You’ve applied for the trip, bought the team T-shirt, packed and repacked your carry-on twice. You’ve sent out letters to loved ones, using words like “called” and “Great Commission." It's only for a week or two, and you'll be making such a difference. Basically, you’re 100 percent (pretty) sure you’re supposed to do this.
But have you truly considered the risks? Before you kiss Mom and Dad goodbye and board that plane, here are seven ways short-term mission trips will wreck your life.
1. You will fall in love.
You will connect with people in bursts, yet lack of time will leave those connections feeling fragmented. Compassion grows quickly. Suddenly you’ll feel as if the kids you just played tag with have been your best friends for years, and the lady who so kindly cooked for you throughout the trip wants to adopt you into her own family. But real, fruitful relationships take time; they cannot be built in seven-, 10- or 14-day spurts. The love you feel for them? It’s most definitely real. And when it’s cut short, it’s most definitely painful.
2. The word "comfort" will be redefined.
When you return, the people and objects you expected to be familiar will seem distant. Awkward, even. Foods you couldn't wait to eat again will taste different. Your favorite songs will suddenly have different meanings. A good night’s sleep? Almost impossible, especially in that soft bed. Hot water, air conditioning and heat shouldn’t seem like such amazing phenomenons (after all, you weren’t gone that long). But the comforts you’ve known forever will lose their comfortability. It’s a natural occurrence, especially when you’re still trying to process everything you’ve seen.
3. You will see the body of Christ worshipping and serving as it should.
And that makes it hard to return to our Americanized churches, no matter how biblical they are.
4. Nothing ever goes as planned.
People will get sick, possibly robbed. Conflict will arise, and every expectation will not be met. More likely than not, your team will not be able to accomplish everything you set out to in such a limited amount of time. When people who are truly called to the mission field try to make their own plans, I think God chuckles a little. Probably a lot. Prayerfully following the Spirit is difficult at times and often includes ignoring the itinerary.
5. It will make you hard(er) to live with.
The mission-field destroys perspectives and builds them into something totally new. Everyday conversations—where should we eat? Which shoes should I wear? Why did he choose to preach that message?—simply don’t seem as interesting. But your need to withdraw yourself from these conversations isn’t often easily explained, and the ones you love oh so much may not understand. They’ll ask why you seem so depressed, or where your personality ran off too. It's not that you think you're above them, or that your travels make you superior somehow; it just takes time to not only talk about what you’ve experienced, but to re-engage in the culture you belonged to.
6. You will realize how inadequate you really are.
In some situations, you will be surrounded by people who truly and deeply know the Word. They study, pray and meditate it with an urgency that's unknown to you. People who are fierce about the heart of God will cross your path daily.
They will teach you how to serve, live and love their nation in a way that is honoring to the Lord. Their faith isn't a game, and it isn't a weekly ritual. They are imperfect and broken, but they'll be the first to tell you that their God isn't.And you thought you were going to teach them something.
7. It will infect everything (and yes, I mean everything).
What you'll see will eventually bleed into every area of your life, and just "playing church" won't be an option anymore. For a few short days, you'll watch the themes, commands and the love of the Word come alive right before your eyes. And when you return home, you'll see how God's plan is connected to every aspect of your life. Spoiler alert: It's not just on Sundays and Wednesdays, either.
These are just a few of the risks involved. There's still so much more to be said about the safety hazards, outrageous expenses and addiction factors (you thought it'd just be this one trip, didn't you?).
For the rest of us who are hopelessly lost to this cause, it's far too late. It's no longer compassion that motivates us to keep going back (in fact, we daydream about staying forever). God's mission, his desire and plans to draw people into his love and kingdom, far outshine and eliminate every discomfort and hardship that comes with these trips. The love you'll be able to give and experience is second to none.
Short-term missions are a command that cannot be ignored. And for many, they're a passion that cannot be quenched. Keep the list above in mind, but take the following to heart:
