Our family has visited three caravan parks over the last ten days and as a result, we are considering joining a beach mission team (there are fifty Scripture Union mission teams to caravan parks up and down the coast of New South Wales in the ten days after Christmas).

We're not new to the concept, but it's been a few years. My wife, Cathie, served as co-leader on Tathra Mission in the early nineties and I was leader of Bermagui then Gunnedah Mission teams in the early to middle nineties.

While most of us involved in the summer mission to caravan parks were single or newly married, there were a few impressive older couples (usually with teenage kids) who came along as 'camp parents.'

These couples had a big impact on us.  We were able to see something of their marriages and how they parented their children (which was really good for those of us who didn't grow up in Christian families).

They gave a lot. It's only now that we have kids, that we can see the magnitude of their sacrifice. But the benefit to them was also huge, particularly their kids.  It's fantastic for younger Christian teenagers to get a taste of Christian community, to see their parents commitment to Jesus in action, to get exposure to Christian role models just a few years older than themselves, and for the teenagers to learn to serve Christ themselves.

This week while spending some ‘daddy time’ with my ten year old boy I asked what he was thinking.  He replied 'About that guy's talk this morning at the mission,' referring to the campground church service where a first year Moore College student gave an address on Jesus and Zachaeus.  He said 'Yeah it was funny and he made some really good points.'

The previous day our daughter was stunned to discover in the Sydney Morning Herald that people like Rachel, Emily and the other mission team members, who are just a few years older than her, have paid $400 each to come on mission to serve Jesus.

Then on New Years Eve we visited one of our church members on mission at Huskisson and joined his team as they played and prayed together for Christ's blessing on the new year.  As others in the campground counted down the new year in drunken revelry there was a group of people a couple of years older than our kids praying for God's blessing on the campers, the nation, our city, our churches, and our families.

The reason not to go is that we are often exhausted just after Christmas and desperately in need of a 'introvert break.'

But that's probably just a matter of better planning.

I'd be interested in hearing from families who served on mission and team members who have benefited from the families who have served alongside them.