Vision Tours & Mission Trips

A Vision for Missions

During Spring Break I led a group of teenagers to Wales for what we have called a vision tour. This group was comprised of high school juniors and seniors and along with Chuck Wollenzin, one of our church’s student ministry leaders, we boarded a plane on Friday, flew to Manchester, England and then drove to northern Wales for a weeklong stay.

The trip to Wales was not randomly chosen. We have taken groups to Wales numerous times and have been supporting our missionary to Europe, John Robinson for years. John currently lives in north Wales and serves as the Director of Linguæ Christi, a mission agency focused on reaching minority language speakers throughout Europe. It can be challenging when seeking to explain what the mission of Linguæ Christi is to others, primarily because most Christians in the United States tend to have predefined concepts of missions, missionaries, or mission agencies. These are not necessarily wrong, but perhaps incomplete.

Linguæ Christi (which is Latin for “languages of Christ”) is not a Bible translation agency, but is a mission group focused on spreading the Gospel among the indigenous minority language groups of Europe. There are over 165 distinct languages spoken by over 100 million people throughout the continent. In most cases, there are no known Gospel churches focused on reaching these individuals in their respective “heart” languages. While many in America will be familiar with the languages of French, Spanish, Italian, German, and other majority languages of the continent, the minority languages such as Manx, Welsh, Basque, Catalan, Ladin, Romansh, Breton, and others remain mostly unknown by many in the United States. While many speakers of such languages also speak a majority or trade language, such as English, the perpetual mental translations from the language of the heart to the trade language often leaves much lost in translation.

A comparison of majority (trade) language to a minority language in the States would be English to Navajo or another Native American language.

John Robinson and the team from Linguæ Christi have been working to discover and partner with these minority language speakers for years and we continue to support and partner with them in this work.

Vision Tour vs. Mission Trip

The short-term mission trip remains a staple in our church’s schedule as with many others. In fact, we have a trip scheduled this summer where we will take a team to New Bedford, Massachusetts to work alongside our church planting partners. Yet, this trip to Wales was not truly a mission trip. We categorize it as a vision tour. For many in the church, this creates confusion and needs explanation.

We believe and have as Baptists since our church’s beginning, that mission work is essential. Through continual support of missionaries financially through our gifts to the Cooperative Program, the Annie Armstrong Mission Offering for North American Missions, the Lottie Moon Mission Offering for International Missions, Linguæ Christi, and various other offerings and emphases related to missions, we have proven our commitment to fund mission work.

Throughout our history, we have sent groups from our church to different areas throughout our country and beyond. In just the time I have been at First Baptist, we have had teams serve on short-term trips in Cuba, Haiti, Canada, Russia, Wales, Belgium, Mozambique, and various other locations. One of our university students served with the International Mission Board as a Journeyman in Tajikistan years ago. Another couple served with the International Mission Board in the East years before I came to First Baptist.

In other words, we have as far as I can tell, always been a mission-minded church.

It was just a few years ago while attending an annual meeting for the Southern Baptist Convention when my wife and I had the honor of eating dinner with some individuals who would soon be commissioned as missionaries overseas. The commissioning service would be the next day and as these men and women stood on stage, some behind screens to protect their identities, declaring their call to the Lord and to the nations, I was not only moved, but convicted.

As pastor, I do not call people into full-time Christian ministry, but I am to provide opportunities for those in the church to understand what such a calling entails and to shepherd those who are called to live as missionaries, whether overseas, in the United States, or simply at home through everyday life. According to Matthew 28:19-20, Acts 1:8, and various other passages of Scripture, living as a missionary is the calling of every Christ-follower.

Yet, I do believe that some are called to go and serve on the field as, for lack of a better term, a full-time missionary.

Thus, the reason for a vision tour.

This vision tour, as with others I have led in the past, was designed to encourage our missionaries on the field. As we were in Wales, we spent time with our missionary John, as well as Trey McCain, another partner with Linguæ Christi. John, along with Trey and his family, live in the area and have devoted their lives to the mission of reaching the Welsh speakers in Wales with the Gospel. As in most areas such as this designated as post-Christian, the work is tedious, long, and from those who do not have eyes to see, may seem fruitless. But…this is the long game and the Lord is using our friends and others to till up hard soil. Nevertheless, these missionaries need encouragement and knowing that others are praying for them, providing resources, and willing to serve alongside is fuel for the day.

Trey McCain training our students in prayer walking.

Another, and to be honest, the driving reason for our most recent trip was to remove our American students from the comfort of home, the “bubble” of American Christianity, and challenge them to consider all that God is doing globally and perhaps, how God may be calling them to serve.

In a 2019 article from Forbes, it was reported that eleven percent of Americans have never traveled outside the state where they were born and over forty percent have never left the United States.[1] Now, it is not a sin to not travel, but it is helpful, I believe to gain perspective by leaving the comforts of home on occasion.

I shared with these young men that we wanted them to have a great week. We assigned them tasks of prayer walking and interviewing some of the locals. We wanted them to begin to understand narrative mapping of an area which is essential in missions. The passport, immigration checks, and transportation process is never really easy, but we took advantage of this trip to expose these new travelers with the realities of navigating from the United States to another nation. While the United Kingdom is not as challenging as traveling elsewhere in the world, there are intricacies (not to mention driving on the left side of the road) that are noticeable.

Worship Service at Caersalem Chapel

The vision tour is designed to open our eyes (thus…vision) to the work being done and the possibilities of serving on mission in such a place.

Of the five students who were on this trip, four will be graduating this May. The one junior will finish high school in 2026. Linguæ Christi requires summer staff each year to do the work of the mission and those who serve on summer staff are taken through an intensive language course and then placed on the field with specific tasks. The field work may be in Wales, but often is in other European nations. The listing of such projects is available on the Linguæ Christi site here.

Due to the nature of the work, those who serve on summer staff must be at least one year removed from high school. Thus, after one’s freshman year of college opportunities to serve are available.

That means that no one from our team is eligible until at least the summer of 2026. Also, going on a vision tour is not required to serve on staff, but there are application requirements.

Prayer Walking in Northern Wales

One student asked what he must do if he thought he would like to serve after his freshman year (or after his first year of employment following high school) and a simple answer was to begin serving now in the church and take advantage of local or short-term mission opportunities offered. In other words, if one is being led to serve on mission overseas, he or she must show aptitude and maturity in serving now at home.

We are committed as a church to the mission God has commanded in Scripture. I believe we must continue to provide opportunities for people (young and old) to serve on mission.

Perhaps we will schedule more vision tours in the future. I am certain we will schedule more mission trips and mission opportunities. I am praying that God will raise up many who will say yes to the call and that we as a church will say yes as we send.

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[1] Lane, Lea. “Percentage of Americans Who Never Traveled beyond the State Where They Were Born? A Surprise.” Forbes, Forbes Magazine, 20 Feb. 2024, www.forbes.com/sites/lealane/2019/05/02/percentage-of-americans-who-never-traveled-beyond-the-state-where-they-were-born-a-surprise/.