As that 20 year old revisiting as a missionary associate living in the country, I had the chance to attend a youth camp with the missionaries I was working with. We made it to the last day of the camp, and there were about 80-100 students sitting in a huge circle talking about how God had changed their lives over the course of the camp. I thought I recognized some of the kids but brushed it off and listened. One girl started crying and I assumed God was working on her. Then it was her turn to share and she turned to me and asked if I remembered her. She said that it was my short term team that kept her then struggling youth group of about 10 kids alive. She said that had we not spent the two days that we did working with them that the youth group wouldn’t exist. With tears in her eyes and looking around the circle she said, “This is my youth group now.” I was shocked when I realized all of these students were from that tiny church we had helped three years before.

The rest of the three months that I spent in Argentina I was on the receiving end of short term teams. My perspective of their role completely changed. It was crazy to see what happened after teams said their goodbyes. I saw how some teams were able to really change communities in ways that were lasting, in ways that no one else could. Of course there were teams that didn’t seem to accomplish much…but they seemed to be the exception, not the norm.

From that day forward I have had a new understanding of how God really can use short term missions to do things that maybe even the local church can’t do without a little help.

I know this wasn’t the entire focus of your blog, but for anyone who has felt like they should go, I say GO FOR IT! God definitely uses short term teams in powerful and different ways. I guess it just is never a one size fits all process for everywhere…

I think its a great thing to think on! I love your heart for the nations and your craving to be a missionary. I think the important thing here is the inner conversation about vulnerability and our motivations to do what we do.

I don’t think that you read this wrong at all. I think that as missionary there are alot of good questions that need to be asked. For example: Why do I want to go? What is there here that there isn’t at home? Am I running from things in my hometown, or is there something about being anyomous that makes me feel safe?

Also, simply recognizing that we can be “heros” or “missionaries” everywhere…which I recognize sounds trite, because every in the church has always said that. But I think there can be a bit of truth in looking at yourself and your motivations, and knowing if they can look differently than what you origionally expected.

You’re on your way to do amazing things girl!!

hmm… now i’m kinda seeing my one time evangelism and helping people out as kind of a ’short term mission’ where i rarely ever see the person again and the benefits for both people are more on a short term basis.

but then there are those who i’m around a lot like the people who live around me or even my roomates who are my close friends who can really make long term impact in my life.

however lets not discount the brief encounters and conversations with people because they can really make a difference too, isn’t that what started this in the first place?

you’re awesome and i love hearing what’s on your heart and seeing that you’re really wrestling with these huge issues

I mean, don’t get me wrong, I’m not bagging on internationalism…you’re talking to someone who can’t imagine spending her whole life in SoCal. I suppose my fear is that its easy to hide in that “international hero” role – to merely be temporary, flying by night and staying a short while. I think the thing that makes it amazing is when you can stay, when you can do the time over the long haul. And I think part of that looks like beginning in your inner circle of life – wherever that happens to be.

Maybe its just this – its easier to help strangers than it is to be great in the face of people who have known us for long periods of time.

I think its amazing how some good movies can show us so much about how to be a catalyst for change in our own worlds. In print, it really does seem like a simple concept..but when bringing it into practice in real life….woof…that’s a different conversation all together.

The heroic actions started with a desire to do the right thing. Batman started as a kid who experienced injustice in a very deep sense and was driven to make things right where he lived. But this desire took him to the other side of the world. He followed criminals to China or wherever they were. He even willingly went to jail and became a thief to learn how to think like them. He had to take himself out of his own community to learn what it was really like to fight crime. Then he came back to his home and changed the world.

I think there are some similar parallels with the spread of the Gospel and how Jesus came to us. He incarnated himself to live among his people to be with them and show them the way, then he left his followers to go reach their families and communities. But he also called them to go to the ends of the earth to preach the Gospel. To live as aliens in a foreign land and learn how to communicate the transcendent Gospel message. Paul is a great example of this. He stayed in places for monthes or years at a time, teaching and discipling until there were local leaders mature enough to carry on the work so he could move on to another place, and look at what happened. Within a few hundred years the small sect ruled the greatest empire in the world. So i think we need to look at both the local and international levels. How are over a billion Hindu’s and Muslims going to hear the Gospel and follow Jesus? Someone needs to go to them, and there aren’t exactly millions of indigenous believers in Pakistan who are thinking about how to reach the millions of Muslims in their country. This brings me to my second point.

Batman inspired others to stand up with him, especially Harvey Dent who worked on the ‘other’ side to do what he could. Batman started a chain reaction of pushing the crime bosses into a corner until a hero of their own emerged. He influenced people to take matters into their own hands and start changing their own worlds. This is how any movement starts. Someone is passionate or pissed off about something, and they plow the road so others can follow. Then it grows until it really starts making a dent in society, and we saw that in the Dark Knight. The crime bosses were scared when the people stood up and had a leader to follow.

So in a similar way, i think we need more people like you who have spent good amount of time serving in another country to see the other side of missions trips. We need more local heroes like you and those who inspired you like Angela who will take the baton and really start making a difference with what we know. Then as others follow my hope and prayer is that there will be a movement of people who are ‘everyday heroes’ who are moved by compassion to help people wherever they are, and those i believe will be the ones who devote their lives to being ‘Paul’s’ who spend significant amount of time teaching those who will teach others how to follow Jesus.