the camp said, "Crossing Borders is not designed to be comfortable; it is meant to be transformational." And it was surely life-changing on many fronts.

We had 15 pioneer participants as "missionaries-in-training" for this first year of camp. A few attendees had been on mission trips previously and knew they had a heart for mission work. But for most attendees, this was their first experience with cross-border outreach. Participants came from Florida, Pennsylvania, Maryland, Missouri, Kentucky and Texas.

One purpose of the camp was to help people "test the water" to see if cross-cultural mission work was a "fit" for their spiritual gifts, personality and timing in their spiritual journey. We figured if they attended camp for the week and got excited about doing future foreign missionary work, that’s great. If they attended and learned mission principles that helped them better reach into their at-home mission field, then camp was still successful in exposing them to new venues and helping them in their discovery process to find their place in the Body of Christ.

In our training at base camp, we assessed our spiritual gifts, were trained in puppetry and drama, spent time in worship and chapel messages, had private devotionals and times of communal prayer, and participated in personal barrier-breaking discussions. We also hand-made and gave away to the Mexican children over 500 "salvation step" bead bracelets and necklaces. There wasn’t much time left for recreation, but we did manage to build an outdoor volleyball court as a gift for the camp facility, and we played volleyball on it for about an hour in the dark one evening after we returned from a long day in Mexico.

On our field trips into Mexico, we visited three different children’s homes, helped out with food distribution for the needy, assisted in clothing ministry, were a key part in an outdoor neighborhood revival service, visited a grass-roots Bible college, distributed gospel tracts and met several different ministry leaders. While our hearts broke for the plight of many of the Mexican people, we were also greatly inspired by the raw love of God and the work of the Holy Spirit demonstrated in the rapidly-growing Christian church.

There’s no way to describe in words the personal impact of what we saw, heard, smelled and touched during this camp experience. We walked through streets of tiny shack homes made from refuse lumber, cardboard, tin and tarps—with no running water, no electricity, no sewer. We held children in our arms—children of neglect, orphans, kids whose parents can’t afford to feed and clothe them, so they end up in Christian group homes.

We participated in an open-air church service set up beside the public road, standing or sitting in the dirt in the sun with temperatures close to 100 degrees, closing our eyes often to keep out the blowing sand, watching the sun go down as the preacher spoke of his conversion to Christ after decades of personal sin and official corruption—and we watched people who own nothing in this life come forward to accept the priceless gift of new life in Christ.

In every experience, we were overwhelmed with people truly hungry for spiritual truth listening to the gospel presentation with an intensity that is rare in our post-Christian, materialistic, multi-truth, me-centered American society. When the simplicity of Jesus is taught and demonstrated, the Spirit of God brings about miraculous changes.

We’re already planning for next year’s camp. And between now and then, we all have our work to do as missionaries of the Great Commission to our home mission field wherever God places us.

Photo: Matthew Rakestraw
and three new buddies

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