CHRISTIAN MISSIONS

Short-term mission work is rapidly growing in popularity for church youth groups and ministry teams. Many Christians agree that mission trips are helpful but admit that lack of preparedness—both cultural and spiritual—can hinder the true mission.

Approximately two million North Americans will go on short-term missions this year. Hundreds of thousands of these are teenagers who will be swinging hammers and pounding nails in places like Juarez, Mexico, and Choluteca, Honduras.

Our greatest need in Christianity is not necessarily for more short-term mission work, but for generating future missionaries and mission supporters through that exposure. This travel guide will direct and challenge you on topics like culture, flexibility, what you do and don’t have to offer, the biblical basis for mission work, relationships on the field, and ways to discover and use your gifts on your trip.

Whether it be short-term or for a lifetime, a missionary’s ultimate goal of reaching people has more to do with building relationships than making contacts. In order to do this, one must endeavor to be wholly like Jesus, who was gentle, pure, and kind; who hung out with the “untouchables”; who valued every individual He encountered; and who taught us how to truly love one another.