Zambia

Base Ministry has enjoyed a long term partnership with Awana in Zambia. They were one of the first locations that accepted teams back when Youth Missions International was forming, and we recently sent a team to train alongside them. Both ministries are committed to developing leaders who will live and share their faith in Jesus throughout Zambia and all of Africa!

They have been desiring to train leaders to use sports specifically as a ministry tool. They have churches throughout Zambia that could run sports camps with a little bit of training, and then also have an opportunity to teach morality and physical education in the public schools. We were excited to see how God was using Awana in Zambia and accepted the invitation to minister alongside them to churches in Lusaka and Chingola.

One of the trainers, Amanda Boudon (Base Ministry’s Program Specialist) put together this video to give a bit of context for what happened while they were there. To read more about one of the trainee’s named Humphrey, how this training impacted his heart, and to get regular updates on our partnership with Zambia please subscribe to our Base Ministry Epistle Page here!

Ellies Homecoming

We love hearing how Base's training helps develop disciples outside the sports camp opportunities. That is the point after all. It is not just to have a good sports camp (although that does happen) but to partner with churches in moving their disciples towards more-prepared ministry leadership. We want to share a story about one of our sports missionaries who served at six different churches and had a marvelous experience shortly after returning home.

Ellie was our soccer coach, and from the start of the summer, she did an incredible job learning and preparing for ministry. Many people talked about her great ministry at sports camp. For five weeks, she served churches as part of a team of sports missionaries. She did a great job at leading sports ministry away from home. However, her development was not just for the weeks of sports camp, but for what happened after her time with the team ended.

In a follow-up conversation with Ellie and her family, one of our teammates, Bekah, sent us this report:

"I got to visit with Ellie and her family and they had some really cool news to share. Tuesday night Ellie used the gospel bracelet (one of the tools we use at sports camp) to share the gospel with her youngest sister. Bethany (her sister) was reminded from a previous VBS that she had seen her leaders with a gospel bracelet but couldn’t remember the meaning of the colors. She asked Ellie and Ellie took that opportunity to share the meaning as well as her testimony with her sister. Then Ellie and her parents sat with Bethany and she invited Jesus into her heart for the first time!

I just wanted to pass on the good news! It was so cool to witness how the Lord has worked through our team to train Ellie, how God has moved in Ellie’s life to give her the boldness to share the gospel and now to see God moving in young Bethany’s spirit."

Your support of Base Ministry goes towards young Christian leaders like Ellie. Not only are they engaged in good programs, but they are being prepared for ministry outside of those programs. Thank you!

Purposeful: Silverton First Baptist

This video was shown at our annual banquet. In it JD Winters (Lead Pastor at Silverton First Baptist shares his experience with sports camp and how it has impacted volunteers after camp!

Purposeful: Banquet Sponsors

We are very thankful to these sponsors for helping support our annual banquet. If you are looking for a like-minded company that is passionate about developing leaders who love to share Jesus then I would recommend you visit these sponsors.

Northwest Shippers

Daffodil Storage

Tully Design

Proforma

Cimco

Christ’s Church

Mission Connect

These individuals also sponsored tables:

Gene and Rhea Hunt

Tony and Heather Snyder

Keenan and Amanda Boudon

Drew and Melanie Hester

Thank you again to all of our sponsors!

Partnerships Lead to Servant Leaders

College students can be amazing!

There are many times when today’s college students are portrayed negatively in the media. While we can’t speak to every story or every school, the Biola University students we have partnered with have been amazing. Over the last three years, we have built a deep partnership with the Student Missions Union at Biola. This student-led missions union is responsible for sending students around the world and developing a heart of missions prevalent at Biola University.

We could approach Biola (and other churches/schools) as if they were clients, help them run good mission trips, and then move on. However, we believe that through ongoing partnership, we can build better and deeper ministry opportunities that have a great impact on the people serving and the church/missionary being served.

So, what does a partnership mentality look like with Biola?

It means we have taken trips with their security teams to help them understand how important we take the safety of their teams. It means we prepare each team from Biola with our proven preparation training. It means we communicate with each new SMU student director to help them in their entire role, not just on the trips with Base. It means we work hand in hand with the missionaries/churches they are going to serve to ensure the work being done will benefit the mission of that missionary/church.

