Reforming STM #12 – Orientation, Field, and Debrief

Hello friends.  I am sorry for the long break.  Here in the U.S. we’ve had a holiday and I’ve been a little busy with some other things.  But, let’s dig back into Reforming STM.

The Short-Term Mission Standards of Excellence have gone a long way towards helping people think about and practice better pre-field orientation and post-field debrief.  Those are fairly normal pieces to any STM experience.  I would say that most still do not VALUE these pieces like they should, so we often condense 5 pre-field lessons into a 1 hour orientation and call it good.  So, a general plea for both these pieces is simply to value them, give them the time they really need, and strive to make these pieces as powerful as the trip itself.

Now that I’ve got that out of the way, I want to comment on how these pieces should be affected by the end goal of mission; namely, to see the Church established among every people group on planet earth.  Think about it for a moment…

• If we were created in God’s image for this… (Gen 1.26-28; Isaiah 43.7)
• If Abraham/Israel were chosen for this… (Gen 12.1-3)
• If the Messiah came for this… (Is 49.6)
• If the end waits for this… (Matt 24.14; Rom 11.25, 2 Pet 3.3-12)
• If this is the message of all of Scripture… (Luke 24.44-49)
• If Jesus has commanded this… (Matt 28.18-20, Mark 16.15, Acts 1.8)
• Is His blood has purchased this… (Rev 5.9 and 7:9)

Then is there really such a thing as “short-term” mission.  Absolutely not.  Every STM trip exists to advance THE mission, GOD’S MISSION.  So, if your STM doesn’t help every person going on it find their ONGOING, LONG-TERM role in God’s eternal plan, then you have not been a faithful steward of God’s resources and people.  That’s a hard pill to swallow, isn’t it?!

But our people have to hear things like:

During Orientation: The Sovereign God is taking you to another culture, not so you can have an interesting experience or a fun time, but so that you can discover your ongoing role in his global, eternal purposes.  It’s just a few days of your life, but God intends for it to change the rest of your life in radical ways.  Do not go on this trip if you think your mission involvement will be done at the end of it, and do not go if you do not intend to allow God to completely rewrite your life plan.

On the field: We are here in a country that is different from ours in many ways, but it has thousands of churches and perhaps millions of Christians.  God didn’t bring you hear just so you would enjoy this place and want to serve this place.  He brought you hear to give you an idea of what it might look like to serve Him cross-culturally, and He is calling His people to not just go where we’ve always gone, but to take the Gospel to places where the Gospel has never, ever been proclaimed!

During Debrief: Many of us have come back and said, “I’m so thankful.”  But we need to discern what that gratitude will look like in our lives.  It’s easy to say, “I’m thankful.”  It is much harder to now live with open hands.  God is asking us to put our YES on the table and let Him put it on the map.  He can send us anywhere he wants.  He can ask any amount of prayer and financial giving to Kingdom advancement that He wants.  This debrief will end with a time of serious commitment around next steps that we will take to help see the unreached peoples of the world reached with the Gospel.  In fact, our Church has a very specific long-term focus to see some of these peoples reached, and we want to ask each of you to find a place of service in the work that we believe God is asking us, as a Church, to fulfill!

These are just short paragraphs, but whole orientations, on-field communication, and debriefings can be built around the principles in them.  I recommend not sticking with a trip or partner that you have to squeeze the blessing out of, but if you find yourself stuck in that scenario, you can transform the whole experience simply by situating that few days within the larger panorama of what God is doing in the world and how that is playing out at your church.  You can radically reform the curriculum* around this trip, so that it’s no longer a 5 day experience that leads to little long-term fruit, but instead it becomes the first stepping stone towards every person in the church finding their long-term role in God’s Kingdom Mission.

*If you’d like to see something like this developed, please let me know.  If there is enough interest, it is something that I’ve considered creating for a while now.

On Safety, Syrians, and Salvation

We’ll pause our STM series for just another day or two, as I wanted to provide a few thoughts on current events.

Because of my work, I get asked questions all the time about Islam, Radicalism/Terrorism, and current events.  In fact, I’ve just help develop a course helping Christians understand the complexity of ministry in a world where people are on the move (refugees, trafficked humans, immigrants, etc).  It’s such an honor to get to talk about these questions with people!  As events over the last week have transpired, I wanted to put my thoughts down to share with others.  Below, you’ll find a summary of those thoughts.  I hope they encourage and, perhaps, challenge you.  I don’t think I’ve got this issue solved.  It’s way too complex, but I think these points give us some ground rules for discussion and a beginning framework for how to think about these things.

