# Do "mission trips" prepare you for what the field is really like?



## Pergamum (Dec 26, 2007)

Admin Note: I split this off as a new thread from here: http://www.puritanboard.com/f19/wha...stions-pastoral-application-27769/#post337727

Great job on the cross-cultural questions. 

When major firms send people overseas more than half wash out in under a year. 

A lot of religious workers also suffer significent culture stress too. And a lot of "missionary experience" in today's churches does not always garner useful answers due to the short nature of what passes for "mission trips" in our generation.



The form is very impressive. The final questions that ended up on it are VERY well thought out and this is as fine a tool as possible to help to see who the Lord would have for you all.


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## Semper Fidelis (Dec 26, 2007)

I started a new thread on this Pergie. Standby, because this has been on my mind recently and I want to share some thoughts on this...


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## Pergamum (Dec 26, 2007)

Great....I got my hearing aids turned on...


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## Semper Fidelis (Dec 26, 2007)

OK, here it is.

I was talking about this with the Deacons the other day during Bible Study and then spoke to a missionary who was visiting from Thailand. His son is a Navy Nurse in the OB/GYN department of the hospital and attends our Church. The family has been in the field for over 30 years - first in the Phillipines and now in Thailand. I was sharing my observations with him and they resonated with him.

First, I found a statement that our former Pastor made a few months back since there are many U.S. servicemen in the Church. He stated that if he grew tired of the place he could just leave but if we grew tired of it and decided to leave we would get thrown in jail. It struck me then, and now increasingly, how feeble our oaths to religious service are compared to an oath for service in the world. It speaks to our impoverishment that we fear those who have power to harm our bodies more than He who is our real Master.

I was listening to a series on Church History recently and the story of Saint Anselm came up. I had never heard the story but he had followed his mentor as the Archbishop at Canterbury. At first I thought the story was going to go that he was appointed the position but the real story is that he was visiting England and the Bishops there requested he become Bishop. He refused not in small part because the King there was incredibly wicked. The Bishops would have none of it so they forced him to take the scepter of authority.

He served at great distress but _faithfully_ for the rest of his life.

You just don't find many men that are willing to be miserable for an oath's sake any more. It is very sad. The military forces men and women and they have the fear of authority but Christian men ought to realize who they answer to.

Anyhow, the subject of these mission trips came up because I've seen a few cases now of people who touted their mission experience - repeated 2-3 week missionary trips to remote places including some locales that were very dangerous. They spoke of their joy at being able to suffer persecution, etc.

But then they went back to their lives in America after 2-3 weeks.

I've come to the conclusion that the closest analogy that many military people can appreciate is Boot Camp. Boot camp is several weeks of abject misery where you are constantly told what to do, treated with tyranny, deprived of sleep, and mentally abused. People can grit through it because it's only several weeks and you can do anything really unpleasant for a couple of months.

But then recruits graduate from boot camp and they have to live in the real world. People won't be yelling at them any more. They're now on their own at a new duty station, far away from home, and there is no family. Some of the most motivated recruits now no longer have the structure and become depressed. Some decide that the military is not for them. Some decide to fall in to the wrong crowd. Some succeed. But the common bottom line for all is that life is mundane and lived out in the decisions you make one day at a time.

Thus it is with overseas work. It's one thing to visit a foreign country and eat snakes and bugs and live away from family for a couple of weeks. The *real* test of a person's mettle, however, is when they have to live real life with no parachute. There's no return flight at the end of 2 weeks. They actually have to get to know other people. They're going to have to adjust to new tastes, new ideas, and work their tails off to make new friends. In short, they are going to have to really *love* their neighbor enough and they're going to have to be committed to their oath enough not to give up even when they absolutely dislike their circumstances.

For my own part (and I realize I have suffered little in comparison to many), I have found that you do not really begin to enjoy the company of Saints and really start to get to the point that you start to feel strong feelings of affection until about 2 years of hard work at it. It's kind of like one long diaper change where you do things because they must be done, because love demands it, but if you were to choose it as a hobby you'd be doing something else. Unfortunately for me and Sonya, then, we only get about a year of real affection for the Saints of a congregation until we're uprooted and the pain is immense. We're already dreading this next PCS move.

Anyway, these are my observations, such as they are. I don't know if I'm cut out for hard corps mission work but I've also seen enough that leaves me skeptical about all the stories that people tell about their mission trips. I wish folks would save their money and use the money they raise for these short term trips to get people with real intent out in the field. I think people need to quit kidding themselves that they've really experienced the work unless they've given up the regular contact with friends and family that causes the most difficulty.


