Teen Missions International (TMI) is an interdenominational Christian mission organization specializing in running short-term mission trips for youth, teenager, and adult participation. The organization was started in 1970 in Ohio and later moved its headquarters to Florida.
"Boot Camp" is a ten day to two-week training period in which teams learn basic construction and evangelism skills, as well as cooperation and teamwork. TMI's main, and longest running, Boot Camp is based out of Merritt Island Florida.
The Boot Camp is designed to present simulations of the circumstances members may encounter overseas, and thus intentionally utilizes rustic conditions. Members live in tents, use buckets of water to bathe and wash clothes, and wear crude clothing such as construction boots..[1][2]
Mission Trip Age Groups & Program Focus
Teen Missions International teams and mission trips are divided up into three different age groups.
TEEN Mission Trips (Ages 13–19 years)
The largest and most popular of these groups is the Teen Boot Camp teams. Teen mission trips focus on spiritual and character development in addition to offering work and evangelism assistance to the host mission on the field. The length of Teen mission trips vary slightly depending on location, but they average between 6 and 8 weeks.
PRETEEN Mission Trips (Ages 10–13 years)
Preteen teams are the second most popular group. Preteen teams have a separate Boot Camp training schedule and also run the Obstacle Course (which is slightly modified for their smaller size). The Preteen program focuses on character building and control of attitudes and actions. Preteens receive classes such as Bible Timeline, personal evangelism, music, drama and puppets. Control classes at Boot Camp include canoeing and bike riding. A typical Preteen trip runs around 4–5 weeks. Trip locations, like teens, are all over the world.
ADULT Mission Trips
Teen Missions also organizes Adult mission trips that travel at various times of the year, most trips run between January and April. Adult trips normally last for about two weeks and most serve at an established Teen Missions base overseas. Projects include community development projects (sewing school uniforms, building grinding mills, granaries, and drinking water wells).
Special Blessings Training (SBs)
Teen Missions is known for their strict Boot Camp training and well disciplined teams. A unique aspect of TMI is their form of discipline, referred to as Special Blessings Training (SBs to staff and team members). Team members serve an SB by serving on an assigned work project during their free time.
Special Blessings can be given for Obstacle Course disqualifications, when late to class, or for other policy violations. They can be given to individual team members or an entire team.
SBs are intended to help team members learn that their actions are important to effective team work and unity during training and on the mission field. A unified and well disciplined team will be safer during travel and at their assigned project.
Obstacle Course (The OC)
The Slough of Despond. Part of the Obstacle Course.
Teen Missions believes that it is important to send out well trained and unified teams.
To help promote team building, a sense of accomplishment, and reliance on others, teams run a vigorous obstacle course during their Boot Camp training. Obstacles include Mount Sinai, (a large mountain formerly made of tires), Jacobs Ladder (a cargo net ladder), The Slough of Despond (a rope swing over a muddy pool of water), and the Wall (a twelve-foot wall that the team must work together to get each member over).
The Obstacle Course is usually run in the early morning (to avoid the extreme afternoon heat) and obstacles are carefully monitored by staff, but team members are sometimes treated for blisters, rashes, overheating, and other minor injuries.
Teams who disqualify (by committing an infraction of some sort) on the obstacle course are given a team Special Blessing (an "SB") and forfeit their one hour of free time for an hour long work assignment.
Contact With Team Members
Parents have limited contact with their child during Boot Camp and on the field. This policy is meant to help the team members focus on the project without distractions and better cope with potential homesickness.
Evening visits are allowed by family or clergy during Boot Camp in Florida (since the COVID-19 Pandemic in 2020, visits are limited to the night of the Commissioning Service).
Postal mail can be sent to team members at Boot Camp, on the field, and at Debrief. However, in some countries, it may not arrive until after the team has returned to the US. Team members can receive (but not send) emails during their training at Boot Camp.
Team members are not permitted to make phone calls - except for two calls of several minutes each right before leaving for the field and upon return from the field. One adult head leader on each team is allowed to bring a cell phone to the field for emergency use and sending reports back to the Teen Missions offices in Florida.
Updates for each team are posted on the Teen Missions website twice a week.
