Changing Yourself - Part 5

I like to ask people what they believe is the point of short-term missions. The most common response is that short-term missions changes the people that go on the trip, more than it changes the people that they are trying to affect. I wholeheartedly agree with this. I wouldn't be in Guatemala right now if it wasn't for coming on that one-week trip when I was just a freshman in high school. I wouldn't be learning all these lessons about short-term missions without going on one myself.

I believe it is important for people to learn from short-term trips. But I also want to make myself clear: did it change you for a few weeks or for life? It is all too often that I see people go through the steps. They go on the trip, they post about it on social media, they talk about it for a few weeks, and slowly, they forget about it, until their next missions trip. We say we will change our ways after a trip, but how often do we? How many people go back and build relationships with the most impoverished in their community? How many people decide to pursue long-term missions because of it?

I am just as guilty of this as the next. There is a huge population of Guatemalans, the people I have connected with, right in my community. They even have a church. I could have reached out to them, but instead, I used the excuse that I was too busy and didn't know Spanish yet. I didn't even think of the fact that my short-term mission three years ago should have pushed me to do this. If I could go back, I would have reached out to them, and tried to build relationships with them. I made this mistake, and so many others do too. But we don't have to keep making the same mistake. We can change this.

People often say short-term trips lead to long-term missionaries. And again, I won't refute this. After I came for a week, years later, I came for longer periods of time. However, in the past decade, there is a boom of short-term missions. So there should be a boom in long-term missionaries too, right? Wrong. Over the past few decades, the number of long-term missionaries has stayed steady. People can keep defending short-term missions in this way, but sadly, it's not the truth.

Lastly, short-term missions are a very expensive way to change yourself, especially if this change doesn't last. The Gospel Coalition states that in 2005 alone, $2.4 billion was spent on short-term trips, each averaging about eight days long. This huge amount of money is more than the GDP of over 20 countries. I am sure that this number has only grown, as the amount of short-term missions has grown since 2005. It's wonderful that Christians in the Western culture are willing to give this much money to missions. But can you imagine how that could affect impoverished countries if it was given to the right organizations in the right places?

So if our trips to impoverished countries are changing us, why can't we see a difference in our communities? Short-term missions isn't about your posts on social media. It's not about the kids that you met for a few days. It's not about you. It's about sharing Christ's love wherever you go. It's said "missions is right in your backyard," but that seriously could not be more true. If we can take off a week or two of work or school for a trip, why are we often too busy for people around us? Maybe we need to slow down and simplify our lives, so we can make time for building relationships, sharing Christ, and serving others right in our community.