No mission worth taking is really "short-term"
A few years ago I was in a church service where a team of energetic college students and young adults was reporting back on their short-term international mission trip. Like most such groups, they had plenty of daunting cross-cultural experiences to report.
|
|
"The food was so spicy," one wide-eyed young woman said, drawing laughter from the congregation. "It was terribly hot and humid--we had such a hard time getting to sleep," another team member said. Amid much hilarity, the team leader described their consternation when they arrived at a remote village only to discover that the Christians from the surrounding area were expecting them to lead a worship service, preach, and teach--on the spot.
They had been stretched, they said, way beyond their "comfort zones." They had also returned full of praise for God and love for one another and the new brothers and sisters they had met. "We received so much more than we gave," one team member said.
All wonderful, true sentiments that I had heard dozens of times before from returning short-term missionaries. The only difference was that I was in Nairobi, Kenya, and every member of the team had been born and raised in Africa.
That morning I had to unlearn several of my ideas about global mission. Though I was visiting Nairobi on a short trip of my own, the testimonies of the short-term travelers reminded me that North Americans are not the only ones making pilgrimages of mission around the world. In many ways crossing borders was as unfamiliar and difficult for them as it was, and is, for me.
Click here to continue reading.
SOURCE: Round Trip Missions
