The JBQ quizzing season is over, and the National JBQ Festival has come and gone. Teams have put away their quiz boxes for the summer and are waiting to restart in the fall. For the sixth graders, their JBQ career is over. Some will move on to TBQ [Teen Bible Quiz] while others get involved in other church, school, and/or athletic activities. So now what?

Get your kids ready for March Missions Madness! Every year during the month of March, BGMC runs its annual challenge called “March Missions Madness—Lost Change for Lost Souls.” The month of March was chosen because National BGMC Day is the second Sunday in March. For 2017, it’s March 12. The BGMC theme for 2017 is “Above & Beyond…with BGMC” based on the verse, “Now to Him who is able to do above and beyond all that we ask or think” (Ephesians 3:20, HCSB).

God invites us to do BIG things. He calls us to “God things”—things we could never accomplish without Him. Faith is great, but faith without real-life service is motionless, fruitless, and lifeless. If we are to fan the faith-flame in the lives of children and leaders—the kind of faith that answers the “so what?” question—we must engage kids and leaders in face-to-face acts of compassion.

Preparing kids for their future is an important lesson for every adult who has influence on a child’s life—including the Church. Whether we help kids grow as Jesus did (as shown in Luke 2:52) or help them explore the world around them, we must help guide the children who come through our doors. One great opportunity we have is to prepare our church kids to be involved and engaged in ministry now so they will learn to love to serve the rest of their lives.

I am a missionary to the children here in Argentina. The Lord has called me to find spiritual gold in the most difficult places—places where the natural eye wouldn’t even want to go, to slums filled with open garbage dumps and horrible smells. These are the places God has called me to find His hidden treasures. My task is to find the gold, shine it, and return it to the Lord, transforming lost treasure into children of the Spirit.

Outreach has become an important area of focus for many of today’s kids’ ministry leaders. Whether it’s teaching kids about how they can help people in their local community or supporting evangelism and social justice efforts around the world, missions has become ingrained in the way many of us do ministry.