MissionX 2024-2025 by Grace Christian Academy

MissionX

The goal of MissionX is to provide opportunities for students to serve the Lord, grow closer in relationship with each other, and use their gifts and talents to bless others. Students will spend one week with GCA faculty and staff who have prayerfully created engaging experiences that are mission-oriented, while also allowing for some down time to relax and have fun together.

This program builds on a curriculum that focuses on equipping students both academically and spiritually, and it is our sincere hope that this time opens the doors for students to spread the hope and love of Jesus in our community, our nation, and our world while acting as His hands and feet.

MissionX

Policies&Procedures

Before registering for an activity, please discuss as a family all available opportunities and understand the expectations, fees, and commitments for each course or trip.

Guidelines and Expectations:

All High School students must participate in MissionX. Attendance is mandatory. MissionX days are considered academic days in our school calendar; thus, the absentee policy is the same as any normal school day. Any absence from MissionX requires a doctor’s note to be excused.

Once a student has been placed in a course or trip, the student may NOT switch to another MissionX trip. In the case of extenuating circumstances, changes may be requested by emailing Haley Riggs. It is imperative that students and parents discuss cost options for MissionX courses before registering. Please do not sign up for a course if all course requirements, including cost and passport, cannot be met. Individual MissionX courses will not be allowed as this does not meet the goal of smallgroup interaction. All students must choose a MissionX activity from the provided list. Due to grade level priority, course popularity, and size limits, students may not receive their first choice. Priority will be given to seniors, followed by juniors, sophomores, and freshmen.

Safety is our utmost priority and we will choose trips that we believe will fulfill the service mission and also be safe for our students. If, however, a location becomes unsafe between the planning and departure for the trip, we will make every effort to find a comparable trip. This will be an administrative decision.

MissionX

Communication&StudentBehavior

COMMUNICATION:

Once the students have been placed in MissionX activities, parents will receive an email from Haley Riggs, MissionX Coordinator, which will include the student’s assigned MissionX activity, along with any information pertinent to the activity. After this initial email, the Group Leader for each course or trip will communicate directly with parents about the details and logistics for each activity. Due to the numbers and participation, some of the plans for MissionX, including travel dates to locations, may change slightly from what is listed on the course catalog. Group Leaders will inform parents of final travel details, including departure and return dates, as soon as travel plans are finalized. All trips will return by Friday, January 10th.

COURSE REGISTRATION:

Registration for MissionX activities will be conducted via a Google Form. Parents will receive a separate email with a link for registration. Please only register one time per student.

Parents will select their top four MissionX activities. If a course or trip is full, the student will automatically be considered for his or her second choice, and so on. Do NOT select the same option twice.

STUDENT BEHAVIOR:

Students must abide by the expectations and standards outlined in the Student Handbook before and during MissionX. Failure to abide by these policies at any time may affect roster decisions. GCA reserves the right to remove a student from a trip before or during the trip for failing to meet these expectations. Each student will be required to submit the proper paperwork, which will include expected student behavior.

MissionX Deposits,Payments,&Costs

All MissionX activities must be paid IN FULL by March 11, 2025, and will be automatically paid via FACTS. All deposits are non-refundable. If a student is placed in a course or trip and decides to withdraw, the deposit will not be refunded. If a student is approved to change his or her course trip due to extenuating circumstances, refunds or deposits will be evaluated on an individual basis. Therefore, it is imperative that students and parents discuss options for MissionX before registering. The cost of group travel is largely affected by total participants. Once rosters are determined, Group Leaders will contact parents with the final price. We have done our best to estimate the trip cost, and we believe our approximate price is within $100 or less of the actual trip price. If the cost of a trip ends up being less than the estimated amount, the final payment will be adjusted accordingly.

Financial assistance may be available for select MissionX activities. Please contact Haley Riggs at hriggs@gcalions.com with questions.