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## Pergamum (Dec 26, 2007)

This thread can easily dissolve into death by firing squad for short term missions, so let me say a few good things about short term trips before I begin firing away:

A FEW POSITIVE WORDS ABOUT SHORT TERM MISSIONS:
These trips, when done with substantial pre-trip counsel and post-trip debrief can be a pivotal time in a young persons life. 

MY OWN EXPERIENCE:
I spent some time in the Amazon after I was saved, gave nitroglycerin to a heart attack victim dying before my eyes and saved him and delivered a baby and had to cut the cord with a Wilkerson shaving razor and boiled a string from the hammock to tie off the cord..... WOW! My world was rocked.

THE VALUE OF SHORT TERM SPIRITUAL "HIGHS":
... we sometimes need these spiritual "high" moments to motivate us and - as my generation is apt to say - get us "PSYCHED UP!" I wish more of the people in my churches were, in fact, psyched up and I would even love to hear some from my traidtion speak of some things as AWESOME! Instead of analyzing and dissecting things in dry, doctrinal stale language.

God has throughout Scripture arranged pivotal moments in the patriarchs lives to set them on a different path and somtimes these were quite dramatic. When a person is called as a pastor or missionary (or even saved) often God uses dramatic moments or experiences that really make the recipient ponder their priorities. A missionary trip may prove to be God's orchestrated way of stepping away from it all and re-prioritizing.

I think God works through these exciting experiences and I would encourage all the bug-eating that one can fit into 2 weeks if they came and visited me. Sago worms are plump and meaty and full of protein.

SUGGESTIONS TO MAXIMIZE SHORT TERM TRIPS:
As a short term, pivotal time, I do want to say that short term mission trips can be a very effective tool for the recruitment of the next class of missionaries. It also allows a church to see first hand and raise awareness of needy peoples when these short-termers return back Stateside.

A method for effective short terms would be as follows: 
---A church gets an opportunity (like building a house form someonein the jungle in the summer to fall of 2008), 
---young people who are open to serving overseas sign up and are examined by the elders. 
---Appropriate elders/leaders are selected and a chain of command is establsihed so that there is a clear spiritual leader. 
---Assignments are given, such as reading Piper's Let the nations be Glad and Don't Waste your Life. 
---On the trip itself, time is set aside to even fast, pray and search the Scriptures about what the Lord would have these young people do in life. 
---The missionary on the field should challenge them with missiological scenarios from daily life (homeschool versus boarding school for kids, what is a gift and what is a bribe, do you accept gifts that have been vlessed by local shamans, etc)
--A set apart time per day would be established on a short term trip to meet and use as a "classtime" to discuss field issues.
--The young people on the trip are required to keep a journal and even field daily questions.
--Once the group returns the group is responsible for sharing all this to not only their home church but maybe even call some of the missionary's other supporting churches and help the missionary give an upate to them (through the eyes of these short termers). This keep things "real" for those in the States.
--The Short termers should be encouraged to think freely, ask freely and question the motives and methodology of the missionary on the field (respectfully). WHy are some things done this way or that...

Short term missions usually do very little for the local people visited (unless you bring an electrician over and help a missionary wire his house in the summer or fall of 2008). But it ties home churches and missionaries together and helps disciple young US church kids, if adequate preparation and follow up is done and screening is done to weed out those who only want a holy holiday.

FINAL THOUGHT: Short term missions is here to stay for at least the next decade or two. I feel compelled to make the most of them until this season passes. Most long term missionaries serving now, on average, have been on at least 1 short term trip in the past and most have been on 2 or 3... so short terms, hopefully, will be an entry-level exposure on the road to long term service and so I am careful not to dissuade them but to try to refine them to use them the best way as possible.

So, if given proper prep, God bless short term missions


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## Semper Fidelis (Dec 26, 2007)

OK Brother. 

I guess I spoke too strongly. Perhaps the bottom line is that one shouldn't get the idea that you really are certain you are ready for the rigors of the real thing based on a short term mission trip. It takes more to steel you for real life than pretend life can offer. It takes a developed Christian character.

I thought you had gone to bed. Thanks for the feedback.


