Our mission trip to Idaho was a great adventure. On our first week, my wife and I accompanied the SBA interns to Challis, Idaho where we helped lead a morning soccer camp alongside Pastor Frank, a church planter there. Our team pressed on in temperatures well above 100 degrees for the duration of the camp and by the end of the week, we saw both adults and children give their hearts to Christ. We give God the glory for all that He did there. In the afternoons and evenings, our team was lead through Western Missions Training by the staff at Salmon Valley Baptist church in Salmon, Idaho where we stayed. We learned valuable missional techniques like mapping, trusting the Holy Spirit, storytelling from the Bible and how to cross cultural barriers with the Gospel, which we were able to use our second week in Boise. Western Mission Training is something we would love to see offered to all churches as part of their own mission trip training.
During the second week we drove five hours from Challis to Boise where we were joined by the adult SBA team, consisting of members from four different churches from the SMBA. Our work in Boise was alongside the McDonalds (missionaries in Boise from Live Oak) who are church planters among the Basque people. The Basque are an unreached people group from Spain that have a large presence in Boise. The Basque city block in downtown consists of recreation, restaurants, cultural center and museum among other Basque things was our area of purpose. We visited a Basque neighborhood and knocked on doors to see if we could find Basque believers or those who might be interested in a Basque church. We went to cultural events, dance classes, recreation events, parks and other events where we might meet Basque people. The goal of the week, at the request of the McDonalds, was to find five to six Basque people interested in an investigative Bible study. God answered that prayer and provided contacts for even more. Many doors were opened and connections made with the Basque and we were all overjoyed.
Our entire team worked hard that week and came to understand that planting a church in a culture that has never seen one is a long term task which takes patience and endurance. We all look forward to an opportunity of returning to help, and we encourage more from our respective churches to go back with us in the future. We are so thankful for the opportunity to help, learn and return to Live Oak to live a missional life and continue on this journey of sharing the Gospel and making disciples. Thank you SMBA for your support and vision for missions.
During the last part of July, the Student Missions Intern team traveled to Idaho and worked with missions’ partners in Boise and Salmon. While in Salmon the team participated in Western Missions Training where they learned several fundamentals of missiology and put these newly learned skills to use in Challis, a nearby community. In addition, they partnered with Challis Community Bible Study to host a four-day soccer camp for children and teenagers.
After completing the work in Salmon and Challis the team returned to Boise where they worked with the McDonald family and the Basque church plant. Student interns worked alongside members of a second SBA team and another missions team from Tennessee. Groups spent their time trying to meet people and make connections for future follow up opportunities like investigative Bible studies. Team members participated in door knocking, conversing with people in cafes, meeting employees at local businesses, and playing pickup soccer and kickball at a local park to establish these connections. By the end of the week many meaningful connections were made and ready for follow up.
Jesse Caskin