Local

Serving our Community

Trip leaders - Amy Finch & Katie Baatenburg

Estimated cost: $125

Dates: January 6 - 10

Do you have a heart to help people in our community? Join us as we spend the week serving in Franklin and the surrounding area! Possible service locations include Saddle Up, Deer Run, Freedom Reigns, One Gen Away, The Well Outreach, and more. We will end the week with a day of fun activities and lunch as a team.

DomesticTrips

Camp Caleb with Joshua Expeditions

Trip leaders - Annie Jimenez & Bill McGee

Estimated cost: $1,100

Tentative trip dates: January 6 - 10

Missions in Utah

Trip leaders - Justin Payne, Lindsey McKown, & Anna Kate Tanner

Estimated cost: $1,500

Tentative trip dates: January 6 - 10

Camp Caleb is a ministry that works directly with the children of local migrant workers in South Florida. This trip will have ministry opportunities that will be focusing on arts and crafts, Vacation Bible School activities, prayer time, and light construction. The team will also have a chance to experience the local sights with snorkeling, a gator farm, and an airboat ride.

Empower local communities and partake in hands-on service learning opportunities on the Missions in Utah tour! Throughout this trip, the group will have the unique opportunity to come alongside and serve exmembers of the FLDS religion seeking recovery and healing from their abuse. In addition, students will be able to journey through the beautiful landscape that makes up the incomparable Zion National Park.

DomesticTrips

Adventure and Discipleship in Colorado

Trip leaders - Mandi Thompson, Beth Meisner, & Ken Landers

Estimated cost: $1,550

Tentative trip dates: January 6 - 10

Adventure awaits as the MissionX group bound for Denver, Colorado will experience an in-depth discipleship training through Youth on a Mission (YWAM) Denver. YWAM is a post high school option for young adults to discover their destiny in God and equip them to fulfill it with missions training and international outreach. In addition to training, much of our experience will include outdoor activities to challenge the mind and body to enrich our understanding of God as our ultimate creator. Come experience the breathtaking beauty of God’s creation in Colorado.

Appalachia Service Project

Trip leaders - Bobby Miller & Whitney Taylor

Estimated cost: $900

Tentative trip dates: January 5 - 9

Appalachia Service Project is an organization that works with families in the Central Appalachia area to make homes in the area warmer, safer, and drier. We will partner with their volunteers that come from all over the country to help provide safe and sanitary housing, a basic human need impacting all areas of life for families.

DomesticTrips

Wayumi

Trip leaders - Mark Woodard & Vivian Benzon

Estimated cost: $1,200

Tentative trip dates: January 6 - 10

Did you know that more than 6,000 of the world’s people groups are unreached and have never heard the Gospel? Wayumi Quest is all about missions and God's heart for the whole world. This unique mission opportunity is a chance to be challenged for world evangelism while hearing about unreached people groups around the world. It is a chance to travel to Pennsylvania and learn more about what it would take to bring the gospel to unreached people groups around the world. We’ll end the week with a fun historic tour in Philadelphia.

InternationalTrips

Belize

Trip leaders - Judy Barnette & Sheri Harrington

Estimated cost: $1,650

Tentative trip dates: departs January 5

San Pedro De Macoris, Dominican Republic

Josiah's House

Trip leaders - Jennifer Almon, Kelly Rogers, & Jeff Trigger

Come to Belize, where you will not only meet wonderful people but also see the beautiful country and experience a different culture! Belize is a short flight away and the only country in Central America where English is the official language. You will love playing with the children during VBS and walking through the village meeting new people while you pray and share the gospel with them. We will minister in the mornings and have fun in the afternoons! Our main goal is to show God’s love wherever we go. Aren’t you ready to get out of your comfort zone? What better way than serving God together?! It will be a life-changing trip...you better Belize it!

