It was July 28, 1982, exactly 35 years ago to date (at the writing of this blog post), when Keith Green and others took off from an airstrip, almost in walking distance from where I am sitting now, and left the earth behind never to return. The airplane accident that took the life of singer-songwriter Keith Green, shook the lives of the evangelical Christian community around the world.

In all the talk today of measuring success by numbers, based on how many “hits,” “clicks,” or “likes” we get on our social media, I am often taken back to the memory of my very first Youth With a Mission trip in 1984. We were traveling through the Atlantic Coast of Canada, performing an evangelistic drama known as Toymaker and Son. It was a 52 minute long drama performed in full costume to a soundtrack recorded by a professional orchestra. It was all mime and dance, a real workout for us young people to perform in the hot summer sun, and we performed it anywhere we could. One performance stands out above the rest to me because we performed it on an empty grass lawn, to no audience at all.

Can a divorced person dare to be a missionary? More importantly, can a divorced single mother of 4 children go and bring her children with her? Although there was a time I would have asked that common question, I now would have to ask: “Can a divorce mother afford NOT to bring her kids into a missionary community such as ours?” The change for me came from meeting several families who are doing just that here in Youth with a Mission.

It was July 28, 1982, exactly 35 years ago to date, when Keith Green and others took off from an airstrip almost walking distance from where I am sitting now, leaving the earth behind never to return. The airplane accident that took the life of singer songwriter Keith Green, shook the lives of the evangelical Christian community around the world.