Two Reasons to Go on a Short Term Mission Trip

I’ve be going on and leading short-term mission trips with AIM for about five years now.

 

What started as an event in which I was a mere bystander has turned into a lifestyle in which I am a full-fledged participant. I think we all go through this paradigm shift as we experience more of God’s kingdom.

 

As you begin your journey, usually a short term mission trip looks more like a glorified service project than it does Matthew 10 (i.e. healing sickness, casting out demons, preaching the gospel).

 

But as you go, you begin to change, and the journey becomes more powerful, more meaningful.

 

Why Short Term Missions?

There are two basic reasons why Adventures in Missions does missions. They are:

1. Short term mission trips teach you to pray.

When you’re faithfully serving God, you puts you into situations that cause you to have to rely more heavily on him. You learn how to pray — really pray — in the mission field.

 

Of course, it doesn’t have to be overseas in order for this to happen, but stepping out in faith often stretches us in new ways, which causes greater dependence on the Lord.

 

One of the main goals of an AIM trip is to teach you how to recognize God’s voice and respond to it. We believe that all fruitful ministry comes out of a place of relationship with the Father. You need something more.

 

Eventually, you come to a point or situation where pat answers and cliches don’t do much. This is where listening prayer comes in.

2. Short term mission trips expose you to God’s kingdom.

There is another reality — a spiritual reality — that we Americans and westerners know so very little about. We’re taught to dismiss it, to rationalize it, to explain it away.  When you step into an area of the world where the poorest of the poor live, where witchcraft and sorcery are practiced, where there is tremendous physical need and spiritual hunger, you meet this reality.

 

How does one confront this reality?  Jesus told us that that the kingdom of God is in us.

 

A short term mission trip is your opportunity to expose that reality with that piece of heaven inside yourself, as we often pray: …Your kingdom come, your will be done on earth as it is in heaven…

 

In my own short journey, I’ve experienced these two powerful reasons for going on a short term mission trip. And I’ve seen others experience them, as well.

 

This is God’s intention — to introduce you to his voice and expose you to an alternate reality so that you can stop being a  bystander and start being a participant in your world and God’s kingdom.

 

 

 

For more, read: Why Go On An AIM Mission Trip?