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September 7, 2013

Supporting our youngest missionaries

Dear Friends,

This month they head back to school.

Just like young people in your town, right? Well, not exactly. The children of the missionaries you support have the special challenge, and privilege, of going to school in a different language and culture. Instead of English grammar, they are learning how to conjugate Slavic nouns; instead of American history they are learning the names of kings that you’ve probably never heard of. If they are new on the field, school will be a total immersion language lab. Even for the veterans there are significant spiritual pressures. Most of them are the only believers in their class.

We care a great deal about the personal and spiritual health of our missionary kids. Every August we give them a week of camp together along with counselors chosen from the younger staff on the JV team. For most of them gathering with their fellow MK’s provides the place where they feel the most at home. This community shapes them, supports them and equips them as missionaries to their peers and their schools.

In our eyes their place on the team is every bit as important as their parents’. As you pray for the young people that just headed back to school in your town, would you remember the JV kids as well?

I have a special place in my heart for these precious young people. I was once a missionary kid just like them.

Dave Patty President

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