Short Term Mission Trips: To Go Or Not

In Psalm 121, there is a line of inspiration to those called to do short term mission work.  It reads “May the Lord bless your going in and your coming out...”  The most frequent comment made when someone is first considering going on a short term mission trip is: "I’m not sure I can do it: leave my home, my TV, my micro, my family and friends, my life here, and go.”  Other questions, spoken or not, include:  “Are there bugs?  What will I eat? Where will we stay? Will I get sick?”  Immediately one begins to picture the realities of “going in” to a very different world, and the concern of whether or not one can do the “coming out” well, without suffering serious ill effects.  Or, the “coming out”, the leaving of one’s safety zone at home, and the risks involved with “going in” to a strange land where there may be danger and disease. Even for people of faith and religious conviction, these are reasonable concerns.  The fact that someone entertains them at all is a sign that the process of asking the first question about short term mission work---to go or not---has begun.

When astronauts go into and out of space, or, looking at it from the other side, when they go out of the earth’s atmosphere, and into the trackless universe, a great deal of care goes into getting them ready to go and bringing them safely back.  A big blessing, and lots of technical skill, are needed to make this happen.  The whole nation has held its breath and watched together, marveling at the skillful execution of their exits and reentries.  There have been tragedies, as in the Challenger explosion, and tense moments when the space capsule landed “somewhere”, until finally the astronauts were located and fished out of the sea.

While going in to another culture for the purpose of bringing medical and spiritual help to people in great need is not televised, nor is as dramatic as what the astronauts go through, thinking about what happens to them is a good way to understand that missionaries, even short term, also have to prepare in particular ways to leave their ordinary atmosphere---their homes and conveniences, their ways of doing things---and then later to reenter everyday life after a potentially life- changing experience.  The psalm blessing speaks first of going in, but let’s look first at the going out from home that is the first step in going to foreign places.

To read the rest of this article, and to get your own copy of Kathy's inspiring booklet, simply send us an email (contactgmti@aol.com) and request it.

BUGS?

HEALTH?

 SAFETY?

COMFORT?

SECURITY?

GO?

DON'T?