See this thought-provoking post
And here is the comment I left on her post
Short term missions
Negatives
Churches and individuals spend money that could have gone a loooong way in the third and fourth world on airfare to fly half way across the world to build and paint when local professionals could have done it for a fraction of the cost.
Positives
Many career missionaries, whom one hopes are loving and investing in those whom nobody else can or will invest in, start as short-term missionaries.
For children in orphanages, being hugged by a stranger for two weeks is better than not being hugged at all.
I have never been on a short-term mission. If I did, I would like to work with Heidi Baker in Mozambique as much for what I might be able to learn from her as for any benefit her orphans might receive from the love I will undoubtedly lavish on them.
Many career missionaries, whom one hopes are loving and investing in those whom nobody else can or will invest in, start as short-term missionaries.
For children in orphanages, being hugged by a stranger for two weeks is better than not being hugged at all.
I have never been on a short-term mission. If I did, I would like to work with Heidi Baker in Mozambique as much for what I might be able to learn from her as for any benefit her orphans might receive from the love I will undoubtedly lavish on them.
~ ~ ~
There is a certain amount of absurdity to it.
Middle-class Christians who have invested as much as they can to ensure their kids never have to live as those in Sudan or Chad, let’s say, send their children on mission trips to deprived areas of the world–trips on which they are not willing to accompany them, for the most part–hoping that by seeing poverty they will learn lessons of gratitude which the parents themselves have not learnt.
I have supported short-term missionaries if I have been wowed by their character–as an investment in them–but, on the whole, I believe investing in people who invest in communities for the long haul is far better.
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Hi Sarah, How was your week in Haiti? David asked, “Why should I offer the Lord a gift which costs me nothing?” When people get the whole cost of a mission trip/adventure paid for by others, that verse comes to mind.
This is one reason why I hated all the meetings I went to this spring in which we “prepared” to go to Haiti for a week by having endless discussions about fundraisers. In which if certain people in our group had spent as much time earning their own money as they did on plotting how to get other people's money, they could have earned just as much or more. And this is why I self- (really self, above and beyond my tithe) funded my trip…
I am excited to see what God will do next week.
Louise, self-financed trips , i.e. holidays which bless other people, rather than gawk at beauty are absolutely amazing and commendable. I should have made that clear. I guess I was referring to trips financed by churches or other Christians, and wondered about whether the money should have been directly invested in the third world.
And of course, I'm guessing all long-term workers in the three-quarters world started out as short-term workers.
Just a few random thoughts I threw out there, no offence meant.
I am sure your trip to SA will be a great blessing to you and others.
Also depends on where the money comes from- if you are funding yourself to go out there ( albeit with a Church group perhaps) to share your skills and love of Jesus with a community,then I think it is another example to take into account. When I say funding yourself, I mean literally out of your own pocket.
Perhaps people on short term- test the water to see if long term is for them?
I suppose when churches end up financing short-term missions for members and their kids it's ultimately a form of “tithing to ourselves” Larry Burkett's phrase, I think.
Self-financed mission trips of course are laudable, but they are often financed from church budgets or from parishioner's tithing budget with the very money would could have gone to the poor.
Of course, all money is God's–and I should not forget that. It was just interesting that Jamie's thoughts echoed my own quite closely!
This raises some interesting questions that I have faced myself. I have done a short term mission – and it was life changing for me. At least one other adult who went w/ me is now full time in the field, helping orphans in Ukraine. But we do spend a lot of money for results like this. I think each situation should be evaluated individually, and the goals of the mission should be clearly thought through. We should not kid ourselves about how much good we do “over there”, but we should not under appreciate how life changing it can be for those who go.
– Shae