At our heart, ARM is and always has been a ministry of disciple-making; creating experiences to shape people’s lives around the servant way of Jesus. We want our home repair and children’s ministries, our internship opportunities, and the way we host mission teams, especially youth teams, to discover, develop, and deploy followers of Jesus who extend Christ’s love in their own way and in their own communities. That’s what this story is all about.
In 2015, a small team of youth and adults from Collins United Methodist Church of Collins, MS served with Sonshine Kids Day Camp at our youth mission camp site in Livingston, AL. The team had not traveled very far – just 120 miles – and they were familiar with the kind of rural community they were traveling to because Collins only has a population of about 2500. Even so, they had been sent on a mission and we were so grateful for how they stepped out in faith as a small church to serve with us. It was an awesome week of service alongside 2 other teams – Fayette First UMC and First UMC of Gainesville, TX (check out their highlight video here) and the Collins UMC team went home excited about what God had done.
The seed planted in 2015 were watered again in the summer of 2016 and again in the summer of 2017 as the Collins UMC team returned to serve with us at Sonshine Day Camp in Livingston. Each year brought new challenges but also new opportunities for God to inspire both the youth and adults.
Part of our nightly worship sessions with Collins and all our summer teams was dedicated to “taking it back home” (and that’s now the main focus of our nightly worship sessions!) and after 3 years of talking about taking it home, the Collins UMC felt the call to put their words into action.
So this summer they did just that. Once again, they followed God’s call and took a step of faith – like disciples always do. Except this time they didn’t have to travel at all and they were even more familiar with the community because it was their community. Just a few weeks ago, Collins UMC launched KOOL KIDS CAMP as a children’s ministry in their own town of Collins, MS! Way to go y’all!
KOOL Kids Camp 2018 with friends from Collins UMC of Collins, MS
We are so proud of the way they have made mission more than a trip. We are so honored to have been a part of this discipleship process with them and we are excited for how this new ministry will continue to grow and expand to be a blessing in and with the children of Collins, MS!
While this “take it home” mentality has always been a part of the ARM mission team experience, we have taken it to a new level this summer. Our evening sessions with team are exploring the story of Nehemiah and how he was called to rebuild the broken walls “back home” in the city of Jerusalem. After each Bible study, we’re guiding our teams to “draft” a “blueprint for ministry” that they can put into action in their own communities. The blueprint includes a vision, values, mission, and strategies! Click here to check out the blueprint that the Birmingham Youth Ministry Coop team drafted with us in Tuskegee just last week.
Discipleship is the driving force behind Sonshine Kids Day Camp, KOOL KIDS CAMP, and all the newly drafted “blueprints”. It’s all about developing spiritual leaders who will serve as Christ served so that they and their communities might be transformed more and more into Christ’s likeness for the glory of God!
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