Long-Term Effects

I wanted to respond to the letter in the last RP Witness which indicated that we as a denomination (through RP Global Missions) could spend our money better than on short-term missions. I couldn’t disagree more…

I went on one short-term mission team in 2001.  As a result, I moved to Scotland to help the Airdrie RP Church and have lived and worked here for over 8 years. Every summer, our church receives a short-term missions team and has done so for over 10 years.…The cumulative effect has resulted in many of our young people staying in the church rather than leaving; becoming saved rather than giving up on the church; going on mission teams themselves; being interested in long-term missions as a career; and ministering to those in the church who are younger than themselves. Not to mention those in the community who have been visited by a mission team member, then followed up by a church member, and eventually become a member of the church.  Or those who have gone on a short-term team and ended up moving to that place to serve (myself included)—Heather Huizing, Jenny Baumgardner, Rob and Jess Edgar, and others.…

It is dead-on that our young people ought to serve in their own churches, but it is my own experience and that of many, many others I have met over the last 10 years that there is nothing like a short-term team to enthuse, inspire, and refuel our young people to be excited about their own home church. 

And the whole point of our short-term missions is that short-term ministry can be followed up, because after the team goes, the church carries on.

—Karen Reyburn Airdrie, Scotland

Young People and Missions

Veterans of 18 short-term mission trips sent from four different mission organizations, we found ourselves offended by the recent Comment entitled “Too Short-Term?”

While there is an element of maturity that must be present in order to do gospel ministry, there is no biblical reason why young people should not participate in building up the bride of Christ beyond their own congregation. It is our collective experience that churches are prepared and greatly benefit from mission teams. It is our experience that churches excel in following up after mission trips end. It is our experience that God provides generous saints from across denominational lines who give beyond their normal giving.

Praise almighty God that He has allowed us to serve Him! Without the short-term mission experience that He has given us in Europe and other parts of America, we would have not nearly the ability nor the motivation to do ministry within our own congregations. God has used missions to transform our lives from atheism (Barry) and ignorant Christianity (Taylor, Will) to a more gospel-centered understanding of our faith. As the understanding of our justification from God increases, so does the desire to spread the good news. With every short-term mission trip that we have participated in, we have gained more and more tools with which to understand and share. Short-term mission experience has been invaluable in our long-term mission—that is, to serve God that His name may be more greatly proclaimed in our lives and more greatly glorified throughout the whole earth! Amen.

–Taylor Gordon Pittsburgh, Pa. (RPCNA)

–Barry Dreier Rock Hill, S.C. (ARP)

–Will Miller Gilbert, S.C. (UMC)