With a Mission is a short-term mission trip program to Vietnam run by various Vietnamese churches and congregations. It is led by the Kew Baptist Vietnamese congregation, partnered with Hurlstone Park, VicWest and Vietnamese English Brisbane churches. As Christina, Director of With a Mission, said, “We are a people 'with a mission (WAM)'. Our mission is to make positive impact on others life by bearing the good news, bring hope, joy and peace promised by God through active missional community work.”

Every couple of years they raise funds to send a missionary group to Vietnam. The group connects with local churches and tries to help people in the local area. This includes building houses and donating medical supplies. The With a Mission team chose to build houses because having a proper home is essential to people’s basic needs, including shelter, security and children’s development. For local Vietnamese Christians, having a secure home means they can stop worrying about their poor living conditions and “focus on building a stronger and better relationship with those around them and living their life with a mission." The team faces challenges operating in Vietnam. The Vietnamese government prohibits evangelism and religious expression even though religious freedom is protected in theory. The team works through local churches so that the local people can continue to develop relationships with other Christians even after the team returns to Australia. 

With a Mission has sponsored two trips so far in 2014 and 2016, which raised $15,000 and $20,000 respectively. In 2016, the trip to Kien Giang included providing a medical check-up for more than 500 people. They also gave $5,000 to Vietnamese Christian Restoration Ministry to "restore and renew hope to people suffering from drug addictions and other destructive lifestyles in Vietnam.” With a Mission is sending another team in January 2018 to Binh Phuoc in the south-east of the country. They are hoping to raise another $20,000 for the trip. 

Christina noted that the local people were sceptical of their work at first, imagining the team to be a bunch of tourists. But their attitude changed when they saw the team wholeheartedly putting themselves into the work of building houses, including carrying bricks and cement, hardening the floor, cleaning up the waste, and assembling the wall and the roof. Despite the heat and exhaustion, the team worked with “joy and laughter.” The willingness to serve and get one’s hands dirty really resonates with the local people. Even if most of the team had little experience in building houses, the readiness to work hard shows that they genuinely care about the people’s needs. As Christina noted in the WaM end of year report, "I have seen God's grace at work in WAM ministry throughout the year. He inspires and encourages every member of WAM to step outside of their comfort zone to do things that bring glory to the Lord.” 

Building houses 

Khoi-Phong Doan said he joined With a Mission because he wanted to “help out with the church.” By building houses and serving the local Vietnamese people, he said it “gets them to ask why and that’s what leads them to Christ.” He said that being on the team has “help[ed] me as a Christian to serve others because that’s what Jesus did.”   

Kua said that With a Mission is about showing people that there are people who care for them and are willing to serve them. It is a “bigger impact if we are there and help them ourselves.” He said he is very appreciative of what he has as he is “lucky to be in Australia.” He believes that it is important not to take for granted the freedoms and prosperity that we have in Australia and to remember and help those in Vietnam. He noted, “There will always be people in need. We have a ‘luxury life’ but the people back in Vietnam have to live in need.” Kua said going on With a Mission was a “great experience and he “still remember[s] some significant parts like it was yesterday.”

In the fields

The With a Mission team is inspired by the call to serve people and meet their physical needs. As it is written in James, “If you know someone who doesn’t have any clothes or food, you shouldn’t just say, 'I hope all goes well for you. I hope you will be warm and have plenty to eat.' What good is it to say this, unless you do something to help? In the same way, faith by itself, if it is not accompanied by action, is dead (James 2:14-17 CEVUS06 & NIV).” Christina noted that "Obedience = Love + Trust + Action. It starts with love as God wants you to love Him with all your heart, with all your soul, with all your strength and with all your mind; and love your neighbour as yourself. And out of love comes trust. If you trust what God is saying to you, and you believe that He loves you, then that will lead to action."

Christina noted that the pioneering people who change the world “invest their time and energy not in what is but what could be.” With a Mission is about making "a positive impact by bearing the gospel, the joy and hope that God promises.” It is ultimately part of a “dream of living our lives with a purpose, with a mission,” something that all Christians can take inspiration from.   

Source: BUV News

Baptist Camping Internships Update 2016 – 2017

The Baptist Camping Victoria Internship has been established to offer a gap year to VCE students before entering university, the work place and for those still searching. This program is run in conjunction with Whitley Theological College and GOTAFE.

This course is challenging, rewarding and it pushes the interns in body, mind and spirit, while also allowing time for reflection. 

This is a great training and development opportunity for young adults between 18-23 who are serious in developing personally and professionally in the following ministry areas:

• Jesus
• A Mission Trip
• Youth Ministry Camps
• Leadership
• Outdoor Education
• Bible Studies
• Prayer
• Camp Life
• Spiritual Formation
• Life skills
• Missions & Ministry
• Doing life with new friends

Live on site at Camp Wilkin, get paid to study & work, receive a Certificate 4 in Outdoor Recreation and 5 subjects toward a Diploma of Ministry from Whitely Bible College.