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## Pergamum (Dec 26, 2007)

Okay, now for the negative:


Go to the website for the Masters Mission and check their archives. They have a magazine issue about Short term missions and they have it broken down: an average short term mission group of 12 kids for 2 weeks to a third world country costs 63,000 per year to 80,000 or so (I forget the numbers).

.....and this was roughly comparable to ONE YEAR of support for a long term missionary.

If you take a large suburban church with a 12 million budget per year, usually they will have a missions budget of only 3-5 percent (Recent missiology journal quoted 3 percent - I think - as average missions budget and Christianity Today repeated this quote).....well, out of that 3 percent of their 12 million budget and their million dollar stadium "Worship Center" most of their mission budgets involves rotations of short term youth groups to an African country where they concentrate on infrastructure and building buildings. No resident missionary lives there as a link, but they are confident that they are doing spiritual good. 

So, 2 weeks of untrained kids versus 1 year of support money for a long termer. 


So, in terms of stewardship, the Western church is the richest generation of Christians on earth that, proportionately, probably do the least.

BUT....[big screeching halt].......we Calvinists ought to know that dollars per soul or financial or pragmatic reasons alone are not cause enough to try to halt short term missions...


Other reasons to be suspicious of short term missions are as follows:

--They distort what is means to achieve success or reach or evangelize a group. Many long termers are amazed that they have labored so long and a group of teenagers have suddenly come and reported 50 conversions.
---They spread a Gospel of American Culture: Your typical youth group kid in a suburban church in his Tommy Hellfinger (sp) shirt and your immodestly dressed bubblegum chewing girl who really is quite flirty without knowing it due to immersion in a Britney Spears culture...these go to Muslim lands and initiate a shock and awe of outward Gospel witness even while retaining the peculiarities of American culture. Locals end up mistaking our culture for Christianity.
----These short termers often have a need to "minister" or do something instead of accepting that the main benefit of their trip is not what they can do, but what God may do to them through this experience. So, "projects" are organized and a wonderful opportunity is wasted when the time should have been mostly "experiencing" and only a portion of the time "working".
--There is a tendency to have a heavy emotional burden for the local people that quickly is forgotten once re-entry to the States occurs. Without good preparation, short termers can cry and feel connected, but to no long term effects...
......Snap some pics of naked natives and your trip is complete and play soccer with the local kids and get an emotional feeling of connectedness. Go home, tell your friends about pooping in a hole and about 1 out of every 2 babies dying before age 2 such that tribals do not even give them names until they can stand up.... then they go to the mall and resume your suburban life...

---Brainwashed by the Discovery Channel many people touring some tribal areas speak of these communal people who practice hospitality and live in harmony with one another and in harmony with nature..... In reality, they fight nature tooth and claw and often lose (life expectancies of 40..etc). ......


Things that cannot be communicated with a two week trip:

.....getting ripped off by the locals WEEKLY (this week included), having a drunk take a swing at you as you pass him on your motorcycle (last week), having your guide almost get shot by an arrow and told that he would be murdered in his sleep (two weeks ago), having your leg infected and puffy from leechebite infections (last month), having a begger try to force his way into your home past your wife looking for money while you are hiking interior (2 months ago), not being able to produce a formed turd even once in a two week period because you have a case of worms (mmm...reported to me by a "close friend"...), having a teammate possibly about to be evacuated out of the country due to dangerous dengue (today),..... and the feeling of wanting to choke the very people you are trying to love ...........all of these things cannot be expressed in a 2 week trip.


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## Guido's Brother (Dec 26, 2007)

Like you folks, I've seen both the good and evil of STMs. Personally, my previous service as a full-time missionary had a lot to do with an STM I went on to Suriname in 1992. Today I serve in a large, vibrant Reformed church with a lot of zeal for missions. We have a Short-term Mission Committee on which I serve. In the second week of January, I'm leading a small team of young adults to Quebec City to work with L'Eglise Reformee du Quebec there. As part of our preparation, I've led the team through David A. Livermore's Serving With Eyes Wide Open: Doing Short-Term Missions With Cultural Intelligence. While not everything in the book is of equal value (and some of it is even like nails on a chalkboard to a Reformed believer), if you are hosting or participating in a STM, you should insist that everyone involved reads this book. It's a balanced treatment of the subject that avoids the excesses of another standard book on the subject, Peterson, Aeschliman and Sneed's Maximum Impact Short-Term Mission. 

I've also written a couple of articles on the subject. If anyone is interested, send me a private message with your e-mail address and I'll send them along.


