The Paihia Mission

I work as a full time volunteer and this is just one aspect of the work that I do.

The Paihia Mission was originally called Operation Jerusalem. And we have been attending the Paihia Holiday Park for the last 20 plus years. Maureen and Ken Smith have been involved from the start in 1998 and will continue to do so until Jesus says stop. But our mission is still the same, to bring the love of Jesus to a dying world and to live out The Great Commission that Jesus commanded in Mark 16:16-20.

There is many other summer/beach missions around the country that are family and community focus but we soul focus on school leavers. And at this time of year it is a school leavers and New Year celebration for a 1000 plus 17 – 19 year old’s.

We all choose to volunteer of our time, services, and ourselves during this week because we believe that bringing a positive influence to the youth right when they are making life choices for themselves has a far greater outcome than any mainstream job can give, and the investment into the lives of these teenagers is worth every bit of time and cost that we give.

Jesus chose to live a life of service to a point of sacrifice and we are no different. We go to serve in a place to show the light that Jesus is. Every year we are asked by the Paihia Holiday Park to come and bring the entertainment for their campers and we took this as an opportunity to be able to share the Gospel.

The Sacrifice? To pay a camp fee the same as the campers for the week. So with all faith in hand we said OK and chose to add to that cost of tea, coffee and hot chocolate and a BBQ sausages every evening, free of charge to the campers.

We take this as an opportunity to be able to get to know them, an opportunity to share the Gospel, and help them solve many questions that they have as they learn what the next stage of their life is.

We hope that you have captured the heart of some of what we are about and hope that you will see the same love that Jesus has for these teenagers that we see.