May 13, 2019


Northern High-Lights 1.0
Rev. Jeff Childs, Mission Volunteer

With this new blog I plan to keep people posted on my adventure as I retire from active pastoral ministry and move into active missionary ministry. I was trained and approved by the General Board of Global Ministries to be a Mission Volunteer with the opportunity to serve as an unpaid missionary for 2 months to 2 years in a setting nationally or globally. I will officially retire from pastoral ministry after 36 years on July 1, 2019 and fly the next day to Anchorage, Alaska to become the host at Birchwood Camp http://birchwoodcamp.org/ located thirty miles north near the community of Chugiak.

For 3 months (I am not staying for the winter!), I will help welcome and orient volunteer in mission teams and other groups that come to the camp and other duties in the office or around the camp that I might be assigned during the week. As an ordained elder I will also have the opportunity on Sundays to go and preach at area churches and share the story of the ministry of Birchwood Camp. During off hours I will have opportunities to experience the great wilderness and wonders of Alaska.

This year I begin to kick items off my Bucket List – before I “kick the bucket”. Asa traveler I have been to the 48 states that were states when I was born, but I have always wanted to go to Alaska (and Hawaii.) I have also wanted to be a missionary since I was a boy hearing stories and seeing slide shows of missionaries who would regularly come to my home church in Titusville, PA. And though I have been on and led a dozen Volunteer in Mission (VIM) trips to places like Haiti and Costa Rica and here in the states following hurricanes like Katrina, Michael, Harvey and Superstorm Sandy, I was looking for something more that a one-week trip. The Mission Volunteer program has offered me the opportunity to serve as a missionary for an extended term.

Though I am not paid as a missionary in this volunteer capacity, I am able to ask for and receive support for the costs of my mission. Birchwood Camp will cover my lodging – watch future blog posts for pictures of my trailer! And whenever there are groups in camp, I get to eat my meals for free in the dining hall. But I have been told that I will need to pay for some meals when the dining hall is not serving, and I need a cell phone and, of course, a plane ticket up north and back! All in all, I can get there and serve there for about $400 per month!

So here is my shout out to any who want to support me in my mission:
1. Pray for me.
2. Read my blog.
3. Go to the GBGM website for Mission Volunteers at: https://advance.umcmission.org/p-642-mission-volunteers-individual-volunteers.aspx and if you scroll down to the box that says – Please Select a Designation Below - (as the new missionary on the block, I appear at the bottom of the list.) Click on my name and then the amount, etc. I will be blessed to have you as a supporter.
4. Invite me to come share pictures and stories at your church when I return to the lower 48!

Next blog will be the week of July 2, when I arrive in Alaska.

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