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## a mere housewife (Dec 26, 2007)

It seems too that a lot of times these teams are very overwhelming for the missionary's wife who winds up doing much of the cooking and organization to accommodate them; I've been told that the teams that help the missionaries with special projects (like building their homes) worked hard and were worth the effort while the ones that come to pass out tracts and sightsee basically (something that happens in Mexico a lot) and put on musical services require a far more staggering amount of work than they return, are difficult to keep busy, have not materially helped the ministry, and one is rarely so relieved as to see them all get in the van and pile off again. These were with fundamentalist churches so perhaps the experience would widely vary with other groups.

One rather distressing aspect of the last mission team to our congregation in Mexico was that our congregation raised 200 or so American dollars for these BJU college students (over 2,000 pesos): our congregation being composed of people who go for days to weeks without gas to fuel their stove because they can't pay for it, literally often do not know where their breakfast or dinner is coming from. We weren't there and though that sounds just like them and I wouldn't want to take away their reward with God, we were rather upset to hear about it. All the mission teamers went to a rather expensive American university and were leading the comparatively luxurious American lifestyle, yet accepted money from a congregation that mostly had to take the bus probably standing 40 min home because they can't afford cars, to houses put together sometimes out of pieces of things, this while sick with many health problems because they can't afford healthcare etc. I thought mission teams were supposed to be the ones giving to the church they go to help. The thing is that it was a sort of culmination of special services in which they did a lot of extrabiblical things to emotionally work the people up (they didn't ask for the money, but obviously some had given something of a sob story to our poverty level people), the grand effect of which seemed largely to be that some people were too worn out to make it on Sunday. I don't honestly see how this kind of mission team contributes to the church (or yes, how they go away with any realistic idea, what with all the 'special' events that have exhausted the church community and interrupted regular activity, what daily life in the foreign country is really like).


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## Semper Fidelis (Dec 26, 2007)

Heidi,

{sigh}

I don't mean to seem like a grouch but your post highlights what is wrong with the American Church. I try not to always sound like the guy in the crowd that is critical of every idea but sometimes there is just so much to reform that it gets overwhelming.

Christians have this tract and performance mentality where they see skits and soccer games and music performances as essentially a "missionary activity".

For years our Church had invited a group to come visit called "The Covenant Players". They are a performance group that goes into Churches and perform these little skits and fancy themselves as spreading the Gospel. They've been doing it for two decades.

Well they came to our Church 2 years ago and I was underwhelmed to say the least. The acting was terrible and pretentious but, worse yet, I wasn't even sure what they were trying to present.

We met later that year and the secretary had received a note asking if we wanted them to return. I piped in and mentioned that I thought their Gospel message was poor. The Church agreed and we thanked them for the offer but declined mentioning that we thought their presentation of the Gospel was not very good. 

I just don't understand how Americans ever got it in their head that cool music or a touring band of teenagers singing songs about Jesus or strong men ripping phonebooks in half causes the Gospel to be spread. It fits with the American mentality of convenience for sure because it requires no real effort or work and is fun to do. You don't have to get involved in their lives and, because you left them smiling at the performance, you leave with a warm feeling in your heart that, somehow, this person was given a lifetime of discipleship (what the Great Commission demands) by your two hour performance.

I'm sorry but I'm in between disgust and tears at how poor the theology of most Christians is.


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## a mere housewife (Dec 26, 2007)

SemperFideles said:


> I'm sorry but I'm in between disgust and tears at how poor the theology of most Christians is.



I know. My own self very much included. I'm so glad Christ came to save sinners, or none of us Christians would have any hope. I agree completely, about the inadequate views of what constitutes spreading the gospel.

Incidentally I went as a mother's helper for six months as a teenager to Mexico. I didn't go for 'missions', and God saved me during that time, but it did help me to have a much more realistic view of the home life in the culture last year. I think a lot of missionary's wives, esp. those who homeschool, might be glad to have mother's helpers; and it might be a good thing to encourage with girls who are considering the 1 week tract-music-soccer thing. It's more of an opportunity to help in a practical way with daily routines that often take longer in poorer cultures, sometimes freeing the wife up for language study or to do some things with her husband she might otherwise not be able to do; and while you're not giving the gospel via skits in the park, you have more of an opportunity to really fellowship or witness via longer relationships to people in the area or church.


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## Pergamum (Dec 26, 2007)

I am trying to be optimistic.... but I think I need to go take a Prozac after these posts above....sorry Heidi about your experience.

