Serve or Suffer?
About the Author
Ben spends most of his time working with underprivileged kids in Tijuana, Mexico, encouraging them to continue their education. He's an unofficial member of Iglesia Bautista Monte Horeb, which runs the elementary school, Centro Pedagógico Didaque.
The founder of a small missions organization told me: “Short-term mission trip volunteers come to serve, not to suffer.” There are a lot of theories regarding this topic, and I’m definitely not the expert. Nor do I land in one camp. Hopefully Mission Trip Coordinator Aaron will throw out his take in detail in an upcoming article. Till then, maybe I can cloud it up a bit.
Before I can address whether you should be in livin’ in luxury during your stay with a final stop-off at Disneyland, I think it’s vital to decide (or have the leader of the group decide) why you’re going. Most every ministry that works with short-term missions will decide this for you — so choose carefully. Are you coming to save the world? maximize your dollars? give your youth group a taste of what it’s like to be a missionary? learn about the culture? fix the culture? give because you’ve been blessed? take a trip because there’s a mission-trip fund? support one of your church sponsored missionaries? interlink a summer youth group water-ski trip with a little serving on the side? You decide.
Then question #2: What to do when you get there? Should you assess the gifts and talents of your group and put those in action out in the field? tackle a specific need and go for it? figure out who’s down there long-term and work alongside them — or work for them? Is your goal humanitarian/relief aid? spiritual aid? a ratio of the two?
So back to the original question on our plate: Should you be provided with as many of the comforts of home as feasible? Or should you sweat it out? Showers or B.O.? Tents or A.C.?
I’m not sure.
Sorry…by now you’re probably thinking, “That jerk! I just wasted my last 3 minutes, and all I get is a fence-straddler?” Maybe so, but can anyone definitively say that one side is golden and the other antiquated? Yes — you! You know what your team can bring to the table, and you know the need you’re trying to fill. If you don’t, do your research. Ask people who’ve taken previous trips to wherever it is you’re headed. Better yet, ask someone who lives where you’re going (foreigner or national).
No mission trip will be perfect. But a bit of brainstorming before you choose a ministry to team up with can’t be beat.