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Have you prepared just enough for this trip to make you dangerous? Learned the 10 basic language lessons, discovered the strange cultural customs, worked your way around a map of the country, and prepared your ministry objectives as fully as possible. Your preparation, coupled with the faith of those sending you may even give you the sense that the situation although difficult, should somehow, somewhere have a relatively simple solution.

The very nature of a short-term trip often spells out an unspoken version of the world. A version that suggests that resources and/or information is the basic commodity missing from the situation, discover the problem and fix it and all should be well. We operate like a large appliance repairman, “ we enter with a certain expertise and set of tools, find the problem and fix it – ˜good as new”! That version may best be illustrated by the common phrase spoken by most short and mid-term missions participants: “Why don’t they just…

The attitude is this: the problem is significant, but through resources, hard work and modern insight, we should be able to promote long-term solutions. In short, It is simply the prerogative of the short-termer to aid in the discovery of the root of the issue, develop some solutions, articulate and clearly teach those solutions to local peoples, and finally follow up to see how they are following through on the process. Much of this version of the world may only be true simply because the short-term worker has a clearly defined (short) time frame in which they can work.

Missionaries of every type have had to face these issues. In essence the question comes down to more than the resources we hold in our hands, the better question may be, “As we prepare to go, what do we need to bring, and what should we leave behind?”

What do you refuse to take on short-term missions?

Mark Crocker