We believe missions is an important component of Christian life and we model this for our students. Each of our kindergarten through fifth grade classes choose a ministry to support through hosting bake sales. Over the years these are some of the ministries we’ve contributed to through bake sale funds:
- Elm Street Mission
- Feed the Hungry
- GateWay Bible Church
- HHH4Good
- Rancho de Sus Ninos
- Samaritans Aviation
- Twin Lakes Church
Kiva: We have contributed several years’ worth of bake sale proceeds totaling $3,555.00 to Kiva. This organization allows people to lend money via the internet to low-income entrepreneurs and students in 77 countries across the globe. Kiva’s mission is to expand financial access to help underserved communities thrive. They work with the entrepreneurs to pay back the loans over time. Through this process of loaning, collecting and re-loaning, Baymonte has lent out a total of $15,675 and have helped numerous financially underserved people thrive. To see some of the loans Baymonte has funded visit our blog here.
OCC: As a school body, we support Operation Christmas Child through Samaritan’s Purse each year. For the past 25 years our preschool through eighth grade students work together with their families and classes to pack shoeboxes with supplies and small gifts. These shoeboxes are sent to underserved children all over the world. Over the past 25 years Baymonte has packed and sent over 10,000 shoeboxes to children all over the world.
Our teachers are able to use these ministry opportunities to teach students about various subjects including geography, finances, cultural awareness, philanthropy and the importance of investing in others. Often students are able to pray for and send encouraging correspondence to same-age students in other parts of the country or world.
In middle school, students participate in Adventure Week. While our sixth graders attend a local science camp, our seventh graders travel to Rancho de Sus Ninos in Tecate, Mexico and contribute a week of service. Baymonte students, teachers and chaperones serve the children at the orphanage and daycare, conduct work projects at the facility as well as engage in community outreach with the college ministry in the surrounding Valle Redondo area. For the past two decades, Baymonte seventh graders have participated in this service week at “Rancho” and have developed a strong relationship with the orphanage leaders and children. This trip has been life changing for many who have participated. Dozens of students name this trip as one of their most significant memories of their years at Baymonte. Many students continue to cultivate the relationships made at Rancho well past the middle school grades and even return for visits.
The last two years our eighth graders have traveled to Texas to help with recovery from hurricane Harvey. This trip was inspired by our eighth grade teams who traveled to New Orleans for two years to help with recovery from hurricane Katrina.
Missions work can be as local as our own community or can span to remote parts of our planet. At Baymonte we encourage and practice many forms of missions work.