Teen Mission, USA, was founded in December 1970, with a governing board and Ken Henderson serving as Executive Director. For most of the 1970s and 1980s, Ken was "on the road" 250 days or more a year, traveling and ministering to young people across the country in churches, camps, and schools.
In the early 1980s, more and more churches began hiring paid youth workers. Therefore, the need for a traveling youth minister was not as great. With a mission trip to Haiti in August 1985, Mission Journeys was born as an outreach of Teen Mission, USA.
During the 1990s and 2000s, the number of short-term mission trips and teams increased rapidly. These volunteer missionaries helped start congregations, built many church buildings, repaired children's homes, schools, and homes of the elderly, and helped victims rebuild from hurricane damage. They have preached, taught, witnessed through music and word, baptized and strengthened young Christians, and encouraged missionaries in many countries.
After 40 years, we have now sent over 8,000 participants on work & evangelistic mission trips to over 40 different countries. A large number of these participants are now “on the field” in ministry or missions, ranging from Arizona to Ethiopia. An even larger number of these mission trip veterans are in Bible college preparing for ministry. Many of them point to the short-term mission trip with us as THE MAJOR FACTOR in their decision to serve God in vocational ministry. We THANK GOD for that!
In 2010, after much prayer and planning, it was decided that the ministry would become more devoted to pursuing missions, and, therefore, the name Mission Journeys became the ministry's primary working name, replacing Teen Mission, USA.
From 2015-2022, Mission Journeys saw a significant decrease in participants on short-term mission trips. The reasons were numerous: COVID, more groups sponsoring trips, churches doing their own, etc.
In October 2022, Wayne King was announced as the new Executive Director and a new direction for the ministry began to take form. The Global Bible School outreach (which began in 2005) would now become a major priority. In addition, longer-term ministry initiatives in various countries/locations began being pursued. Short-term mission trips are still being organized, but not as many as in previous years. The primary focus has now shifted to full-time work in several locations around the globe!
