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I found this article a couple of days ago, it tends to paint a very bleak picture of the efficacy of Short Term Missions. Although I do not completely agree with the authors conclusions, I do think that it raises some extremely valid points – it definitely reveals what a poorly unpacked STM mission trip can look like, here is the full article.

Study Questions Whether Short-Term Missions Make a Difference
Missionaries don’t keep giving after they return; hosts prefer money to guests, Calvin sociologist finds.

I just facilitated 3 international guests in a meeting with the Centennial Rotary Club of Calgary. While we were there, I met another visitor, a gentleman from Germany who explained to me that his company was in the process of developing an early warning system for SE Asia in the case of another earthquake induced Tsunami.

He gave me some very interesting statistics.

The quake opened a gash under the ocean 1200 km long. It opened the fault at a rate of 10 000 km an hour, it permanently shifted the two plates the distance of an 8 metre step. The wave formed was only 1 metre high, but it was 100 km long. The tremors shook Europe by an average of 2 cm in height.

Incredible power and devastation. He went on to say that they knew of the quake in Germany within 15 minutes of it’s start, yet most of the devestation happened in coastal areas, 3 hours later. There were no mechanisms for warning the people.

I recently had written a couple of ’sorta’ similes, here another ’sorta’ similes that a friend of mine used in a sermon recently.

The little boat gently drifted across the pond exactly the way a bowling ball wouldn’t.

Often I have either listened to, or been a part of the debate revolving around short term versus long term international engagement. I believe that I am a short term worker, albeit, with a long term focus … but the debate rages as to what a truly effective usage of international aid – time and dollars look like.

I do not want to fuel the fire of seperation, I believe that both, when done with excellence are effective and necessary. There are both good and bad long term and short term missions. But here is an interesting question, Biblically, what example do we see regarding missions? Was most missions long-term or short-term?

I just found www.postsecret.blogspot.com, the site is almost best thought of as a confessional booth. A place that strangers send postcards with their thoughts, from the pithy to the profound.

I was recently on the Wikipedia site and came across this definition:

Short-Term Missions (STM) is a trend in Christian missions that is mobilizing thousands as missionaries for short periods of time ranging from days to a year.

I added my own changes, and you can do the same. Wikipedia is the ultimate in definition democracy. Change any term you wish!… here is the rest of the definition

I am hosting an incredible tour for CAUSE Canada right now. We just had our first event, one of our guests, Jepamani from Sri Lanka shared her story of what it was like to be present when the Tsunami hit her village. She talked about what she heard, saw and smelled over those early days, and she continued to share how they still live in tents today … Five and a half months after the wave.

All too often we hear from media, or from missionaries. This tour is helping share the stories of the actual members of the margins. Those heros who live there today and will continue to live there into the future, supporting and helping those around them

It was a powerful night. I only wish that everyone could hear from our guests firsthand.

I recently read an entry on a friends website, and came across this paragraph:

I emptied my folder on holiness. I still believe in holiness, perhaps more now than ever. But something about that file wasn’t holy at all – maybe I could have transferred everything over to a new folder and call it ‘moralism’. One of the articles had the picture of a famous preacher from times past who preached holiness but lived a reprobate life, as we came later to know. This is discouraging of course, but maybe it is better to see this development as enlightening. Everything in that old file I labeled ‘holiness’ seemed to preach perfection, and the things it enjoined were already passe. I did not close the folder but left it open for something more refreshingly Biblical – the work of God for sinners like me. I believe in holiness. I didn’t open a new file on moralism.

I thought it was a great thought … I know that I have been wrestling with this thought. So much of what we consider holiness unfortunately often simply serves to keep us away from getting involved in the world that Jesus loves so much … and no, I am not writing this thought because I am ’struggling with some sort of holiness issue’ myself at the moment, and tryng to justify it …

Does our struggle to remain holy simply serve to give us a list of ‘do not’ behaviours … sounds a lot like legalism, rather than the freedom of Christ that asks us to ‘do’ things. Anyways, these are my quick thoughts, I always love to know yours. Feedback makes me happy!

Anyways, here is the link to Bob check out his thoughts.

Specifically, about packing very little. Here are some great hints and techniques to help in determining how much to bring, what to bring it in, and how to get it all in …

I found a great illustration that describes the cycle that we go through when we find ourselves in a cross-cultural situation … i think the interesting thing is that at any point of the cycle, we can choose to follow the high or the low reactions.

The link to the site where I found this is here.