After retiring from full-time missions and ministry in 2007, Garry Eudy envisioned helping churches plan a few missions trips a year.
The first year he planned six trips.
The next year it doubled to 12.
This year his organization, Volunteer Baptists International, is on track to coordinate more than 100 missions trips in Latin America.
Eudy and his team will play an instrumental role in mobilizing 1,500–2,000 volunteers.
VBI, founded in 2011, creates partnerships between U.S churches and churches primarily in Guatemala but also in Costa Rica, Mexico and Panama.
Connecting with churches
They connect churches that would be a good match and handle all of the logistics so that volunteers can focus on serving.
Because Eudy and his wife lived as missionaries in three of the countries, they have a real connection with the people and a great understanding of how to best serve these areas.
“There’s no way we could make those kinds of connections on our own,” said Mike McClanahan, minister of missions at First Baptist Church Hendersonville, Tennessee.
VBI has planned more than 10 missions trips for FBC Hendersonville.
“Working with VBI is by far one of the smoothest processes because of the Eudys’ years in the country,” McClanahan said. “They’re mobilizers. They’re interpreters. And all of their staff knows every piece of the puzzle, so they work very well together.”
VBI has grown organically, mostly by word of mouth, Eudy noted.
“I’m going to tell you my great strategy: I never say no,” Eudy said with a laugh. “If someone calls us and says, ‘We have two or three people who want to go on a missions trip. Can you take us?’ we say yes. If someone calls and says, ‘We have over 100 people in our group. Can you take us?’ we say yes.’’
Helping without hurting
The concept of “helping without hurting” has gotten a lot of attention in recent years, Eudy said, raising concern that some missions work could have unintended negative effects on a country.
While it’s good to be aware that this is possible, the concept has caused some churches to consider abandoning volunteerism.
There are countless ways to help and serve without overwhelming a population with wealth, Eudy noted.
“There are measures that can be taken to maximize our helpfulness,” he said. VBI trains both the local church and the visiting church and minimizes the role of money as a driving factor.
“Many of our activities are very simple — things you would do at your own church for young people like sports and day camps,” he said. “We might repair a roof or install a prefab oven or wood-burning stove for a poor family, but we would not do anything that overwhelms a community with North American dollars.”
The focus of every missions trip is the Great Commission.
“I don’t think people have to worry that their help is hurting when the focus is on sharing the gospel and sharing about Jesus in simple ways,” Eudy noted.
The Guatemala Baptist Convention has given VBI administration of the Baptist Camp of Guatemala, which VBI has been working to repair and restore for the past year and a half.
“Our dream is to bring young people and adults from all over Guatemala to experience retreats and camps,” he said. “Children’s camp is a really big deal for student pastors and children’s ministers, and many, many kids come to Christ through these events. For at least the past two decades in Guatemala, hardly any young person or child from a Baptist church has ever had a camp experience.”
While the area is not yet set up for camps, there have been 10 youth retreats attended by 400 Guatemalan youth — about 100 of whom made professions of faith.
Looking to the future
One great thing about international missions trips, Eudy noted, is that lay people return home with a broader vision of how to minister in their own communities.
McClanahan said that their trips to Guatemala as a church have opened their eyes to their own community in a new way.
He learned a term from a missions strategist years ago called “the mustache principle,” which refers to the people God puts right under your nose.
FBC Hendersonville has begun ministering to the Spanish-speaking population in the area and is excited to watch God continue to work.
Eudy’s vision for the future of VBI is to continue to see the impact increase. “We have other places that have invited us to come, like Columbia, Argentina and Haiti,” Eudy said. “All we need are more churches from the states that are willing to go.”
Visit volunteerbaptists.org to learn more.
