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This summer will be Next Step’s final season serving with our friends in Joplin, Missouri. We have been so blessed by our time serving together with Journey Church, God’s Resort, Life House, and Watered Gardens.

The 2in5 Initiative continues to pick up momentum here in Joplin! If you need a refresher on what the 2in5 Initiative is and the work being done here in Joplin, please click here.  We…

Instead of fighting short-term trips, what if we equip students with the information to have a more responsible mission trip that empowers the community they are serving in?

One of the best things about being a Partnership Coordinator, is having a group of other Partnership Coordinators who live in other communities to do life with, brainstorm ideas with, and study the Word…

My prayer for every student and leader coming on a trip this summer is that their first instinct would be to see gifts here in Joplin.

It’s unbelievable but, here we are, just a few days before Summer 2017 begins! The staff will soon be in Joplin, along with hundreds of students and leaders.

You don’t have to move to a new location and work in full-time ministry to faithfully serve God. If He is calling you to do that, then, of course, you must follow that call. Do what He is calling you to do. Whether that is moving to a new place or volunteering at your local homeless shelter. Be sold out to whatever that thing is and do it with your whole heart. At the end of the day, that’s what’s radical. Recognizing you are redeemed by Jesus and because of that, you get to do amazing things.

I’m thankful to be working on projects this summer that are completely community-led. I truly believe that if Next Step weren’t here, these connections would still be happening. Now we get to partner together, share resources, and make change happen in the lives of families in our neighborhood.

“At the end of the day, we have the power as citizens of Joplin to make some of these ideas happen, whether the council approves them or not. We still can live our lives in a way that inspires hope in our community and reminds people of the joys of living in Joplin.”

Two thousand and sixteen. 365 days of community development. In each of those days, it didn’t feel like much was happening. It was just another day. But that collection of days created change.

Jesus is the ultimate restorer of relationships. Through healed relationships, He restores our health and our wounds and everything else that’s wrong in our lives. Issues of poverty will only be resolved through restored relationships: relationship with self, relationship with God, and relationship with man. I’m praying this today for those in chronic poverty in Joplin and all over the world. Join me?

Read more about what it looks like to come alongside a community’s vision.

Every year, a church in Joplin hosts and organizes an event called Great Day of Service. It occurs on a Sunday morning and instead of attending church services that morning, the entire congregation goes…

When this summer started, I had big plans in mind. In the 9 months of preparations before the summer began, I worked to create plans to help students and staff reach the most people…