Any Plans for the Year?
August 15 2011
Over the past fifteen years, several of the veterans for RP Missions has asked for opportunities to serve on the mission field for more than a standard 4-6 week mission trip. So to that end we are beginning to provide trips that range from 2 months to 2 years. If you would like to learn more about these longer opportunities and what is involved in applying to serve, then please keep reading…
Did you know that a majority of short-term mission trips today are less than one week in length! Certainly, there are some things that can be accomplished in a short one week trip, however, there are many more lessons that cannot possibly be learned when we identify a one week service project with “Missions.” Below we will look at those things that can be accomplished in one week, then we will look at the benefits associated with longer mission trips.
A one week trip is well suited for practical work (ex. painting a building) or even some outreach (ex. tract distribution or street evangelism). When host churches/Sessions identify such projects that need to be addressed, then a one week team can be requested and can be well suited to meet these types of needs. Such needs are also well suited for a church youth group or a congregation group to comprise the team. These types of groups can best prepare for a short-duration trip and can do much in advance of the trip to teach the participants some of the lessons needed in order to serve well under the authority of the local church. Due to the short duration of the trip, the types of relationships that will be formed in this one week trip are likely going to grow between team members than between the host congregation or those God puts across their path in the community. The likelihood of great personal challenges being faced and overcome is slim. The hope is that the accountability of others from one’s home congregation will continue to be used of God to teach lessons after the one week trip is completed.
As for those trips that are a month to two months in duration, certainly these trips can also be comprised of a youth, church, or school group, but often are comprised of individuals from across Christ’s kingdom. The diversity of the group can also lend to the teaching opportunities that are present in longer trips. First, with a diverse group there are bound to be many questions about biblical and doctrinal issues and how they are practically applied that will arise and which will stir the team to contemplate and seek to answer. This also provides opportunities for the team members to grow in their appreciation of the leadership which Christ has put in place in the host congregation as they raise such questions with the pastors and elders and labor together through God’s Word to understand what He has revealed. Second, these longer trips will better ensure that the team not only works at building relationships within the team, but will also make it possible to get to know the members of the host congregation as the team weekly joins them for worship, attends bible studies and prayer groups and as the team enjoys being in the homes of congregation members and also has opportunity to sharpen their own skills in showing hospitality as they would invite church members over to have a meal and to fellowship with the team.
A third benefit of the longer trips is that they take the participants beyond the initial “honeymoon” period of that one week trip where all is new and exotic and fun, and helps them to deal with the challenge of fatigue, to lean more intentionally upon Christ to get them through homesickness and through the frustrations that often accompany ministry when results aren’t seen at the rate that we may have romantically expected to observe. This grants the participant some valuable insights into the reality of the ministry that their own pastor and elders are about on a daily basis in their home congregations and gives the participant a better understanding of their need to be purposeful in upholding Christ’s servants in prayer as they go about the ministry which He has called them to.
An important fourth benefit of a longer trip is that experienced by the host congregation. They too get the opportunity to know the team members and to play a shaping role in preparing the next generation of Christian servants. The longer trips gives the host congregation greater insight into the motives of each of those who comprise the team and can help to eradicate that suspicion that the short-termer is only coming over to see a new country, purchase a kilt, drive on the left side of the road or to find a future spouse. Those weeks spent by the participant day in and day out laboring shoulder to shoulder with the church members provide innumerable opportunities for the church members to hear testimony of how Christ is at work in other areas of His kingdom and also to impart similar testimonies to the participants of what they have witnessed Christ doing in their congregation and in their local community.
How does a two month to two year mission differ from that of a shorter trip? Well, many of the lessons learned on the one to two month trips are again learned or at the very least better understood as one serves on an extended trip. The longer the trip, the greater opportunity exists for more lasting relationships being formed with the host church and with those God allows one to meet on the street or via door-to-door ministry. There is also time to reflect upon what is going on and what has happened to more clearly see how it is that God is fashioning the participant and to contemplate the practical implications of the lessons He is teaching and begin to work through how He would have those lessons be implemented when the participant returns home, or if the participant elects to further extend their time on site, or perhaps even come to understand whether God may be calling them to devote their life to His service in that location.
So, is RP Missions urging everyone to skip the one to two month trips and go straight for the two year commitment? No. Instead, RP Missions would first urge those interested in short-term missions to participate in one of those four to eight week trips, learn many of the mission lessons that such a trip can offer, then prayerfully consider if God would have you go on a longer mission. Another benefit of proceeding in this fashion is that it also gives RP Missions the benefit of seeing you evaluated by the congregation and Session that you served to know if it is the right time to encourage you onto a longer trip, or if some areas of weakness can first be addressed that will better equip you for service in the future that will benefit both you and the church you yearn to help.
If you would like to learn more about participating with RP Missions, please email Matt at .(JavaScript must be enabled to view this email address) or visit our website at www.rpmissions.org or feel free to call at (724)384-8327.
Comments
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Idalia 11:02am, 11/16/2011
I am forever iendbted to you for this information.
