Sending 22,000 Youths to Change the World, Change Themselves
World Changers has the commitment of 22,000 young volunteers to work on 92 missions projects around the world with many already spending their summer vacation serving the community.
Sponsored by the North American Mission Board, World Changers is dispatching one of the highest number of youths it ever has to 87 cities this summer for community service work involving house reconstruction as well as Bible clubs for children and sports and handicapped ministries.
"The reason World Changers has been so successful over 17 years - and the reason God has blessed its - is because we have been laser-focused on trying to transform the lives of students," said John W. Bailey, World Changers' coordinator for NAMB, according to Baptist Press. "This is the only way to change the world - to challenge the kids to go beyond their comfort zones, cross barriers and make a difference."
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Former NAMB president Bob Reccord commented on the huge growth of World Changers participation from 7,000 to nearly 25,000 and the impact it has had even on him.
"When people give their lives away and aren’t focused on what they’re going to receive in return, it’s one of the greatest experiences that happens in a lifetime," Reccord said in an earlier interview. "I took that away overwhelmingly because I saw it over and over and over again."
World Changers began in 1990 with the goal of changing the way to approach mission education and changing the life of the participating students. This summer's projects will continue until early August.
Bailey attributed this year's high volunteerism to last fall's unprecedented series of hurricanes that ravaged the Gulf Coast.
"Hundreds of people will come to know Christ because of this effort," said Bailey.
