The Persecuted Church Weblog has two excellent posts up for anyone involved in international missions.

“No, I do not believe that persecution is the greatest threat to the continuing spread of the gospel. I am much more concerned about something that, at first glance, seems benign and even helpful but which I contend is far more insidious. I am referring to the dependency creating practices that ministries are increasingly promoting in the name of “partnership.””

In Why Am I Concerned About Dependency? and the follow-up But Is It Biblical? (Dependency Part 2) author Glenn Penner walks us through some of the issues that come up when a church is dependent on western aid and offers suggestions for what he sees as a more biblical approach to helping churches without financial resources. As the name implies, his blog is focused on Christians in closed countries but the points in these posts apply anytime there is “dependency on western resources to spread the gospel.”

Found via Michelle in the Ukraine.

We’ve had posts about why people go on mission trips, what you need to believe if you’re leading one, and who to partner with on the field. Because so many mission trips these days have a strong construction focus, I thought it was time for some practical advice on how to take on these projects with a group of enerjetic, unskilled, volunteers from your church. Here are ten quick tips I’ve picked up organizing and working with teams here in Tijuana [...]

Below is a list of the three most common options for organizing a mission trip to Mexico (most of this applies to other countries too). Each have their own unique advantages and disadvantages — no one is better than the other. The job of a group leader is to know his group’s strengths and weaknesses — especially his leadership and organizational abilities — and to decide who to work with based on that [...]

When I heard Felipe Calderon, the new president of Mexico, was sending 3000 troops to Tijuana in an attempt to clean up the corruption and curb drug related murders I was ecstatic. I figured the city would be a safer place and, as a byproduct, more mission trip groups would be willing to come down and do ministry with us. Well, it looks like I was wrong — at least for the short-term. This morning the message on my answering machine was from a group in Southern California saying that due to the military involvement in the city they were canceling their trip that was scheduled for mid February.

On a friend’s recommendation I watched Born Into Brothels last night. This documentary is about the children of prostitutes living in Calcutta’s red light district. Not something you want to rent for family movie night.
The film had some dramatic and shocking scenes in it but what struck me the most is that they probably could have made a nearly identical movie in Tijuana’s own Zona Roja[...]

One morning earlier this summer I went to the orphanage I work at to greet a church group that had arrived for a weekend mission trip. After making the rounds chatting with the members that made up the small team of ten adults I started talking with the leader about the different projects they [...]

A friend of mine recently returned from Mozambique after a two year stint with the Peace Corps. He brought back amazing stories of life in the African nation, some intriguing views on Christian missions in the area, and a three page document that is the focus of this article. 25 Tips for Peace [...]

Does distance traveled play a role in how successful your mission trip is? Are you going to have a greater impact spiritually on those you serve if you go to Africa rather than Guatemala? To Guatemala rather than Mexico? Will you grow in the Lord more if you travel further?

Shortly after I arrived on the scene in Tijuana I was tasked with hosting a group that was down on a mission trip. Not knowing what that was I just rode around with them taking them to the different ministries we worked with in the city. As we drove from site to site [...]