A Church Transformed
Youth Missions International depends on partnering with local and international churches to effectively carry out its mission of spreading the gospel of Jesus Christ. One church which YMI has had the privilege of partnering with is North Auburn Baptist Church. This congregation opened their building for use during the Seattle training camp in August and again in November.
North Auburn Baptist Church has been active in their community for quite some time, but lacks the large membership to truly reach out in way that they have a vision to do. Pastor Paul Butterfield works in the school district and has attended every park ministry which Puget Sound Camp runs. Since many youth and leaders from Puget Sound have become involved with YMI, Pastor Butterfield built a relationship with YMI. From this relationship, YMI approached Pastor Butterfield to ask about using their facility for training a youth mission team in August.
The Church became particularly excited about hosting the YMI team when they learned about the outreach which is part of every training camp. They requested that the outreach be a family fun day, and occur right outside the church building. The church members helped promote the event. The team passed out fliers in the neighborhoods and made signs advertising the event.
The fun day was a success, attracting many families and children to the church building. From that event, new families began attending the church. The net day, the team ran Sunday school, allowing a devoted church member her first day off from teaching in many years. She expressed her thankfulness to the team. In November, YMI held another training camp and once again asked North Auburn Baptist church to host the camp. This second camp had twice as many participants in it, but again North Auburn Baptist Church welcomed YMI with open arms.
After the outreach event in November, Pastor Butterfield gathered the two training YMI teams together and shared his vision for his community with them. He shared about the impact which the previous camp had made. He said, "What YMI has done and what you guys are doing, I want you to know something, even more than you may be aware of, you have been dropped right into God's plan in this area."
From this partnership, we are looking to run a sports camp in Auburn and continue to help this visionary church minister to their community. Youth Missions International is excited about this ministry given that we do not only have a vision for international missions, but also for sharing the gospel in our own backyard. Partnering with North Auburn Baptist Church has allowed us to do just that.
