BOUNCE Back Home Day gives students an opportunity to serve locally during COVID-19

On Sat., June 27, Texas Baptists’ BOUNCE Student Disaster Recovery will offer BOUNCE Back Home Day of Service, a one-day, at-home opportunity for churches to engage their students in service projects around their community. BOUNCE is dedicated to providing chances for students to participate in assisting their community through disaster recovery projects, while also providing worship and reflection time to aid in students’ spiritual growth. In order to keep students and leaders safe and comply with state health advice due to the COVID-19 outbreak, all summer mission trips were canceled. BOUNCE is instead providing the resources for churches to host a mission opportunity in their community.

“This is a great opportunity to serve your Jerusalem. We get excited about going to different places and serving there, but there’s so much to do at home too,” David Scott, director of BOUNCE, said. “Even though this is not what we initially planned, we are still making an effort to encourage kids and youth groups to be on mission in their communities. And that’s a big deal.”

Churches will select a mission idea or organization for their youth to assist, and BOUNCE will provide resources and live-stream a worship service to wrap up the day. Scott explained that churches will have the best knowledge of their community’s needs, so leaving the mission project to their discretion allows them to do the most good for their area. For those in need of suggestions, Scott recommended partnering with the church’s mission team, a mission center in the community or a Texas Baptist ministry such as the River Ministry. More suggestions can be found here. 

BOUNCE will provide resources for the student ministries, such as a suggested schedule for the day and devotional material for the students. In the evening, churches can tune in to a live-stream worship service, which will feature speaker Mike Satterfield, of Field of Grace Ministries. Satterfield, who has spoken at numerous youth events and is a former student minister, is excited to be a part of engaging students for missions in their neighborhoods. Music will be led by Landon Wolfe, a recent Dallas Baptist University graduate who will soon be joining Passion City Church in Atlanta. A youth group reflection guide will be available for use following the service.

The flexibility of the schedule and resources will allow each church to best serve their community and enable their students, while also giving them the freedom to comply with whatever health and safety precautions they deem necessary during the pandemic. Scott desires for student ministries to use this opportunity to see the needs in their own neighborhoods and bring healing to their local communities. Scott also saw this as a unique chance for families to serve alongside their students and encouraged leaders to consider involving students’ families in the service day.

The emphasis of BOUNCE events is to teach students the importance of missional living. The BOUNCE Back Home Day of Service will help students understand that living on missions is a daily choice, not just a once-a-year trip to another place. 

“We hope that as a result of this, youth will realize that a missional life isn’t just going on a trip, but it’s looking for a chance to reflect Christ right there in your own backyard,” Scott said.

Registration is $25 per church, with an additional $5 per fandana. The registration fee covers the shipping and handling fee of the fandanas, youth group reflection guide and other provided resources. The deadline to register is June 12. For more information, go to txb.org/bounce or email David Scott at david.scott@txb.org.