ConnectionPoints
On a violently stormy night, on April 28th, young people and youth leaders filled the Berean Baptist Church auditorium in Mesquite, Texas. There they experienced a two-hour event designed to allow the Lord to open their eyes and connect them to the needs of a lost world through video, testimony and a challenge by a missionary speaker. When it was over, more than 30 young people surrendered to full-time service (most of them to serve as missionaries) and three teens trusted Christ as Savior. Since the event, there have been reports of many more who have said yes to the call of God in their lives.
This was the first ConnectionPoint Regional Youth Event (CP-RYE) coordinated by the Baptist Bible Fellowship Mission Office. The event was born in the heart of Mission Director Jon Konnerup in his vision for a proactive approach to winning more of the lost by reaching the next generation of missionaries.
Before anyone is a BBFI missionary reaping a harvest among people groups globally, they must be part of a harvest as a new missionary themselves at their own point of surrender. That harvest will only come as our local churches plant seeds and water the lives of God’s people. We must provide opportunities He can use to call an ever-increasing army into the harvest fields of the world. ConnectionPoint youth events are designed to be a tool in the hands of pastors and youth leaders as they partner with God in this planting, watering and harvesting process.
The planning for the first CP-RYE began last fall, and a meeting with pastors and youth pastors from the Dallas/Fort Worth area resulted in a team of youth pastors and students taking a vision trip to Ecuador. Missionaries Jim and Sharon Smith, who have been in Quito for more than 30 years, made arrangements and gave the team a view of the country that could only come from someone with a genuine burden to reach an entire country for Christ.
Jim led the group on a trip through the Andes Mountains and through numerous cities of more than 150,000 people with no gospel witness at all, not to mention the countless smaller towns and villages. From the top of a hill overlooking Guayakil, the country’s largest city, you could see many Catholic churches and an ornate Mormon Temple. It almost seemed fitting for the team to be there at night. From their lofty position they could see a vast sea of humanity in every direction who are in darkness both literally and spiritually. There are no BBFI missionaries in this city and only a minimal gospel witness in the area, at best.
Smith also took the team to a camp in Santo Domingo de los Colorados that is part of the ministry of missionaries Joe and Sylvia Wells. There the group interacted (as best as a bunch of gringos could) with a great group of Ecuadorian teens. There was much laughter as they tried to understand each other. What translated well was the common bond shared by virtue of the goodness of God’s salvation in the lives of the team members and the Ecuadorians.
Jim and Sharon took the team to see churches, a Bible institute, an orphanage (which is run by their daughter, Stacy — and whose kids stole everyone’s hearts) and to visit the works of other BBFI missionaries. Space doesn’t permit me to recount the amazing stories shared by Ecuadorian pastors and nationals of how they came to Christ as a result of the work God has wrought through the missionaries there.
One highlight of the trip was a lunch with one of the ladies who was a Waorani (Auca) Indian. This lady was the niece of Diyuma, who was Rachel Saint’s first convert and she shared the story of her family coming to Christ. Jim and Sharon Smith cared for Rachel Saint in the last years of her life, and related many stories about the events chronicled in Through Gates of Splendor and the subsequent books and videos.
On the team’s final night in Ecuador, Jim took us to a special combined service of three Quichua Indian churches. We met pastors trained in the Bible institute. It was thrilling to hear these indigenous people singing from their hearts and praising God with their special musical instruments.
The purpose of the trip was to open the eyes of the youth pastors and students and connect them with the reality that people around the world need the gospel and that God is able to connect those lost people with someone who will simply answer God’s call to go. The testimony of Jeremy, Jon, Jay, Brad, Logan and Justin is that they have been forever impacted in a life-changing way through the ConnectionPoint initiative, and they brought their experiences back to be used by the Lord to impact others.