Contemplation for the objector: If someone is able to travel internationally as part of their recreational experience, should they not also be willing to travel internationally as part of their service to their God?
Objection: Are you saying I have to travel on short term missions trips to serve God?
Fact: Everyone has different gifts and abilities, and each of these gifts and abilities may be used in some way to serve God. For example, see 1 Corinthians 12, particularly verses 12 to 21.
Fact: There are some people who should flat out not be going on international missions trips. Sometimes it is because of their own lack of spiritual maturity. Sometimes it is because God has something for them at home. Sometimes it is obvious they have physical reasons not to go. Sometimes it is for other reasons.
Fact: There has never been a time on earth when it has been safer and easier to travel overseas. Now that many people have access to e-mail at home and abroad, communication happens in a matter of minutes. 100 years ago it would take almost a year for missionaries to get a letter from home. 50 years ago, in some places, it might take hours to get messages by telephone. Today, no such hardships between families and a person traveling exist for most areas of the world. Medications and vaccinations have been developed for a number of illnesses that threatened travelers.
Fact: Every single mission field I have visited has a shortage of workers.
Fact: We are commanded to move to the ends of the earth (Acts 1:7-8 for example).
Fact: We are commanded to serve "the least of these" and serve eachother in very humble ways. For example, see John 13:1-17: we are promised blessings if we humbly serve one another.
Conclusion: If you claim to be a Christian, you can not get around the fact that service to fellow believers is a vital component of what we are commanded. While you don't have to go on these international trips, the fact is that there are far more opportunities out there than there are people taking advantage of them. If you have the desire to go, and have the ability to go, and have no specific command from God to stay home, there shouldn't be no objection. Too old or not crazy enough just doesn't work for me.
Objection: You mean that you would travel all that way and spend all that money just to weed someone's flower bed? Wouldn't it be cheaper and easier just to send money?
Fact: Yes, it would be cheaper and easier to just send money.
Fact: Cheap and easy isn't what God has called us to do. If cheap and easy were God's way, Christ would not have laid down his life on the cross.
Fact: Suppose some anonymous donor in a foreign country paid some local landscaping company to come and weed your flower bed? It would be an interesting gift to you, but would it mean anything to you? Would it make an eternal difference in your life? Would it get your attention at all? Would you feel as though you had been served by a Christian brother? (For example, see John 13:1-17)
Fact: If the British royal family were to show up on your door step and weed your flower bed for you, it would get your attention. It would also get the attention of quite a lot of other people. Under the right circumstances, you would also feel as though you had been humbly served (under the wrong conditions, of course, it would also leave you feeling as though you had been the subject of some horrible publicity stunt).
Fact: When Christ healed people, he did not heal just the physical ailment, but also offered some spritual help or encouragement. The physical healing was always temporary (for all have now died) but the spiritual benefits given live on.
Conclusion: If weeding someone's flower bed is what was required, then yes I would certainly do just that. However, it should be noted that the weeding of someone's flower bed is not the real point of this exercise of doing overseas missions work. Yes, it is good for the work to be done, but the actual work is only a very small, and usually least important part, of the trip. Properly used by the mission field and local churches, short term teams can have considerable benefit beyond any actual work accomplished.
Fact: We are commanded to serve "the least of these" and serve eachother in very humble ways. For example, see John 13:1-17: we are promised blessings if we humbly serve one another.
Question: What do you see as the proper use of short term missions trips?
This depends a great deal on what the mission trip is and what it is designed to accomplish, but I do have some basic concepts.
The short term people should be a benefit to those who are on the mission field full time. It is a very difficult thing for them to host a team, and for the full time staff to see no benefits would be pointless.
The short term people should not be taking the place of any paid local workers. This becomes a situation of walking a tightrope in some cases. When helping a local church rebuild its structure, the work being done by the team is sometimes something that could be done by hired help, but might not be affordable by the local church, or it might not be possible to find a reliable worker to do the job. (see the above question about weeding the flower bed)
My primary objection here has to do with situations where I have seen Christian volunteers getting used by for-profit local businesses in situations where local workers should have been hired. Perhaps the best example of this has been a certain situation where someone volunteered to have some conversations in English with students at a for-profit English school, and wound up teaching a few of the classes that should have been tought by the professional teachers hired for the purpose - basically using foreign volunteers as a profit center without them fully understanding the situation.
The short term team should provide as much interaction with local people as is practical under the circumstances, and allow for God to work in whatever direction the spirit leads. Remember the spiritual part of Christ's healings of people? There should be adequate provision and planning to allow for that type of interaction.
The amount of local interest in American (or British, or Austrailian, or foreign culture of any sort) may be used to considerable advantage. For example, the trip to Russia involved close interaction with a number of young people learning English. Conversing, playing games, having classes, and living together at a "camp" helped us understand eachother's cultures all the better, as well as give both groups a better idea of how the Christian life is lived in the other culture.
Fact: We are commanded to serve "the least of these" and serve eachother in very humble ways. For example, see John 13:1-17: we are promised blessings if we humbly serve one another.
Myth: Must these trips be International?
Among my various trips you will see several to New Mexico.
I feel there are several "must haves" as part of these trips:
1. The trips should, if possible, push the participant outside their comfort zone. It should be something that requires them to rely on God all the more. Maybe this involves going to another country, or maybe it involves going to another culture here in the USA (for exmple, street children).
2. Fact: We are commanded to serve "the least of these" and serve eachother in very humble ways. For example, see John 13:1-17: we are promised blessings if we humbly serve one another. These trips are to accomplish just that.
3. It should not be just for the work. The work done must be a means to other, deeper, more important items.
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