Tory Almond is a youth pastor and former missionary, who recently brought a few teams to Europe to partner with a Christian camp in Latvia. The group saw significant spiritual and personal growth in their lives and within the local church, even before leaving for the trip. These groups witnessed incredible discipleship among those we went to serve and within our own leadership and team—not just during the trip, but for months, and even years, after. The Lord has used Tory’s heart for young people and missions to develop his call to help other youth pastors and churches experience the kind of growth that happens when young people listen to the leading of the Lord and answer the call to “go into all the world.”

This calling led to the formation of Follow the Call: A Mission for Youth and Young Adults.

We want to provide the opportunity for this growth in the lives of young people by partnering with churches to lead small, intentional groups of students and young adults to work alongside missionaries and organizations throughout Europe, with a focus on spiritual growth and discipleship.

Participants will engage with God and trust Him to provide like they’ve never experienced before, allowing for significant spiritual growth. Meanwhile, the local church will be challenged to work together as a community to help support their team spiritually, emotionally and financially, the entire church to be a part of what God is doing globally while seeing God move in amazing ways. Not only do the trips provide a great opportunity to help missionaries and organizations in Europe, they will also provide great exposure in the American churches to what God is doing in the spiritually dark continent of Europe.

Mission trips to Europe offer unique opportunities to develop deeper relationships between churches and groups from the two continents. When serving in Europe, language is not as much of an issue as it is in other parts of the world. Most people, especially the youth, speak English well. This allows for relationships to develop on a different level than when a translator is required. Another benefit of doing ministry in Europe is the ability to stay in touch with missionaries and individuals after the trip. Smart phones, social media, and messaging apps allow people to continue building relationships within the global church easily. And while Americans enjoy going to Europe for mission trips, Europeans are very capable and interested in sending individuals and teams to America for missions trips.

Tory looks forward to helping young people grow in their faith, building greater community within the local church, and strengthening ties between churches in the United States and Europe through Follow The Call.