The program ensures a balance between study, training and site work. This is a full live-in position working Monday to Friday with a weekend roster.  It provides experience in all areas of camp so participants learn what Christian camping is all about.

‘’The year really pushed me into my faith and the biggest lesson I learnt is that I can only take others where I have gone myself with God. Like Moses we have to climb that mountain to see the glory of God, and what Jesus did is made it possible for all Christians to climb that mountain. To teach that is easy, but to walk with them up that mountain is another challenge altogether. It meant knowing the path myself, knowing where the pitfalls are, the snags and the challenges you face along the way. If I hadn't climbed it before how can I lead?” explains Chase Goodwin, Ministry and Program Manager, responsible for the Intern program.

In late 2016, Chase went to northern Thailand to see what may be possible for the internship program in terms of a mission trip learning experience.

Why are our BCV Interns going to Thailand?

In October 2017, the interns will be spending a two week adventure in the heart of the Ethnic Thai, partnering up with Global Interaction for a Global Xposure trip. The aim of Global Xposure is to expose participants to the culture of a least-reached people group and the work of Global Interaction among them.
 
Our team will engage in cultural activities and specific projects (e.g. English Teaching, home churches, and kid’s camps) that connect with and support Global Interaction’s long-term mission strategies. Global Xposure is learning what it means to be a part of this wonderful ministry. Teams are encouraged to ask questions, explore cultures, experience cross-cultural mission work and reflect deeply on their experiences.
 
These trips provide awareness of and exposure to mission, incorporating action-reflection learning, prayer walking, and interviews with cross-cultural staff, team meetings, biblical reflection and debriefing.

The team will be visiting home- long outreach kid’s camp for local children in western Thailand and meeting the long term missionaries and spending the days alongside them.

The intent is that the interns get a holistic experience in all areas of Christian ministry and what serving means in all cultural contexts. In running a camp overseas for kids that come from extreme poverty, some that have disabilities, and some that will most likely spend their whole lives in the rice fields and not ever see a plane never mind travelling on one, will broaden minds and hearts.

‘’It will provide perspective on our lives back in Australia and what we do with our finances, lives and how we spend our time” says Chase
 

This "camp" is three stories high and provides beds for over 30 children. The leaders sleep on the top level. Every floor has its own toilet block with showers. It cost $10000 AUD to build.

 

The majority of children attend this school. This is their playground which I thought was scrap metal.

 

 

The village that the children will come from. In the monsoon season the roads are heavily flooded.

 

 

Jit has been running the camp for many years with his wife Jan. Jan flew over 30 years ago as a nurse missionary and married Jit (a local) after he became a Christian. This was an unfortunate way we had to travel together as I (Chase) was too heavy for the side car. 

 

This children's after school English class is where the interns will teach English. Using the Bible to teach English opens the children up to the Gospel. Paul the teacher was a rich business man in Bangkok then through intervention of God he moved back to rural northern Thailand and became a Christian and now gives his life to teaching children and pastoring the local church.

The group will attend this home church and share a meal. The levels of poverty are extreme and the risk of being associated to the Christian church here can affect their whole families.

 

Bamboo shoots and a spicy crab oil sauce being prepped in their outdoor kitchen for the believers. This man became a Christian through the missionaries in the area.

 

If you stop attending the village Buddhist temple with alms with the rest of the village in this area, the local headsman can cut your family off buying/selling and force you to move out. The Christians here put their whole livelihoods on the line when they become Christians. That doesn't stop them getting baptised and meeting weekly.

The local missionaries are free to worship and do church but when Thai's get saved they risk excommunication and can only turn to the church for future support.

The markets are amazing with fried chicken the most popular along with other delicacies such as live frogs and eels. The smell of the place makes it hard to eat while walking around so take away was a must.

 

Breaking bread and the bank

The team of BCV Interns needs to raise $7500 more to fund the mission trip this October. The tickets have been bought and the itinerary almost finalized and the teams are ready on the ground over there. They are praying and organizing some more fundraisers for the next two months. There is a cultural context day planned where the team will learn basic Thai and learn what it means to be a visiting Christian in a nation that after over 183 years of evangelical missionary work, an investment of thousands of lives and millions upon millions of dollars, out of a total population of 65 million there are only 370,000 evangelical Christians, one half of one percent. 

With roughly one hundred days to go the pressure is on. If you would like to make a donation to the team directly or have any ideas or would like us to share at your church, please contact Chase ChaseG@baptistcamping.com.au

You can find out more about the Baptist Camping Victoria Internship Program here http://baptistcamping.com.au/internships/
 

Source: BUV News