In the face of feeling these same low and awful feelings about the church at large, I do have a hope of a change.

There does seem to be a calvinistic resurgence in the Western Church, and this is first happening at the mission level (a very high percentage being sent out are Calvinists.

For instance, among Southern Baptists 30% of seminary graduates report themselves to be Calvinisits this past year....woohoo).

Ha, maybe a split off thread could be started about the resurgence of Calvinism in our times. This is occurring big time among Baptists.


We think things are bad, but actually things are shifting and the West is starting to return to true doctrine - at least some portions.... the others just fall so far off the edge that they cease even being taken seriously. 

I hope I am not merely being a Pollyanna here.....


If missionaries and foreign pastors would take a purposeful oversight over any short term missions that they support and even stand on not helping out badly planned ones, then they can change the thinking on the home front. 

If they can initiate and start and have some sort of oversight into these trips, then they can shape these young people and knock them out of their young ignorance. These young people are merely products of their environments and so many want to do right, if they were given the correct oversight.

If a badly planned or hokey group comes without your invitation and expects to "do ministry" in your church refuse them based on John 3. 

If they want to come and have you as a host, then this gives you the power to shape their activities, especially if you are their hosts. Kill their bad methods through kindness, ofer to host themif they are willing to conform to your churchs needs and them use that as an occassion to better inform them about what ministry means in your local context. 

If they are sincere in helping you and not merely showing off their supposed Spiritual gifts, I believe that they would cancel a dance number if this was planned and conform to your expectations as you put them to work in real ministry situations.

I would like to think that tract ministry and such is the best that they can think of to do and they engage in this because they are really trying to be as helpful as possible. If they were counseled and taught even from Stateside before they left, perhaps we could shape their thinking, utilize them more, and minister to them, and allow them to do some small and substantial ministry wherever they go...

So, since short term missions is the missioloigcal fad of our times, instead of shrinking from them, I think we should engage it head on and try to shape the groups of young people coming out. Since this time often is a pivotal time for them, perhaps the words of a foreign pastor or missionary can help slow the influence of the American church.


For instance, Rich, if there was a solid pastor in your SBC church in Japan, then the church could actually advertize for short term mission trips come, under certain criteria that some pre work was done prior and some counseling was done during the trip. Only certain types of youth would be allowed. Then, as 20 SBC youth come into your church for a week or two, you get some free labor and every night these youth could be taught - in a week's time -more truth than they might receive in a year at their home churches back home. Youcould systematially lead them through soteriology and a biblical theology of missions. I.e. your Japanese church could engage in missionary work to our sending countries....and evangelize these youth groups as they come through.



signed,

Pollyana Pergy


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## etexas (Dec 26, 2007)

Pergamum said:


> I am trying to be optimistic.... but I think I need to go take a Prozac after these posts above....sorry Heidi about your experience.
> 
> In the face of feeling these same low and awful feelings about the church at large, I do have a hope of a change.
> 
> ...


I LIKE the addition of Pollyana to this! You are getiging back to your old self Perg , Think you should make that part of your sig!


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## Pergamum (Dec 26, 2007)

Hmmmm, Pollyanna Pergy.... call me peepee!


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## etexas (Dec 27, 2007)

Pergamum said:


> Hmmmm, Pollyanna Pergy.... call me peepee!


....Well, you might get tired of it!


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## RamistThomist (Dec 27, 2007)

SemperFideles said:


> I just don't understand how Americans ever got it in their head that cool music or a touring band of teenagers singing songs about Jesus or strong men ripping phonebooks in half causes the Gospel to be spread. It fits with the American mentality of convenience for sure because it requires no real effort or work and is fun to do. You don't have to get involved in their lives and, because you left them smiling at the performance, you leave with a warm feeling in your heart that, somehow, this person was given a lifetime of discipleship (what the Great Commission demands) by your two hour performance.
> 
> I'm sorry but I'm in between disgust and tears at how poor the theology of most Christians is.



You just described my high school experience in youth group. While I wasn't Calvinist, I knew that something was wrong with "the church experience." Our church went to Canada for "mission work." We put on some really awesome puppet shows and sang some corny songs about how Jesus is the love of my life. 

But even worse, we got to write this off as "laboring for the gospel." Sad thing is, said church still does these ineffective, time-consuming and relatively expensive endeavors. 

Granted, we went to a relatively affluent section of Canada so we avoided a disaster similarly to what Heidi referred.


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