Christianity Today

There is an article in Christianity Today online, at www.ctlibrary.com/34558, and it talks about short-term mission trips, particularly ones that are around one to two weeks long. A man named Kurt Ver Beek talks about how he views these trips, and how he thinks they affect both the people going on the trips, but also the one being witnessed to and affected by it. Here is a little clip from what her wrote:

"Just how big is short-term missions (STM)? As a grass-roots, decentralized movement, its scope is difficult to determine. And yet your own estimate of between 1 million and 4 million North American short-term missionaries every year may well be a conservative estimate. The sociologist Christian Smith, based on national random survey data, reports that 29 percent of all 13- to 17-year-olds in the U.S. have "gone on a religious missions team or religious service project," with 10 percent having gone on such trips three or more times."

He talks more about what happens when the week is over? And I agree, that this is something that needs to be addressed, and it is very possible to get back to our daily lives and forget everything that impacted us. But I truly believe that it can affect people in real ways, and can change their lives forever. It did for me; my life was never the same after I went to Nett Lake. I know it is similar for many other people as well. It's just something that differs with each individual. It can happen that as soon as we get home, everything is back to normal, and we may never go to that place again. Or we may be changed, and think about that place, and go back every year for 10 years. Who knows? But if people give up before they even start, then we never will.