Family mission trips on the rise (reporting from Logan, Utah): An Oklahoma group’s 1,200-mile journey to Utah exemplifies a growing trend of Christian parents introducing children to mission work.
LOGAN, Utah — Asked what excited her about going on a mission trip to Utah, 5-year-old Lainey Foster smiled.
“I might go swimming today or every day that I’m here,” the blond-haired cutie replied. “So that’s really good.”
But as Lainey grows up, her parents pray she’ll recall more than taking nightly dips in a hotel pool, roasting s’mores at a campfire devotional or even running into rattlesnakes on a hiking excursion.
For Josh and Jen Foster and their four young children, this summer’s 1,200-mile journey was no ordinary road trip.
Rather than enjoy a traditional vacation, the Fosters and other families from the Edmond Church of Christ in Oklahoma decided to go on a mission trip.
Their destination: the Logan Church of Christ, a small-but-growing congregation in this predominantly Mormon community 85 miles north of Salt Lake City.
“We are going to help out a bit and just have fun while we’re doing it,” said 9-year-old Ty Foster.
Like the Fosters, a growing number of Christian parents take advantage of opportunities to expose their children to mission work, said Steven Bonner, who directs the youth and family ministry program at Lubbock Christian University in Texas.
This story appears in the August 2014 print edition of The Christian Chronicle.
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