Venture Team members Emma Henley, far left, and Lydia Nakamine, far right, enjoy some relaxed time with new Filipino friends. During their trip, the students from Venture Team were divided into teams of two to three with members of Connect Church to go to places where they would meet young people their age and begin conversations that would segue to the gospel. “We saw God open people’s eyes and hearts to the gospel. It was really incredible,” said Nakamine.
FRANKLIN — In 2021 Tennessee Woman’s Missionary Union and the Tennessee Baptist Mission Board launched the Tennessee Youth Venture Team for 10th-12th grade high school students who are actively involved in missions and are interested in a missional lifestyle.
Team members participate in a year-long missions discipleship through a retreat, mentoring and Bible study, said Kim Cruse, missions discipleship specialist for Tennessee Woman’s Missionary Union.
Team members are given resources and equipped with knowledge and skills that will enable them to influence and lead their peers to be intentional in living a holistic missions lifestyle, Cruse said.
This year, a Tennessee Venture team traveled to Batangas City in the Philippines to be intentional in evangelism in order to reach their peers in a culture much different from their own. They worked through the Southern Baptist International Mission Board’s GO IMPACT program for teenagers.
The team was led by Cruse. She and her husband, Jeff, director of missions for Grainger Baptist Association, were IMB missionaries in the Philippines for 22 years before returning stateside in 2019.
For the Cruses, the trip to Batangas City was a return “home.” The Venture Team served at Connect Church where the couple served while living in the city as missionaries and working with local universities.
Connect Church was established to reach university students in the city and to disciple and equip them to be missionaries in their own settings, the couple said.
Jeff noted that about 10 percent of Filipinos work abroad. “By training those students, they were able to lead Bible studies and share the gospel with people from other countries.”
Jeff and Kim Cruse, missionaries to the Philippines for 22 years, recently returned “home” to lead a team of high school students participating in Tennessee Youth Venture Team, a program of Tennessee Woman’s Missionary Union and the Tennessee Baptist Mission Board.
He added that Connect Church never became a large congregation, but they trained hundreds of students who were trained to share the gospel.
Kim agreed. “I have seen the power of the gospel to transform people’s lives and give them a purpose,” she said.
Jeff shared that some of the students who came through Connect Church and stood firm for the gospel and a relationship with Jesus were persecuted by their own parents. Eventually, some of those parents also became believers, he added.
Both acknowledged that not all of their experiences were “success stories” but they sowed “a lot of seeds” along the way. “We are seeing fruit 20 years later through multiple generations,” they agreed,
The couple wanted the Tennessee Youth Venture Team to experience the same opportunity by partnering with Connect Church this summer to reach their peers in the city.
The students were divided into teams of two to three with members of Connect Church and go to places where they would meet and begin conversations that would segue to the gospel with young people their age, Kim said.
Team member Lydia Nakamine of Red Bank Baptist Church, Chattanooga, and now a freshman in college, noted they went to parks and malls where there were plenty of college students.
She noted the students were receptive. “We saw God open people’s eyes and hearts to the gospel. It was really incredible.
“A lot of people listened and were open and receptive to the gospel,” Nakamine said.
Kim Cruse noted that at least 30 people accepted Christ as a result of those conversations. Many of those students came to an event and Bible study hosted on Friday night by Connect Church and they will be followed up and discipled by the church, she added.
“We wanted our American students to understand that when you share your faith with someone else, it does not stop with them,” Jeff said. “You are making disciples who make disciples.”
Team member Emma Henley of Red Bank Baptist and also now a college freshman, came away encouraged by the Filipino believers she met.
“They are constantly worshipping and praising the Lord for what He has done,” she said. Henley said she also saw their “boldness and desire” to share the gospel with people they met.
“That was so encouraging to me. I want to have that mindset … and the boldness to share (the gospel) with others and not be afraid of what others will think or rejection,” she said.
Upon returning to Tennessee, Henley said one of her main goals is to be intentional about seizing opportunities that God provides her to share her faith “because everyone needs Jesus.”
For more information about Tennessee Youth Venture Teams, contact Cruse at kcruse@tnbaptist.org. B&R
