|
Why Short Term
Missions? Why spend the money to fly half way around the world
when I can just give the money to a full time missionary already there?
What kind of impact can you really make on a one or two week trip?
What can I do, I'm not a minister? These are all good
questions and deserve a good answer.
Up until the last
century, Missionaries have had to leave their homes, family, and friends
behind for long periods of time. With the technology that we enjoy
everyday we no longer have to make the same sacrifices in order to
participate in missions. We are able to get on an airplane and
within
about 24 hours time we can be anywhere in the world that we would like
to go.
The Apostle Paul
spent two to three years on each of his missionary journey and I think I
know why. He had to ride a camel for weeks or months to get to his final
destination. If we had to travel that way today, we would stay
for a long time too. It wouldn't matter if it was ministry,
business, or personal, no one would be eager to turn around after one
week if the return trip would take that long.
What would Paul do if
he were here today and had the luxury of flying around the world to spread the gospel?
Do you think he would ever stop traveling or would he keep going to
reach every unreached area in the world?
Everyone can participate
 Think about it.
We all have an awesome opportunity to be a part of missions without
having to give up a career that's taken so much to develop. It's
easy to set aside some of your vacation time and use it to take the
gospel to another country. And you won't even skip a pay check if
it's a paid vacation.
We don't have to say goodbye to
our family members with the thoughts of never seeing them again. A
week or two can go by very quickly. Especially when your time is
filled with a busy schedule of moving from village to village, meeting
new people, visiting their homes, telling people about Jesus, and
ministering to their needs.
STM are more than just about the money
As far as sending the
money to a full time missionary already there - I say go ahead - do that
too. But it is much more than just the financial resources to do
the work. It's about the experience. When you step out to
participate in a STM event you open yourself up to the Holy Spirit in a
very big way.
Everyone I know who has been on a STM trip (with us or other teams) has
had some sort of an experience with God that dramatically changes their
Christian walk. I can try to explain some of these things and how it
has changed their lives but it won’t have any impact until you
experience it yourself.
If the trip is ministry oriented then you need to go and be a part of
it, but if the trip is project oriented I say send the money. Let me
explain. In 2003, we went to India with a team of 16 people. We were
in country for 10 days. In that time we held 27 meetings including
crusades and a pastor’s conference. At the conclusion of the trip we
had over 2000 decisions for Christ and many healings and miracles take
place.
Every team member played a huge part for the total success. Most
pastors in India have never had any Bible school training. In fact, the
pastors in some villages are chosen because they have been a Christian
the longest. Most Christians in the United States know more about the
Bible and they are very capable of sharing what they know.
The difference between ministry and projects
 While
we were there we met a pastor that did not have a church building, just
an open plot of land. He told us he needed $3000 to build his church.
We instantly got a huge desire to raise the money for his church
building.
When we got home we immediately went to work in getting donations.
Within a few weeks we had it all so we sent the money to the pastor and
they got busy building. (Go to Sasalu Church page to see the pictures.)
Now, if we had taken a team back there with the goal of building them a
new church it would not have made sense. Let’s look at the numbers to
see why. If we had 15 people going back with us and it cost about $2000
per person to travel (and that is a very low estimate) then it would
cost $30,000 for the team just to go and then it would still cost almost
$3000 for the materials. (The average salary in India is $50 per month
so the labor would be very little.)
So now we’ve managed to spend $33,000 to build a $3000 building. The
local Indians are very capable of constructing a building plus it helps
their economy when you pay their people to do the work. Plus, when the
first team taught over 175 pastors and leaders solid Bible doctrine and
help them get over 2000 people saved. That trip was priceless.
Why short term missions? Why not!
(The
previous
information is copyrighted. Unauthorized copy of this material is
prohibited.)
|
