Editor’s note: The last names of the teens in this story were not published for safety reasons.
FRANKLIN — In 2021, Tennessee Woman’s Missionary Union (TN WMU) launched the TN Youth Venture Team, an initiative for 10th-12th-grade students who are actively involved in missions.
From those who applied, TN WMU chose 4-6 students from across the state to serve each year.
Participants commit to a year-long missions mentorship, which includes a launch retreat and monthly Zoom gatherings to read missionary biographies, watch missions videos, learn about unreached people groups, mission strategies, and how to live as a world Christian.
The vision was to provide resources, training, and discussion-style learning to equip students with the knowledge and skills to become missionaries and to mobilize others for missional living.
Two students confirmed their call to missions while serving on Youth Venture Teams in 2024. Both students spent two months during the summer of 2025 serving among unreached people groups. As a result of this experience, both decided to dedicate their lives to full-time missions.
Karalyn says she started participating in missions through her church in Murfreesboro. She had been on numerous mission trips and served locally through the student ministries.
Karalyn said, “Youth Venture team is a program for high school students where you learn what missions is actually like and receive mentorship from former missionaries.”
This hands-on experience is so valuable for making a career decision — for now and for the future.
“My experience in summer missions in Africa made me consider doing this work full-time. After much prayer, I decided that this is what God was calling me to do,” says Karalyn.
Prayer is so important, she said. “I don’t think that any big decision can be made without prayer — especially when it comes to how to serve and further the kingdom. So, prayer has been the biggest help in considering a holistic mission life.”
Isaiah, another 2024 Venture Team member, served for two months in the Philippines through the IMB summer program, Nehemiah Teams. After a 26-hour plane ride, he realized that he had to trust God to take care of him.
“I had no control over things around me. No control over things back home,” he said.
Working with adults and young people, he said that often people would ‘hear — but not listen.’
Now a college student, Isaiah is majoring in diesel mechanics. This career choice came about because his father was a mechanic, and he wanted to follow in his footsteps.
“Wherever God leads me in the future, they need mechanics and community development. Agriculture is also very much needed in the Philippines,” said Isaiah. While in the Philippines, he spent time reading the Bible, communicating with the people, and talking with other missionaries.
Isaish says he knows he must rely on the Lord during hard times. “Sometimes it will not be easy. I will be lonely at times. But I will depend on the Lord, and He will give me peace.”
In some places where there are unreached people groups, many have never heard the name “Jesus.” It is illegal to have a Bible or to convert from Islam to Christianity.
Lydia, one of the students who was on the 2023 Venture Team, is now a leader at the UT Chattanooga BCM and is applying for the IMB Journeyman program.
The TN WMU is making a difference by helping students recognize and move forward in their missions calling. It’s impossible to count how many of the unreached will have gospel access through today’s young people, who are quickly becoming a missionary force.
In the fall of 2025, instead of a state team with a few students, TN WMU shifted to equipping and resourcing church and associational youth leaders to have their own Venture Team to engage and equip more students across the state. Kim Cruse, TN WMU missions discipleship specialist, is working with several pilot Venture Team groups this year.
TN WMU wants to provide opportunities for students to obey the hymn “Here Am I, Send Me.” B&R
