Royal Rangers Taking On Ambitious Overseas Effort

For the last two years, the Royal Rangers national office has been making an effort to raise awareness of its annual Master’s Toolbox missions projects among district and local leaders.

The effort has paid off. According to Karl Fleig, national Royal Rangers director, they’ve seen double-digit growth in giving to Master’s Toolbox over the last two years, with giving totaling $101,682.07 in 2016 —the first time in the history of the program that giving to Master’s Toolbox exceeded $100,000.

However, Fleig believes they’ve only begun to see what Royal Rangers are capable of doing for missions.

“Our next Master’s Toolbox project, dubbed ‘Catapult 700,’ is going to be a two-year effort that will result in 700 Royal Rangers outposts being planted in East Africa, an East African Royal Rangers Training Center being built, and the Royal Rangers curriculum being translated into Swahili,” Fleig says. “It will run through 2018 and our goal is to raise at least $200,000 each year, which is double the record-giving of this past year.”

Fleig believes that Royal Rangers outposts will “buy in” to the Master’s Toolbox project (video) like never before.  For $429 a U.S.-based Royal Rangers outpost can help launch one of these new outposts at a church in East Africa.  While every Ranger outpost can help with the launch of at least one new outpost in the next two years, many outposts won’t stop there and will step up to assist with starting many more.  

One of the main purposes behind Master’s Toolbox is to instill in boys a heart for missions and to help them come to understand the value of being givers.

“We’re raising a generation of Christlike men,” Fleig says, “and we want their relationship with Christ to impact all areas of their lives — their time, their talents, their finances — all devoted to Christ.”

Fleig says that in addition to establishing outposts, translating the Royal Rangers curriculum into Swahili is vital in order for the effort to be effective. In East Africa, there are several hundred English-speaking AG churches, but more than 4,000 churches where Swahili is spoken. The training center is also a key part of the equation as new leaders will need to be trained to head up all the new outposts.

"It's amazing to see what happens when men and boys get a vision of what they can accomplish together," says Mark Entzminger, senior director of Children's Ministries. "The men help challenge the boys to dream big, and then they help build confidence that they can do it together. I believe we are only seeing the beginning of the great things these Royal Rangers will do through Master's Toolbox."

Although 700 new outposts is the stated goal of Master’s Toolbox Catapult 700, Fleig believes that Royal Rangers will exceed the goal. As leaders and boys come to understand how their efforts are directly responsible for establishing an outpost for young men a half a world away, the compassion of Christ will drive them to achieve beyond their imaginations.

“Our Ranger guys have great hearts, they love ministry and leading people to Jesus,” Fleig says. “We all want our ministry in our nation to grow, what better way to experience God’s blessing than to plant Royal Rangers in another country?”

Dan Van Veen

Dan Van Veen is news editor of AG News. Prior to transitioning to AG News in 2001, Van Veen served as managing editor of AG U.S. Missions American Horizon magazine for five years. He attends Central Assembly of God in Springfield, Missouri, where he and his wife, Lori, teach preschool Sunday School and 4- and 5-year-old Rainbows boys and girls on Wednesdays.