New Mission Trips
Teen Missions usually announces next year's locations in July once the current summer teams have arrived in Florida for training.
Number of available teams varies from age group to age group.
As to be expected, Teen Teams have the largest variety, followed by Preteen, and so on.
Please note that just because a team is offered, that does not mean that it will happen. Teams can be canceled at any moment, for any reason. These reasons usually consist of either lack of interest, immigration issues, political instability, or changes in the host country or with the host mission.
Most teams serve in work and evangelism, but some team projects are exclusively evangelistic (i.e. Drama, Choir or Sports teams). Work teams go to project locations to do a construction or landscaping project for the host ministry or Teen Missions Overseas Base where they will be staying. The work can include masonry, carpentry, landscaping, painting, plumbing, etc. Work teams do evangelism programs mainly on the weekends when they don't need to do the work project. Evangelism can include singing, drama, puppets and sermons/testimonies. On Sundays teams will take part in the worship service of a local church. Evangelism teams will focus mainly on doing evangelistic presentations. These will also include singing, drama, puppets and sermons/ testimonies; but may be specialized. There are some special mission trips which have a unique ministry focus in ministry or method such as backpack, boat, motorcycle, sports, film or clowning teams.
International Bases
Teen Missions operates 32 bases on 4 continents with nearly 300 fulltime staff worldwide. Each base is unique and ministry approaches are contextualized based on local needs and culture. The primary ministry efforts are as follows:
Boot Camps — This program provides training for national youth through short-term work and evangelism projects [3]
Bible Schools — Bible Missionary & Work Training Centers (BMW) provide discipleship and missionary Training using a three-year program (two years academic plus one-year internship)[4]
Circuit Rider Sunday Schools — Circuit Riders share the gospel with children and adults through weekly lessons in addition to teaching English using phonics exercises, games and other projects.[5]
Rescue Units — Mercy ministry to underprivileged children, many of whom have lost one or both parents to AIDS. Children receive assistance to get into school and learn basic agriculture using community gardening. Basic medical care is often provided as needed. Children also learn of God's love for them through Bible stories and Sunday School lessons.[6]
Matron Units — At-risk young girls are given a safe place to attend high school when the school is located too far for a daily commute from home. This prevents the abuse and exploitation that often occurs in some rural areas without this help.[7]
Media
Teen Missions was featured in a "48 Hours" episode of CBS on April 12, 2008. The organization also received attention for assistance to orphans in Africa. [8]
An article was written on Teen Missions in a Feb 15, 2008 issue of Christianity Today.
Florida Today reporter John A Torres travelled to Zambia with Teen Missions in 2006 resulting in a feature called Orphans & Angels
Related Research Articles
In Christianity, evangelism or witnessing is the act of preaching the gospel with the intention of sharing the message and teachings of Jesus Christ. It is sometimes associated with Christian missions.
Youth With A Mission is an interdenominational Christian mission organization with a focus on missionary work and training for Christian missions.
Life Teen is a Catholic youth ministry organization in the United States.
The Church Army is an evangelistic organisation and mission community founded in 1882 in association with the Church of England and now operating internationally in many parts of the Anglican Communion.
Stephen Tong is a Chinese Indonesian Reformed pastor, evangelist, teacher, and musician. He heads the Reformed Evangelical Church of Indonesia, which houses the megachurch Messiah Cathedral, and is the largest Christian Church building in Southeast Asia. He has preached in countries around the world, and guest lectured at theological seminaries and schools.
FUGE Camps is a series of Christian summer camps for children, youth, and young adults centered on Bible study, worship, mission work, and recreational activities organized by LifeWay Christian Resources of the Southern Baptist Convention. FUGE Camps is the world's largest summer camp, as well as the world's largest Christian camp. FUGE Camps offers four different styles of camp, where churches can choose to attend either Centrifuge or Mission Fuge. At "combo" locations, churches can choose to do a mixture of these, if they desire, to meet their student's needs. A Student Leader Apprentice program is also offered for students entering or leaving their senior year of high school. College students and adults may apply to work as a staffer when they turn 19 years of age, and have been out of high school for at least one year.
