SMI - Student Missionary Internship

Sunday evening Jeremy and I had the opportunity to go and present our mission to our first home church Palmcroft Baptist. To them I say thank you for having us - it was nice to be back "home" for awhile. Palmcroft is where I (Heather) attended church from the time I was 10 till about 3 years ago when we moved down to Laveen. It was a difficult transition as I had "grown up" in that church and we were married there and then served together there, and yet, it was with purpose that God brought us to Laveen Baptist where we feel we found a new "home."

Sunday night I was able to reflect on our the journey to Holland, that really began (for me) back in high school on an SMI trip. SMI is the program that Palmcroft has to give their high school students a chance to do missions work. It starts in February with a retreat and then continues for 16 weeks as they prepare for a week long mission in early June. During the 16 weeks the students are required to do daily Bible devotionals (which are checked), weekly memory verse tests, Sunday afternoon meetings (missing no more than 2 of the 16), internships in the Sunday school classes, attendance at 80% of all youth activities, and all the while keeping a commitment (that they and their parents sign) to have character above question. This means each student promises not to use tobacco or alcohol, date non-believers, watch questionable TV, watch R-rated movies, or even listen to secular music in preparation for their ministry. Then at the end they have to pass an exam covering all the material they learn, as well as all the memory verses before they are allowed to go on the trip. It is amazing to think you can get a high schooler to agree to these terms, and yet they had 53 that went this last year!

The SMI mission is to provide VBSs for churches that can not put one on themselves. The 53 students were broken down into 12 teams. 6 teams went to northeastern Colorado, and 6 went to northeastern California. Each team then put on a morning and afternoon VBS completly by themselves - music, crafts, games, Bible lessons, everything. So in 24 different churches they had over 300 children.

SMI is truly an "internship" in missions. The preparation these students have and the trip that they get to be a part of is an unbelievable opportunity for them to find the purpose God has on their lives and gives them immeasurable preparation in deepening their faith and making it their own! It was while I was on SMI my junior year (I went all 4 years in high school) that I knew God had given me a passion for missions. It was because of that preparation that I looked for missions opportunities in College and went for the first time to Holland. From there I guess you could say that the rest is history!

For those parents of SMIers - be proud . . . but be prepared! I know of many pastors, youth pastors, and missionaries that God called while on SMI. It's just too good an experience not to forever impact the way you look at God, your life and your purpose!

But for the ultimate reason to do mission: there are over 90 new children of God because in the last 2 weeks some Arizona teens decided to step up and reach out!