Transformation
Aug 3, 2011
Taking a group of people on a short term missions trip, is one of the most transformational steps a leader can take. A 
short term missions trip, short term mission tripsshort term mission trip yields long-term results both in passion gained and blessings acquired. And here are four reasons why:
1. A short term missions trip brings growth and life change. There are many reasons for this. First, by being removed from our comfort zone of familiar surroundings, new layers of character development can happen in our lives. Meeting people from other cultures, eating different food, communicating across language barriers: all of these things present a huge opportunity for growth. Youth mission trips provide a fertile growth environment!
2. A short term missions trip builds faith. Think about it: short term mission trips require faith at every phase. From the moment the decision is made “we will go,” until we step down out of the plane from the return flight, our faith is tested and grown. Hebrews 11:1 says “Now faith is the substance of things hoped for, the evidence of things not seen.” In a short term mission trip, there is a great deal of hope in the hearts and minds of everybody. Hope, by nature, invests a lot of emotion and energy in what is not seen. We hope things will turn out the way we envision them. We hope we can raise all the money we need to go. We hope we can connect with the people in another country. Kids who go on youth mission trips grow in faith!
Faith is the substantiation of our hope. It puts meet on the bones of our vision casting sessions. As faith grows, these bones come alive and awesome things happen. Short term mission trips afford the opportunity for faith to thrive and for awesome things to happen.
3. A short term missions trip opens our eyes. Few of us are aware of the depth of our blindness. It is impossible to stay in one culture for an extended period of time without succumbing to its illusions and blind spots. Conversely, when we are exposed to new cultures, new people, and new ways of seeing and doing things, our eyes are opened, we experience a paradigm shift, and our world is expanded. Teens who participate in youth mission trips gain intelligence!
4. A short term missions trip builds teamwork. Do you want to see your team work together, love together, pray together, and grow together? The best way to do that is to take them on a short term mission trip together! This is a model that has been around a long time. In the Old Testament, the “schools of the prophets” would go from village to village and proclaim the word and works of God. When Jesus ministered, he used this model, traveling from village to village with his disciples. When the Apostle Paul m launched into ministry, he used the same model. His teams were international, had both men and women, were interdenominational (people from both sides of the circumcision issue), were inter=racial (different skin colors), and were all interested in making an impact. Being on a team places our interests in the success and fulfillment of others and not just ourselves. This is where synergy comes in: “The whole is greater than the sum of its parts.” Teamwork! Having led many short term mission trips over the years, I can attest that all the above is true. Short term mission trips rock! And youth mission trips are the best investment a parent can make!
Two More Reasons To Take Your Team On A Short Term Missions Trip
In my last blog I pointed out that short term mission trips are a catalyst for life change, a sure-fire way to build 
teamwork, and can be real eye openers. Below I want to give a couple of more very important reasons for short term mission trips…
A short term missions trip blesses the receiving culture. The whole purpose of missions and the whole purpose of God on this earth can be found in the covenant He made with Abraham, the father of our faith. We find this covenant in Genesis 12: 1-3: GOD told Abram:
“Leave your country, your family, and your father’s home for a land that I will show you. I’ll make you a great nation and bless you. I’ll make you famous; you’ll be a blessing. I’ll bless those who bless you; those who curse you I’ll curse. All the families of the Earth will be blessed through you.”
We see some interesting elements in this passage that find fruition in a short term mission trip.
“Leave your country, your family, and your father’s home for a land that I will show you.”
First, we leave our culture and embark on a short term mission trip to a land God shows us. What a dynamic! We simply pack up and make the trip and He operates as our tour guide! Youth mission trips are a golden opportunity to see God work!
“I’ll make you a great nation and bless you. I’ll make you famous”
Did it ever occur to us that by investing the time and money to go and bless people in another culture, we are bringing greatness to our nation in God’s eyes, and we are also bringing to ourselves godly renown in the eyes of those who receive us?
“you’ll be a blessing. I’ll bless those who bless you; those who curse you I’ll curse”
This is missions in a nutshell: to be a blessing. Youth missions trips are blessings in motion. But maybe God is using our short term mission trip in ways that serve His sovereign purposes as well. He wants to give the people we minister to the opportunity to share in the grace of being a blessing, and bring them to the crossroads of either receiving or rejecting the gospel of grace. Either way, God is glorified. No culture, having experienced and yet rejected the sweet gesture of people coming on a short term mission trip to love and serve them, can stand before God and accuse Him of not loving them.
A short term missions trip glorifies God. God receives glory when the nations come to know him and worship at His throne. God is glorified when teenagers mobilize on youth mission trips!
“All the families of the Earth will be blessed through you.” This is the culmination, the apex of mission enterprise. And by engaging in a short term mission trip, we get to be a part God’s awesome plan!
It is summed up in Revelation 7:9
“I looked again. I saw a huge crowd, too huge to count. Everyone was there—all nations and tribes, all races and languages. And they were standing, dressed in white robes and waving palm branches, standing before the Throne and the Lamb and heartily singing: Salvation to our God on his Throne! Salvation to the Lamb!
Short term mission trips bring glory to God and they are a lot of fun. Leading youth mission trips, while taxing at times, is worth it! To quote NIKE: just do it!
What Is An Evangelist?
How beautiful are the feet of those who bring good news! But what do they do when they get there? What is an evangelist, whether it be in the context of a mission trip to Mexico or missions in general? Here is a great little video produced by a young lady we had the privilege of mentoring so many years ago, and who continues to let her light shine. We stumbled across her blog. Thanks, Melinda, for the pleasant reminder of what evangelism is all about!!!
To find out more about Melinda’s work, go to her blog at:
http://outoftheboxfilms.blogspot.com/
Connecting the Dots
It just occurred to me this evening that life is like a big canvas and the people we come across are like dots—people in particular points in time and place who give us the opportunity to connect, to love, and to color God’s world with smidgen of His glory. Every encounter is an opportunity to love, and every situation is unique. Every pain tells its own story. Every act of kindness performs a certain kind of rescue and provides a comfort and a support that only the person on the receiving end can fully appreciate. Each act of kindness may seem isolated and insignificant at the time, but only as we begin connect the dots we can see God’s tapestry emerge—the big picture of His purpose. Each event where God grace flowed through our lives to touch another creates one pixel, and each pixel contributes to the whole picture. AWESOME!
Left alone we are trapped in a spiritual cubicle, unable to see or appreciate the big picture—the color and design of which we are only a small part. Certainly this is what Paul was getting at when he wrote:
“that Christ may dwell in your hearts through faith; that you, being rooted and grounded in love, may be able to comprehend with all the saints what is the width and length and depth and height—to know the love of Christ which passes knowledge; that you may be filled with all the fullness of God.” Ephesians 3:18
Our mission in life is to stay at our post, eyes wide open to the needs around us, and ears nestled close to the beating heart of the God we serve. Our prayer is that as you consider a missions trip to Mexico or to Australia, you will seek God’s leading for you and your team.
