Mission Possible: Building Missions & Encouraging Summer Reading
Photos by Niko Soto & Stephanie Monroe
The suspense is real as Laura Anderson prepares to announce the winner of Calvary Chapel Burbank, CA’s, summer reading competition. The youth won this year by reading 492 missionary biographies. Laura is the wife of Senior Pastor Tim Anderson. Young and old participate in the event, Mission Possible, every June and July.
“Gladys Alward is my favorite,” Meadows whispered to her friend as she stood in line to check out more books. “Mine too,” her friend replied.
Who wouldn’t admire a British missionary woman who was a “spiritual giant” in China, but was barely 5 feet tall? During the bombings in China during WWII, Gladys led over 100 orphans to safety through the rugged mountains of China while singing hymns with them to comfort them on the treacherous journey.
This summer, 10-year-old Meadows Tantamco read 52 books as she participated in her fourth year of Mission Possible, at Calvary Chapel Burbank (CCB), CA. Not normally a big reader, she looks forward to reading about Christian missionaries every summer. Reading the book about Gladys’ life has made her want to be brave in the face of danger.
Van Haight, a 5th grader, read over 40 books this summer—often into the wee hours of the morning, recounted his mother Katie, a mother of five. “As our family reads these books, I notice that the atmosphere in our home changes. As we take in these true stories of faith and perseverance through so many hard times, I think we all realize that we have nothing to complain about! Mission Possible is my favorite thing our church does.”
Nate Rogers, a freshman this year at South Carolina’s Clemson University, expected the books to be boring when Mission Possible was launched in 2015, when he was only 8 years old. Looking back, he testified, “Reading these books each summer was one of the biggest influences in my life towards God.”
Tim Anderson
A Call to Missions
Senior Pastor Tim Anderson remembers how God called both him and his wife Laura to missions when they were in college at UC Santa Barbara.
“After hearing the testimonies of missionaries at our local Calvary Chapel, I ended up going to El Salvador to help install a radio station to preach the Gospel; Laura smuggled Bibles into China. After we married, we moved our family to post-Communist Europe for 10 years to lead the CC Bible College and to pastor the International Church in Prague, Czechia (formerly the Czech Republic). When God called us to plant this church in Burbank in 2001, we asked Him to make us a missions church—and He has done just that! Mission Possible fuels all our hearts to keep praying for our missionaries and to go ourselves as the Lord leads. The Great Commission is for all of us!”
Book selection at CC Burbank’s breezeway is serious business. Students and adults carefully examine their choices among the YWAM (Youth with a Mission) missionary biographies in the summer. The church ends the event with a party, gathering to celebrate and share a meal. Reading a book is the ticket to attend.
Sowing Seeds in All Ages
Young and old at Calvary Chapel Burbank participate in Mission Possible every June and July. Grandmas, grandpas, moms and dads, young couples, singles, teens, and children all look over the books in the church breezeway, make their choice, and check out their book. A bookmark with the names of our CCB missionaries is tucked in their bag, as a reminder to pray for a different missionary each day.
Sowing these seeds of faith into the hearts of all who attend CCB has born tremendous fruit over the last 10 years. The next generation is growing up with the understanding that God’s love is meant to be shared—and that often requires risk and sacrifice.
These testimonies shake some, shape others, and inspire all who read them. YWAM (Youth with a Mission) Publishing has produced about 50 of these missionary biographies. These paperbacks by Janet and Geoff Benge are short, easy to read, and contain a huge variety of compelling stories—some that have been buried with time. Each book takes about five hours to read, and with short chapters, both adults and youth enjoy them.
Making Reading Fun
The fun is intensified by the huge competition that happens each year to see who will read the most books—the adults or the children?
Each week, a white paper cup, representing a book read, is put on a pole to show how many books were finished that week. Our happy volunteers keep track of all the commotion, as they process the checking in and checking out of hundreds of books each Sunday.
At the end of July, we host our Mission Possible party and reveal who read the most books. This year the children won, reading 492 books; the adults weren’t too far behind with 355 books read! The party is a perfect way to end the summer, gathering as a church family for a celebration and a meal. If you read a book, that is your ticket to attend.
Left to right, Erika Garcia, Liliana Ambrose, and Stephanie Monroe celebrate with the winner of the coveted Lego raffle prize. Sowing these seeds of faith into the hearts of all who attend CCB has born tremendous fruit over the last 10 years. The next generation is growing up with the understanding that God’s love is meant to be shared—and that often requires risk and sacrifice.
That evening the kids also participate in a raffle (they earn a ticket for each completed book). Cheers of joy are heard as the winners’ names are called. The younger children play rounds of missionary bingo until the sun goes down.
Following dinner, beach chairs begin to fill the church parking lot. As the stars come out, children lay on blankets with their friends waiting for the smell of popcorn to signal to them that the movie is about to begin. Everyone becomes a child again when ice cream cups with wooden spoons are passed out!
The movie this year was Be Thou My Vision, a new documentary produced in India, about the life of the American missionary Ida Scudder. As unbelievable as it sounds, Ida’s family (collectively) have served over 500 years in India, mostly as medical missionaries.
As a young woman at the turn of the century, Ida started a medical college and hospital in Vellore, India, that is still serving 10,000 patients a day. The hospital is equipped with state-of-the art equipment, and the staff pray and worship at the start of each day. To celebrate God’s faithfulness through Ida’s life, we invited Angelina Talluri, a graduate from Vellore Medical College, to bring a greeting to the church in Burbank. What a Kingdom night it was!
A student enjoys learning that she is the winner of a cool Polaroid camera. Behind her are Laura Anderson (left) and Erika Garcia.
What better way to redeem the summer? Kids take books with them on vacation, couples discuss who they are reading about over dinner, grandparents read books to their grandchildren, and teens get to read about real adventures in God.
The fruit can be seen in the heart for missions that God has grown at CCB. In June, Adam Culvey, one of our youth leaders, shared from the pulpit that he said Yes to going on our annual outreach to Mexico because of reading the David Livingstone book the summer before.
What a blessing it is to see how these lives of faith are still “speaking” through simple books that preserve the testimonies of those who now have joined that great cloud of witnesses (Hebrews 12:1-2).Therefore we also, since we are surrounded by so great a cloud of witnesses, let us lay aside every weight, and the sin which so easily ensnares us, and let us run with endurance the race that is set before us, looking unto Jesus, the author and finisher of our faith, who for the joy that was set before Him endured the cross, despising the shame, and has sat down at the right hand of the throne of God.
To get information and guidance in how to start a Mission Possible program at your church, please contact lauraleeanderson@att.net.
Thank you for reading! If this story inspired you, we invite you to partner with us in continuing the ministry God started over 26 years ago. We appreciate your prayerful consideration in joining us to reach more souls for Jesus.
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