Estimated cost: $1,650

Tentative trip dates: departs January 4

Join us for the week at Josiah’s House, a family style orphanage to over 25 boys and girls ages 3-17 We will stay on Josiah’s House property and spend time playing with the kids and helping with some landscaping projects around Josiah’s House. We will visit an impoverished village in the area that Josiah’s House has been connected with for many years ministering to the families in the village. Many of the children at Josiah’s House speak English, so don’t let language be a barrier to experience an amazing place that is giving hope to so many children. We will finish our week with a special excursion as a team. Our prayer is that you will not only grow closer to the Lord through this experience, but that you will also grow closer to each other and come home with a love for the extended body of Christ.

InternationalTrips

Navajoa, Mexico

Trip leaders - Alicia Jordan & Brian Ray

Estimated cost: $1,700

Tentative trip dates: departs January 4

Ecuador

Trip leaders - Bob Jordan & Ashley Powell

Estimated cost: $1,850

Tenntative trip dates: departs January 5

Join us for a week in Mexico ministering to small communities near Navajoa, Mexico. We will stay at the home of Brian and Rochelle Ray, former missionaries and current GCA family. We will participate in VBS activities, play sports, and possibly visit a school. Join us on this adventure as we enjoy authentic Mexican food, Mexican ice cream, and Mexican Coca-Cola, but also as we encourage a family and community in Mexico that is dear to GCA.

Whether or not you speak Spanish, if you love children, this is a great trip for you!

The Lord had plans to bring our team to Ecuador long before we knew it. Students will become immersed in Ecuadorian culture and will be working with various organizations already planted in the community. The team will be working with street kids and orphans who are local to Quito, as well as refugees to the area from surrounding countries.

InternationalTrips

Guatemala

Trip leaders - Amelia Moore, Mollie Bozarth, & Chandler Ganick

Estimated cost: $1,850

Tentative trip dates: departs January 5

Traveling to Guatemala offers a captivating journey through a tapestry of rich heritage, breathtaking landscapes, and vibrant traditions. Among this beauty, though, is extreme poverty, abuse, and loneliness. Our team will work with Athentikos, the non-profit GCA teacher Amelia Moore founded to facilitate a creative arts camp at an elementary school. Athentikos partners with a variety of under-resourced organizations in Guatemala to offer art programs to build selfconfidence and communicate the gospel. We will be working with translators if you don’t know Spanish. We would love students with artistic skills like music, dance, and art, but also need students with lots of energy to play with the kids. We will be staying in the scenic town of Antigua, surrounded by volcanoes, markets, and cultural activities. During the week, we will also explore Antigua and go on a one-day adventure excursion. Students will enjoy engaging with the culture, making art, and building relationships with one another and our Guatemalan friends.

Impressions FromStudents

As a 9th grader, I did the local missions for MissionX. I realized that you did not have to travel out of the country or even out of the state to do mission work. God put me locally to show me that a few days of work in our very own community can change lives Not only did we share the love of God to the organizations we went to, like Saddle Up and Brightstone, but we also had people come up to us curious why a group of kids were serving on a regular school day. God gave us the chance to explain to those people GCA’s purpose and our mission based on the biblical calling to go out into the world to spread the gospel. Not only was this a way to bond with organizations, we also bonded as a GCA group, students and leaders. MissionX was a special time, and there was no doubt God had His hand on every group and mission sent out

EllaGraceFua,Classof2026

The Dominican Republic MissionX trip was the most eye opening experience for me, as well as other students on the trip. It gave us a new perspective on life and how we should live as Christians while also evangelizing to those around us It taught us to be servant-hearted, grateful, appreciative, and to live life knowing that God is in control of all things, all the time.

The Camp Caleb Trip is such a special opportunity and truly changed my life and outlook on the world. The community based work and connections that I made with not only the people there but also my peers are some that I will never forget. I myself can say without a doubt that it was, to this day, the best week of my life and it's definitely something I think everyone should experience

JadeThrasher,Classof2027

AudreyGeorge,Classof2025