Short term missions; trips that span from one week to a few months, sometimes don’t receive the support that I think they deserve in church. Some missions boards hate to support them because they don’t go towards long lasting ministries. From a pragmatic sense, it is true, you will not do a whole lot in a week in terms of your presence in another country or place. Some places hate to have teams and honestly, I can understand why. It tends to be a lot of hype for a week and then the team is going back home leaving the host to do follow-up and add ‘meat‘ to what was done during the week. As a church that regularly receives short term mission groups in the summer, I have to say that we also end up doing a lot of damage control from well meaning teams.
Starting from when I first became a Christian in high school I regularly used part of my summer to go on a short term missions trip. I spent substantial time in Mexico over the course of three years and also did some things in the United States as well as Haiti. Those summers had a lasting impact on my life not only spiritually, but practically as well. Missions boards (as well as ministries) who are regularly unwilling to support youth trips and other short term opportunities are missing out on the big picture when it comes to missions.
My trips to Mexico may not have truly ‘helped’ the people where I was. Sure, I cooked and played and did some teaching but really, ministries get along just fine without people coming in to do these things. (In fact, it’s often easier on them if they do it themselves.) We even ran a VBS and brought in some resources for a church in Haiti. It was nice and the kids had a good time and you can say that we were ‘planting seeds’.
But I’m not sure that the seeds we planted in Haiti (or Mexico or anywhere else) were as significant as the ones that were planted in us. As a direct result of short term missions trips in our lives. . .
*we committed to living in the inner city with our family to have an eternal impact on those around us
*I learned to speak Spanish–something I believe that God had for me to learn as most of our neighborhood is Hispanic. It is a very helpful skill to say the least
*we were engrained with the desire to see lost souls saved
What’s more is now we have five little missionaries in training who we hope and pray will preach the Gospel faithfully throughout their lives where ever God may call them to be.
So to missions boards (or others) who have a hard time supporting short term missions trip I say this: you’re looking at it all wrong. It is not as much about the ministry receiving a team as much as it is about the team that’s going. Just think: those that funded my trips to Mexico, Haiti and elsewhere also had an impact on ministries in New York City. The dollars sent to support short term missions really support the big picture of outreach.
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