Short Term Missions are Selfish…but maybe that’s ok

 

If we are honest with ourselves, short term missions have become somewhat of a fad within the modern Christian church. Taking a week to drive down to Mexico to build houses, or flying to Honduras for three weeks to help start an orphanage, or maybe spending a month in Kenya trying to start a self-sustainable agricultural system. You’ve at least heard of these sorts of things. You’ve likely done one of them.  Or at least wished you could.

 

But why?

Why do we go?

Why do we choose to spend so much money and time on these sorts of trips?

 

Because of Romans 10:14-15….we say…and Isaiah 6:8…and James 2:15-17….and of course Matthew 28:16-20

“How beautiful are the feet of those who preach the good news!”

                                …”Here am I! Send me.”

                                                … “Therefore go and make disciples of all nations…”

 

But is that why we really go? To share the gospel…to clothe the poor…to feed the hungry?

 

I dearly hope that is at least part of the reason we go! But if that is our purpose….if our purpose is to build solid relationships that allow the gospel to be shared, to give the poor a way of caring for themselves in a self-sustaining manner, or to abolish poverty in an efficient manner…isn’t there a much better way of doing so than to spend $3,000 to travel half-way across the world for 2 weeks?

I thought a lot about this while we were on our AMOR trip to Tanzania with STEMM.

What good could 16 students do in a far too short 2 weeks in Tanzania? That is too short of a time to build solid relationships where we can become respected enough in the community to sincerely share the gospel from the heart. We don’t even speak Swahili! And most of what we ended up doing was seeing new things and meeting new people instead of having a physical impact on the health and well-being of the people we met. And if you think about the $4,000 that each of us spent to go on this trip, and multiply it by at least 15 students, that’s roughly $60,000 that we could have donated to STEMM or some other organization in Tanzania to improve the lives of the people there instead of using it on ourselves. So are short term missions pointless then?

Why do we even bother going? Is it so that we can feel good about ourselves…cause we “helped”? Or is it to have a little fun traveling the world and seeing new cultures? Or maybe so that we can feel like we’ve done something important in our lives?

….Think about it a little bit…..

 …..

  ……

……Are short term missions what we really think they are?

 

I would argue no. I would argue that short term missions aren’t as self-sacrificing and Christianly and world-changing as we like to think they are.

 

They are in fact, rather a selfish thing to do.

But I don’t think that is wrong.

I would claim that these short term mission trips aren’t so much about helping the people we are going to meet, as they are about helping ourselves. They are about helping us to open our eyes to the world that God has made. They are about allowing us to see what we should be praying for. They are about teaching us how great the faith and love of a people can be even when their situations are not the best. They are about building friendships with people that live half a world away. They are about putting a longing in our heart to pray for our brothers and sisters in Christ who we may never see again in this life.

These trips may be selfish…but they are oh, so valuable. Because, while they may not be the most effective way of helping physically, they change the lives of those who go. We who go on these trips are far more changed than those who are being “helped” or “missioned to.”

And because of this I can now share with you all these stories that I have heard and seen. I can tell you about Debra. I can wake up each morning to an alarm with the name Priska running across my phone screen to remind me to pray for this little girl. I can remind my family and my friends to be thankful for the endless blessings that we in the States have and I can ask them to support those missionaries who give up their whole lives to care for others across the world. And most importantly these trips are important because they have made my heart so open and full now with the endless possibilities that God might have in store for me and my life from here on out!

If we are going on these short term trips as mission trips…then we are wrong. We are causing more trouble and spending more money than we are benefiting the people there…but if we are going on a vision trip…to see what God is doing there already and to be praying and seeking what God is going to do with our own lives…then that is the right way to go about it.

And in that case, short term mission trips may be selfish… but maybe that’s ok.

 

 

God is very good!

2/16/16