Boys and Girls Missionary Challenge (BGMC) is the missions education emphasis for children in the United States who attend churches affiliated with the General Council of the Assemblies of God. The program provides resources to help teach kids about missions and supports General Council missionaries in their fields of ministry in the United States and around the world. It is the official missions giving program of the General Council's Royal Rangers, Girls Ministries formerly known as Missionettes, and Sunday School programs, as well as Christian primary schools affiliated with the General Council.
Adventures In Missions (AIM) is a Christian apprentice missions program for college-age young people. The program is a part of Sunset International Bible Institute (SIBI) in Lubbock, Texas. Those accepted into the program spend eight months in studying and training at SIBI before being sent to mission fields around the world for a period of 14 to 22 months.
Tahlee Bible College (TBC) functioned for nearly 70 years as an interdenominational training centre situated at Tahlee, a 170-acre (0.69 km2) property on the shores of Port Stephens, Australia, less than one hour north of Newcastle and less than three hours north of Sydney.
Capernwray Harbour Bible Centre is a evangelical Christian Bible School & Conference Centre located on Thetis Island, British Columbia, Canada.
Blessing the Children International (BCI) is a 501(c)(3) non-profit organization, founded in 2001, that engages in Christian missionary work in Ethiopia, Africa. According to the Urban Institute, BCI is classified as an "International Relief" organization.
VisionTrust is an international, non-denominational non-profit organization that assists orphaned and vulnerable children around the world. The organization works alongside local Christians to help children gain an education, nutritional support, medical assistance, and spiritual discipleship. VisionTrust works in schools, Transitional Homes (orphanages), and Learning Centers. They offer child sponsorships, short-term mission trips, and assist churches with educational materials to promote participation in this effort. VisionTrust is headquartered in Colorado Springs, Colorado.
The Centre for Missional Leadership(CML) was a theological centre specialising in applied theology. It was based in Watford, 20 miles northwest of central London, England.
William Edward Biederwolf was an American Presbyterian evangelist.
David Patrick Thomson was a minister of the Church of Scotland who followed a vocation in Christian evangelism as a student, a parish minister, a director of Residential Centres, and as a Christian author and publisher.
The Tell Scotland Movement (1953-1966) was the most extensive and ambitious attempt at outreach by the Protestant Churches in Scotland in the twentieth century. At the time, together with its associated All-Scotland Crusade, led by Dr Billy Graham, it generated considerable energies, publicity and controversy. In 1964 Tell Scotland became a founding part of the Scottish Churches Council, within the ecumenical movement. Commentators since have had varied views about the extents to which Tell Scotland succeeded or failed.
A commissioned Evangelist in the Anglican Communion is a lay person who has received professional training in Christian outreach ministry, and been commissioned by episcopal authority. In practice, almost all those formally admitted to the office of Evangelist are members of the Anglican mission and outreach agency, the Church Army. Evangelist is one of the commonly acknowledged lay ministries of the Anglican Communion internationally, along with the ministries of Lay reader, and Deaconess.
Church Army USA is an evangelistic organization and mission community associated with Anglican churches. Its roots are in Church Army, founded in 1882 in association with the Church of England, and it is one of many Church Army branches operating internationally in the Anglican Communion. While it was historically associated with the Episcopal Church, Church Army USA is a formal ministry partner of the Anglican Church in North America.
Isaac Ababio was a Ghanaian evangelist. He pioneered radio evangelism in Ghana and founded and served as Director of the Hour of Visitation Choir and Evangelism Association Ministries (H.V.C.E.A), the first evangelistic association in Ghana from 1968 to 2018. He was also one of the founding members of the Scripture Union in Ghana.
↑ Lloyd, Sister Mary (2008). AIDS Orphans Rising: What You Should Know and What You Can Do to Help Them Succeed, 2nd Edition. Ann Arbor, Michigan, U.S.A.: Loving Healing Press. pp.27–28. ISBN978-1-61599-399-4.{{cite book}}: CS1 maint: date and year (link)
Citations
Anderson, Ken (1990). No Elephants Under Our Big Top. Merritt Island: Teen Missions International.
This page is based on this Wikipedia article Text is available under the CC BY-SA 4.0 license; additional terms may apply. Images, videos and audio are available under their respective licenses.