It isn’t just about doing a single mission; it’s about connecting with and helping Biola not only have good mission trips but better equip the leaders at their school for ministry. Looking at the goal of Biola and how our mission fits into that goal creates a partnership that moves both ministries forward.

The outcome of a good partnership is servant leaders who go on mission to learn how to live and share their faith in the global communities they serve, at home and abroad.

A Biola team works alongside our ministry partner, Camp John 3:16, in Merida, Mexico, at a week-long youth camp.

Ongoing Impact!

In 2017, we ran a training alongside our ministry partners in Brazil. Deborah was one of our translators and trainees, and Levi Marti and Joseph Keith were the trainers who went to Brazil for that training. In January 2024, Joseph was part of the group that visited our ministry partners from South Korea at their English language immersion camp in Orlando, FL. Guess who was there?

Deborah!

During the 2017 training, she was connected with Awana Korea to serve in this English Camp. That was 7 years ago! Deborah has since become a professional English teacher and translator, but she continues to serve at this camp each year. Not only that, but she has recruited and equipped other Brazilian nationals to serve with her. This year alone, there were four other young professionals in Orlando. When she saw Joe, Deborah's comment was, "You realize I am here because of you." 

Base Ministry has trained and sent many interns for this English language camp and this is only one of their stories!

The training Deborah received and the connections she was given allowed the Lord to use her to impact hundreds of Korean children with the Gospel and to mobilize other young Brazilian professionals to serve the Lord for the past seven years! He is faithful and will continue the work that has begun until it is completed. Praise God!

To see more about our long-term partnership with South Korea, click here.

Impact Report: A New Start in Nepal

Here is a video of one of our trainees in talking about the rejuvenation and excitement he experienced during the Base Ministry Training!

We have blurred our dear brother’s face and withheld his name out of an abundance of caution as his country continues to become more and more closed to the Gospel of Jesus.

Impact Report: A longterm partnership with Awana Korea

The first trip to Korea through Base Ministry (then Youth Missions International) was in 2008. Since then, close to 300 students have been a part of the partnership with Awana Korea.

Around the world, the Awana ministry looks different. Not just because of languages, but because each area is able to contextualize how they minister to local churches. In Korea one of the best ways they have found to help local churches is to help them teach English as a second language to the kids in their church and the community. Native English speakers add to this ability and so Awana Korea and Base would work together to train young people to share their faith through teaching English. This was seen in three different ways.

1. Camps at local churches - In South Korea the mission teams and interns travel to different churches and help them put on English language camps for their communities.

2. Big T’N’T Camp - Each year there is a big Awana camp in South Korea where hundreds of kids come to camp, engage in Awana events, and learn to speak English. The people from the US that serve there act as event coordinators and teach English, lead games, and many other fun activities.

3. Vision Camp - This is a crash course in both speaking English, and American culture. Korean kids come to Orlando, FL and are taken through a few weeks of English language learning and learning American culture. The students who serve at Vision Camp are camp counselors who get a chance to build relationships with the kids and walk them through their learning and activities.

It has been sixteen years since the first trip. Having a partner for this long has allowed us to see the impact that has been made in South Korea and in the students who serve there. Many people who engage once return multiple times because of the impact on their own lives and the impact they see happening in Korea.

Out of nine students people who served during the summer of 2023, six of them are continuing to serve Awana Korea! The great partnership continues and we praise God for what we have seen him do between us.

Impact Report: Zuri and Danas Story

For the last three years, Base Ministry in Mexico and the US have seen amazing coaches come from Mexico to minister as a part of a team that serves local churches in the Pacific Northwest. This year, we had siblings Danna and Zuri as missionary coaches from Mexico.

They heard about the opportunity from Jonathan Peralta, the Director of Baso Ministerio in Mexico, and in early June, they headed up to Yakima, WA, for a week of training to be prepared to help serve other churches throughout the entire summer.

While in Yakima, they expressed trepidation about being sent out and given responsibility for teaching kids sports and sharing the Gospel with them. Especially Danna wanted us to go with them for the summer, but we knew they could do it!

They went to a different church for eight weeks and served the congregation, leaders, and community. These camps helped train 839 local leaders and reached 1775 children with the Gospel!

At the end of the summer, they could look back and see their impact on kids and leaders through the relationships they built.

