Related Posts Plugin for WordPress, Blogger...

Saturday, March 23, 2013

Why Take a Mission Trip?


A lady was talking to my parents, my husband, and me. She mentioned that she’s considering taking a missions trip with her daughter. I encouraged her to do so.

This is why:

1. A mission trip is a blessing to missionaries on the field. A mission team, well equipped, organized, and funded can do more in one week than a missionary family can do in several months. You will be a help to their ministry.

2. A mission trip gets you outside your home country and lets you get a glimpse of somewhere else. The experience will let you see things as they are in another place and in another culture. You will learn about new foods and customs. You will begin to understand that there are several different ways of looking at things, and it will broaden your world-view.

3. A mission trip will burden you for others, especially those people you minister to. It will give you a vision for reaching the lost, wherever they are in the world. You will see spiritual needs in a way you never did before.

4. A mission trip to people who speak another language will sharpen your language skills. It might motivate you to learn that language and maybe to urge your children towards learning foreign languages.

5. A mission trip will help you appreciate the comforts at home, all the things you took for granted before you went. You will also be more appreciative of your church and the fellowship with other Christians. You will never complain about some things again.

6. A mission trip will move you to support missions with your giving—and maybe also with your life.

It’s a great idea to take the whole family on a mission trip, especially if the children aren’t too tiny. This way, the whole family helps together, serves together, and catches the missionary vision together.

I never got to take a survey trip or a mission trip before I took the plunge with my husband and baby daughter and moved overseas. Back in those days (29 years ago) travel was more difficult. But today, many people have opportunities to travel and to help missions.

I remember a group of young men, led by a missionary son, who stayed for a night or two at our apartment in Europe. They had all expressed some interest in maybe being missionaries. After seeing the field, two decided it would be too difficult for their wives to adjust to the kind of life they saw (hanging laundry on a line, living in small spaces, cooking from scratch, etc.) At least two are career missionaries today, one in Europe, and several are pastors who, no doubt, have a heart for foreign missions.

Visiting a mission field, especially with the purpose of helping, is a valuable way to find out what God is doing in another place. It helps you fulfill the Great Commission, and it will open your eyes to the fields beyond.

Therefore said he unto them, The harvest truly is great,
but the labourers are few: 
pray ye therefore the Lord of the harvest,
that he would send forth labourers into his harvest. 
(Luke 10:2)

Have you ever taken a mission trip? What did you learn that you would like to share? Please leave a comment. 

4 comments:

  1. Como sabes nunca he hecho un viaje misionero pero me encantaría poder hacerlo. El poder ayudar a otros en lo que necesiten, y poder ver como se se vive, trabaja y se hacen las cosas en otros lugares. Como el Señor, estés donde estés, te guía para que las almas de esas personas, sean salvas. :)
    Bendiciones

    ReplyDelete
  2. The only mission trip I took was with a youth group to a children's home here in the States. We did some work around their facilities, sang on their radio program, and and then spent an afternoon riding inner tubes down a river. :-) I signed up to go with a team to Haiti one Christmas, but the university squelched that because of my school bills -- they felt I should spend the time working to pay off debts before going on a mission trip. :-( I didn't understand the rationale then though I do now.

    It's encouraging to see a missionary encouraging mission trips! I think they're valuable for all the reasons mentioned. I had read some things in past years along the lines that mission trips are more of a problem than a help for missionaries as it breaks into their schedules, some groups want to be entertained or taken sight-seeing, etc. I can see how that might happen, but I think good communication on both sides ahead of time helps. Once one of mine was on a teen mission trip to Cameroon, and the missionaries were afraid they'd want to be "entertained." But they quickly finished all the tasks the missionaries had planned for them to do and proved themselves valuable helpers.

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. How interesting! I have a questionnaire I send to people interested in coming to visit us, so that we know ahead of time their expectations and needs and so that they know something about life where we live.

      We always try to do some fun sightseeing along with busy ministry. If someone pays to go thousands of miles to visit a different country, personally, I think that he should see something besides the inside of a missionary's home and church. :o) Even the cultural sights or experiences enhance the trip's success and the "whole picture" that people get.

      Cameroon would be so interesting. I'm sure your son learned much on that trip. (Quite a few of our church people are from a country near Cameroon.)

      Thank you, Barbara!

      Delete

Please share your thoughts.