The mission field is not only a place where Christians go to serve the world, but is also an experience that God uses to transform their hearts. It is in this place of action that the Holy Spirit moves in and through us to ultimately bring glory to the Father. However, there is vast differences between the short and long-term aspects of missionary work. The short-term trip can be an amazing time that God uses to work on the heart of the missionary, but it can also be a messy and irresponsible way of approaching the spread of the gospel.
As Christians, we are commanded to “go unto the world,” and shorter mission trips to foreign countries are a cool way to fulfill that initiative (Matt. 28.19). They provide a way for curious believers to experiment with the mission-field, get a taste of missional life, and do ministry with a different nationality. Through this experience, God may place a burning desire for missions in the heart of the participant. I have heard many stories where a person has been on a short-term trip, came back completely wrecked for the world, and then launched out into a long-term career. This is why shorter experiences can be crucial for the development of deep-rooting missionaries. Not only can they help someone to discover his/her passion, but God also grows the individual as well. I believe that the focus is taken off of us, and put onto a group of people. We then divert all of our attention, love, and service to someone other than ourselves, very similar to how Jesus lived his life. Therefore, we are killing pride and fulfilling the great commandment, to love God and to love people, as we live like Christ. With this time of distracted focus, God works in our hearts. For me, as I have engaged in short to midterm missions, the Lord has used my undivided attention to reveal to me areas that I need to work on in my life. As I have surrendered more to him, I have seen tremendous growth in the depth of our relationship. God can create a new person through the experiences they have on short-term trips.
On the other hand, short-term trips can actually bring accidental harm instead of good. Most people who go on shorter excursions lack the training and equipping that long-term missionaries have. As an unintentional result, these trips can be messy, and end up doing more bad in a community than good. For example, say that there is a short term trip that goes and distributes food to a village in another country. They feed some people, play with a couple kids, and get to love on the community while helping out. I do not deny that Christ can be made much of in this scenario. However, if we are just providing temporary solutions to lasting problems then the inevitable is prolonged. But, if a long-term missionary were to work in the community to find local, permanent solutions, then the situation could be fixed. As the old phrase says: give a man a fish and he’ll eat for a day, teach him how to fish and he’ll eat for a lifetime, I believe it to be true in missions as well. The ministry, Impact Africa, has built schools in the surrounding communities of Johannesburg, South Africa, that are self-sustaining and locally employed. This way, if something were to happen to the mainly American run organization, the schools would still be functional. This is a great portrait of of the above stated phrase.
Also, it is a lot harder to build lasting relationships with foreign people if we are only their for weeks at a time. In my own experience, I worked with a ministry called Abraham’s Project in Costa Rica, and in that time my team and I developed a great friendship with the groundsman Luis. We spent our days getting to know him and his family and became very close. He told us that we were the first group in 15 years to actually take the time to get to know him. Most of the people who passed through only saw him as the groundsman and never connected with him on a personal level. Since we were there for three months, my team and I were able really create a great relationship with him and many others. So, more time helps to develop deeper relationships fostering lasting effects on the locals.
Short-term mission trips are not a horrible that must be stopped. In no way at all am I trying to nullify the importance of them or take away from someone’s experience on one. I am simply stating that there needs to be careful planning and thoughtful assessment before we jump into a community headfirst hoping to do some good. I personally believe that everyone is commanded to go out into the world at some point in their lives and spread the gospel. Short-term mission trips are an amazing opportunity to fulfill that great commission. I also believe that we need long-term, career missionaries to establish roots in another country and work locally with that community. In the end, as long as we are preaching the gospel of Jesus Christ, all is well.