What they (and those around them) have been most surprised by is the impact this summer has had on them!

We recently had a chance to sit down and talk with them and their entire family! Here are some of the things they said:

Dad (Jorge) - this has been somewhat of a miraculous change in their desire to serve, to lead in ministry and in their overall countenance. (Paraphrased)

Mom - We cannot believe the change in their attitude and willingness to serve (Paraphrased)

Danna and Zuri have continued to grow in their ability to serve the people arou\nd them. They returned to Mexico and joined Base Mexico as part of their core volunteer team! They are showing what it means to have active faith and live out what they believe.

What does success look like for Base?

How do we determine success? When we finish with a ministry event or a complete ministry season, how do we look back and say whether or not we were successful in accomplishing our mission?

Whenever we define success, the conversation always starts with metrics. Many times metrics mean numbers. Here are some numbers from our last year of ministry: 

• We partnered with just over 50 different churches across 5 different countries!

• We trained just over 1,300 leaders in these local churches. 

• We reached just over 4,800 people with the Gospel of Jesus!

However, metrics can only tell numbers. As much as we want to train many leaders and reach many people with the Gospel of Jesus, if we don’t make an impact in individual lives, then we merely had a great program. So, when we look at success, we look at the mission God has called us to. We believe the church needs more people serving in ministry. Our mission of empowering young people to continually live and share their faith in the global communities they serve is what we need to be seeking to do. So, if at the end of the ministry season we see more people trained and contributing to their local church and communities around them, we see success. 

So, did we accomplish this in the last ministry season? In short, yes!

There was a young lady from Lake Tapps, WA who went on a mission trip with her church to Morelia, Mexico. We were blessed to both train the church and walk our ministry partner in Mexico through the process. While on the mission the focus is on serving the local missionary, not on their own growth, however, when people serve, God also works in their lives! Here is what she said during the debrief following the trip, “Before the training, I’d never thought of myself as a Christian leader, but we were told we are Christian leaders. On this trip, I learned what that meant, and can now see how to live that out back home at my church.” 

She is not the only story we heard this summer of people engaging more and more with their church. From families coming to churches after sports camp to new youth helping in children's ministry, we saw trained volunteers make a deep impact in the lives of people around the globe. 

While metrics give us tangible goals to work towards, achieving the numbers by themselves are only scratching the surface. Success for Base requires seeing disciples of Jesus take a step forward in their relationship with Jesus through serving others! 

Stories from the Pandemic: The International Trips Restart

We have been blessed to have a partnership with Biola University for a number of years. Their student missions program has worked with us to send teams throughout Latin America. Over winter break they were ready to try again. As the Covid numbers lowered Biola sent two teams to different locations in Mexico.

In Puebla, the team worked alongside Tom and Sandy Basille, of New Church Initiative, to focus on community outreach, orphan care, puppeteering, and support.

In the Yucatan, the team did VBS-style ministry and helped prepare Camp John 3:16 for ministry alongside of our long time partner and friend Gama Canul.

Despite the challenges surrounding the trip with Covid we were able to care for the teams well. This strengthened the partnership with Biola. We were very excited to be part of the growth of these ministries and to continue our partnership with the team at Biola!

Stories from the Pandemic: Sustainable International Missions

A little bit of time before the pandemic one of our missionaries who is based in Colorado Springs, Mike Contreras, wanted to see the international training get off the ground. So, feeling led by the Lord, Mike started raising funds by doing home repair projects. As he started this process he saw more and more potential in using his gifting as a painter/carpenter/renovator to help sustain this shift in global missions.

After much prayer and discussion from our board and team, Mike started a side project called Mission Connect. This project has developed into it’s own 501c3 that has helped Base ministry alone with 7 trainings in 4 countries. They were also integral to having missionaries come from Mexico and other opportunities for mission.

During the pandemic the real estate industry picked up as people resettled based on where they wanted to be instead of where the jobs were. This gave Mission Connect a unique opportunity. They worked with a local real estate agent and some investors to purchase and renovate houses. The proceeds of the sales then going to mission through Base and other like minded missions.

When Mike started this journey three years ago, the hope was to cover the cost of a few trainings. God had other plans and in just a few years time we are able to plan for trips based on what is needed in other countries. This has been a great catalyst which has shown churches and other partners how they too can be involved in the training of local churches around the world!

