I first came to Metro World Child a few years ago to attend the weeklong Boot Camp program. I was 17 years old at the time and working towards high school graduation, while faithfully attending my local youth group. I grew up in a small town in Canada and to be honest, my knowledge of Missions and my awareness of Christian missionaries living out the Great Commission was very limited.
Together with my youth group, we had the opportunity to be a part of what Metro World Child does every week in the neighborhoods of New York City: minister to children and their families through inner city Sunday School programs, conduct home visits, build relationships through mentorship, and so much more. I got to learn first-hand the importance of sharing the Gospel and I could see the Great Commission being put into action.
Boot Camp was not just a Missions trip where we helped Metro’s teams do what they do. It was a week of immersion into full time ministry, where we were trained and equipped to effectively reach our own communities through urban outreach and Sunday School programs. During the mornings we learned the different elements to urban outreach and kid’s ministry, and each afternoon we actually went out and did it, together with the staff and volunteers of Metro World Child. We rode along with the teams in their ministry trucks, visited housing projects and inner city neighborhoods, and personally connected with each of the families who attend the programs, even being invited into their homes and spending time with them. Boot Camp gives you the best of both worlds – learning the importance and the “why” of ministry, receive training on how to actually do it by going out there each day and putting our knowledge into action.
My favorite part of Boot Camp was the ministry of home visitation, where each team member goes and visits an area in need each week. During that time, I was able to walk around with the team and introduce ourselves and our programs to the people in the community, go door to door and pray with people, and be welcomed in to homes as if I was a new family member. Being able to do this while also supporting and helping the Metro team was something I really loved being a part of.
During the week of Boot Camp, I know I experienced some of the most genuine and authentic moments I will ever come face to face with. The ministerial moments I hold in my heart were as simple as a child resting in my arms during the program, because the truth is, at home that child never had the opportunity to rest. Another moment that touched my heart was hearing prayers from children as they asked God to help them, and they had genuine child-like faith that we read about in the Bible. It was so special to get to see it displayed at Sunday School.
My heart was filled every time a child would tell me they loved me and thanked me for coming, many of them whom I’d just met but they could see the love of Jesus as He used me to reach them. These things moved my heart because you see, I went to New York to be involved in the Boot Camp program so that I could minister to children and their families. Little did I know that the ones who I was hoping to help would be the ones ministering back to me; that is the power of God that is moving in and through Metro World Child.
After an amazing, life changing week of Boot Camp, my youth group went back to Canada eager to start our own Sunday School urban outreach program. To this day, the image that has been ingrained in my mind was witnessing so many children, standing shoulder to shoulder, all lifting their hands in worship and calling out to Jesus. That picture, and the joy it brings, will stay with me forever.
Metro World Child is a faith-based humanitarian organization committed to serving the underprivileged inner-city children of the world. By sharing the Gospel, showing God’s love and meeting needs, together, we can help break the cycle of poverty, provide hope, build futures and empower children to rise up out of the streets and become tomorrow’s leaders.
Our mission at Metro World Child is to reach at-risk children worldwide with the message of the Gospel, to lead them into their own personal relationship with Jesus Christ and to the best of our ability, help meet whatever spiritual, practical and emotional needs that arise. As a result, our hope is to see at-risk children raised up to become leaders among the next generation and fulfill God’s unique plan for their lives.
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