The benefit of short-term missions

“Therefore go and make disciples of all nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit, and teaching them to obey everything I have commanded you. And surely I am with you always, to the very end of the age.” (Matthew 28:19-20)

This Saturday, NewLife will be sending a team of six individuals down to Ecuador to work alongside Jessica Wojcik, one of our missionaries and a member of our church family. Please join me in praying that God would do wonderful things in and through them this week, encouraging the believers in Ecuador and leading many to faith in Jesus.

One of the realities of short-term missions is that it often ends up being of more benefit to the ones who go than it does to the ones on the receiving end. In fact, when the mission is not well thought through, it can at times do more harm than good to those who are supposed to be “benefiting” from the mission. The benefits to those who go, however, can be life-changing, including an increased love for the people of the world, an experience of God doing extraordinary things, a gratitude for what one has, an awareness that God can use even us, and an increased God-centered perspective on life.

One of my first experiences in short-term missions was as a 24 year-old youth pastor at NewLife, leading a team of 12 teens down to the Bronx. At the time, our youth group was made up of mainly freshmen and sophomores, and so I wanted to find a mission opportunity close to home. Through a connection that Pastor Peter Dewberry had, we ended up getting trained by Children First Ministries to learn a vacation Bible school program, which we led first at NewLife, and then in the Bronx. Through Children First Ministries, we were put in touch with a couple in the Bronx, Rob and Josie Cole, who wanted to start a children’s outreach in their community. And so, we made plans to travel down to the heart of the Bronx in early July of 2000.

Now, I grew up in the suburbs and went to college at UConn in rural Storrs, Connecticut. The Bronx sounded exotic to me, but I truly had no idea what I had signed my youth group up for. It truly was another world for our group. And, just to add to the challenge, Rob Cole called me the week before we were to leave to ask me to pray, because there had been some gang shootouts in the park in which we would be doing our children’s outreach, and as a result no kids were coming into the park any more. Being the conflict-avoidant person that I am, I prayed – and decided not to tell the kids or their parents.

And so, we all climbed in a 15 passenger van, and I drove our little group down to East 221st Street in the Bronx. Our first day in the park was brutally hot, close to 100 degrees. When we entered the park, there was not one child playing there. With our battery-powered sound system, we sang along to children’s worship songs while Josie Cole yelled in the microphone, inviting children to come out to the park. Curious faces peered out at us from the tall buildings surrounding the park. By the end of the first day, we had a few kids. By the end of the week, there were plenty more children coming regularly, and out of that week was born Everlasting Hope Ministries, with the tag line “No matter what, there’s always hope.”

For the next few years, we were blessed as a church to be able to support Everlasting Hope Ministries financially and with frequent visits. Eventually we drifted apart. I believe the ministry is still in operation as part of the church Rob Cole is pastoring, New Life in the Bronx on Williamsbridge Road. But the blessings to me and to the teens who went have endured. We learned that God honors steps of faith, that He is greater than the enemy, and so we should not walk in fear. We learned that serving God gives a greater sense of satisfaction than simply living for ourselves. And we learned that there is a place for partnering with under-resourced people who have a heart to do ministry, so that together we might advance the kingdom of God.

If you have never taken a step of faith towards missions, I would encourage you to consider it. If you don’t know where to begin, speak with someone on our missions committee, or someone on the Ecuador team. As a church, we have always been eager to financially support individuals who are willing to follow God on to the mission field. Consider how you can be a part of fulfilling God’s great commission, to go and make disciples of all nations.