Stories from the Pandemic: New Ministry Models

We were supposed to pilot our two person team program during the summer of 2020. However, that did not happen. But, this past year gave us a glimpse at our new two-person (sports camp) team model. Traditionally, we have sent four or five coaches to a church. By sending two coaches, our goal is to create more of a training atmosphere where the local congregation can dive into the authentic ministry opportunity and take more leadership at the camp itself.

We had 5 churches join us in this new model last year. It allowed for us to move outside of the Pacific Northwest and include some coaches who can’t give all summer, but can give a week.

We are excited because out of all 5 camps, they are working with us again this year in some capacity. Some are having two people come in again. Others are just using our materials as their church now feels equipped to run camp on their own! We also have a number of coaches that are returning and excited to keep working with churches.

One of the coaches, Brent uses his time off in order to serve churches. What a blessing to get to work with people who care so passionately about the building of local churches!

Stories from the Pandemic: Domestic Partnerships

In most cases the pandemic caused a pause to be hit on short-term missions teams. The idea of sending a team from the church to another country where they may get stuck or get sick without the “normal care” if they did contract Covid was less than ideal. Still, the desire to help other churches and partner with them came back quickly. Last summer we still did not have any foreign mission trips, but some churches wanted to see how they could reach another community and share the light of Christ with them.

Crosby Chapel from the peninsula side of WA decided to step out in faith and go to a small rural community in Pilot Rock, OR. The trip went well with no illness, but some of the coolest parts is the church from Pilot Rock saw how well trained the youth from Crosby Chapel were and asked if they could receive the same training.

As we approach this summer we are going to do a joint missions training. Crosby Chapel and Pulpit Rock churches are going to come together and train together, not just for the trip, but for general ministry. Praise God for this partnership between the two local churches that is creating more opportunities for people to be empowered to share the Gospel!

Stories from the Pandemic: Missionaries from Mexico!

Each year Base Ministry partners with churches to run local sports camps for authentic ministry in a local setting. As we prepared for the summer in 2021, we knew needed to train and equip sports interns to serve our 15 partnering churches. We moved forward in faith and with multiple contingency plans in case Covid tried to interrupt our summer.

Praise God, in addition to a Covid-free summer, our partners in Mexico had a few alumni of their leadership programs who wanted to serve with us! It was a part of their vision to see Mexico change from a mission field to a mission force. Daniella, Damaris, and Monse joined us for the entire summer and worked alongside churches in the United States to run successful sports camp ministry!

Stories from the Pandemic: Care for Partners

Right as everything started happening our board met as a team. A decision was made to care for our partners around the globe. We quickly called our church partners and talked with them about what their needs were as the pandemic started.

Most of our partners were doing ok, but had to change all their ministry options. From tutoring kids over zoom to drive through communions, we heard some of the amazing ways the church continued to operate despite not being able to gather.

One location that really struggled was Peru. Our sister organization in Peru saw a lot of trouble with not only the disease but complete shutdown of the economy. People were struggling to get basic necessities or pay their bills. Between a number of faithful donors, our board, and our partner Mission Connect we were able to help sustain the ministry (and local churches they work with) throughout the pandemic. Praise God for His provision for our partners amidst the pandemic!

Stories from the Pandemic: Backyard Sports Club

Have you coached your kid in sports before? It can lead to some really precious moments as you lead your child through learning something new. It can also be an open door to some great conversations about faith.

Part of partnering with a local church is that we train volunteers from the church to have these conversations with kids during the week of camp. So, when the pandemic hit and sports camps were no longer an option, it gave us a unique opportunity to help parents have these conversations with their kids from in their own homes.

Louie Schmitz led our team to put all of our normal aspects of sports camp in an online format that parents could learn from and then coach their kids through. This included sports drills, object lessons, discussion questions, sports stories, and Bible stories all wrapped around a weekly theme.

From the time we made the decision to the time we shifted and had a complete resource was only three weeks and we were able to quickly offer this alternative to all of our church partners. We had a number of churches send it out to the parents and had some great reports of special conversations happening with their kids.

Praise God for His leading of not stopping but re-orienting ministry opportunities for His Word to still go forth!