Where's the Return?

By Donna Messenger

Expectations - every short-termer poses the same question, "What will I be doing?" You want to know what tasks will be yours, how you will contribute to the overall ministry of the field you visit, and what will be the return for your investment. You want to make a difference.

What kind of value can be calculated from short-term missions trips? Does a church construction team building a hospital in Africa have a higher return than a college student's summer in Paraguay? Is there enough value if a pastor visits missionaries simply to encourage them, or does he need to teach a seminary course to make best use of the time and money spent?

Many times the greatest impact of short-term trips occurs in the lives of the people who go. If you are able to get acquainted with some nationals, learn from them directly and be a blessing in their lives - praise God for that privilege. But don't count the trip a failure if you "only minister to missionaries." You may provide much-needed encouragement that keeps them going for the next months or years.

The task of missions is so great that all of us are needed - career missionaries, AMPers, Impact and Expedition teams, and individuals and church groups who go for a very short time frame. God wants to use us all.

Church Missions Trips
From three pastors' perspectives

Pastor Clare Jewell, Lakewood Park Baptist Church, Auburn, Indiana

• The young people who traveled to Ukraine were greatly impacted by the trip. Most of those kids are continuing to pursue God's leading in their lives.
• Another couple is considering missions because of the testimonies given by people who went.
• Now I'm a lot more missions-minded. These trips make you more aware and more confident of how your support money is being used. If pastors would take short-term trips, it would expand the whole church's view of missions.

Pastor Dave Cunningham, High Point Baptist Chapel, Geigertown, Pennsylvania

• Missions trips change the way church members look at missions and the way they look at.their own role in the work of Christ. They hadn't thought they could teach Sunday School before, only swing a hammer.
• Missions trips make our prayer list living color!

Pastor Brad Brandt, Wheelersburg Baptist Church, Wheelersburg, Ohio

• God used our trip to encourage the missionaries and the Brazilians, but most significantly to expand the perspective of our team members for world evangelization.
• The effects of that trip to Brazil (2001) continue to this day for our church.

Check out ABWE's current short-term missions opportunities at www.abwe.org/.

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