First, I believe that I can BOTH change my profile picture on Facebook to show a French flag AND desire to help Syrian refugees. What I mean is that I can identify with those who were attacked this week AND those who are fleeing their homelands because of the violence there.  I don’t have to take only one side.  I can stand with anyone hurting in the world because I believe in a God who stands with the hurting. As soon as we choose to hurt with some and not with others, we’ve missed God’s full love for the world.

Second, I have shared a number of articles about this issue on Facebook. You’ve probably read articles or watch news about the events.  I don’t know that any article/reporter handles EVERY aspect perfectly. They are articles, not books, not treatises…they have about 1,200 words to say something meaningful. Both sides need to understand that. So, we can approach any article with a teachable spirit and an ability to give grace if someone says something a little too bluntly for our tastes. Most of what I have shared this week with friend is “pro-refugee.” I’ll explain that below, but that’s where I’m at on this, both as an American, but much more importantly as a Christian. Can someone disagree with me and still be a Christian? ABSOLUTELY! But as best I can understand the heart of God, this is where I stand, and I can do no other.

Third, we’re all shooting in the dark. This is such a complex issue and we know very little of the facts…even those in power must admit this. So, my mother-in-law is right, if we’re going to say anything that isn’t merely a thought-experiment, we need more time. So, as you continue to read and peruse, please keep that in mind.

With those 3 things laying a foundation for us, here are a few of my thoughts that have emerged in conversation with others…

I believe that we do have to balance our response as a country. Yes, absolutely, we tighten our security, we strengthen our borders and screening process. That is good, right, and wise. At the same time, once we’ve done that…then what? Once we’ve made our process as strong as we can, I believe we should both as a country and especially as Christians LEAN INTO RISK. The 10 million refugees are not our enemies. The handful of people using them to hide and harm are the enemies. I don’t think I can as a human or a Christian close the door to the 10 million because of the danger of the few.

As Christians, how do we balance the command to receive the foreigner, to walk in compassion, to love mercy, all with wisdom. Can we imagine what Jesus would do? Do we act in mercy, trusting in the sovereignty of God for the things we cannot know? What would King David do if a group of refugees came to Jerusalem during his reign for safety? What if he knew that at least a handful of them were enemies of the state? Would that change his decision? Is there a Biblical principle here (mercy over safety? Obey the command to welcome, and believe in the goodness of God? Risk over rights?) that we could hang our hats on? Is the opportunity to reach these people with the Gospel in OUR homeland (since it’s harder and harder for us to be allowed in their homeland) worth the risk that they might do evil in our homeland? Does Gospel proclamation take priority over personal or political safety?

This I do believe: the Church has spent the last 1300 years with no coordinated and concerted effort to see the Gospel proclaimed to Muslim men and women. During the middle ages, there were a handful, like Raymond Lull. During the Student Volunteer Movement (the greatest missionary movement ever from the West), we went almost everywhere BUT the Muslim world, with noted exceptions like Samuel Zwemer. It’s only been in the last 30 or so years that more of our laborers are going to this harvest field. Even still, in 2000, 2% of our missionaries (today about 3% depending on the numbers) were going to Muslims (then 20% of the population)…a poor trickle. But that is a noted increase, so it’s no wonder that more Muslims have come to Christ in the last 30 (perhaps even the last ten) years than the previous 15 centuries combined!

With so little effort, and so little sowing, and so little Gospel, we can’t be surprised at so much lostness! 86% of Muslims say that they don’t personally know a Christian. What an indictment on our missional living. Regardless of our immigration policies, our missionary policies, our Christian response, should be marked with as much passion for the perishing as God’s response to us. Remember, WHEN WE WERE HIS ENEMIES, CHRIST DIED FOR US. We must count and pay the cost that such a great and gracious salvation inspires!

So, this is where I land: a strong, wise screening process through which we bring as many Syrians (and others fleeing for their lives) as possible as quickly as possible. I believe we’re called to lean into risk.

Reforming STM #11 – Progression and Alignment

Well, after that 3 post deviation to talk about Partners, let’s come back to shaping our STM program.  It should go without saying, but as I get paid per word (with patting myself on the back), I’ll say it anyway, “Doing anything in STM without having a long-term vision of what part of the Great Commission you are asking the Lord for is an exercise in futility – so don’t do it.”  If you missed it, read the first post on STM here to better understand this.

With that said, we’ve talked about having a 101 Trip, but what comes next?  Well, at the risk of sounding too simplistic, what about 201 and 301 trips?  Before giving an example, let me simply give one caveat (this does not include trips focused on taking a small group somewhere to serve your missionary on the field with things like care and counsel or using your I.T. skills to help them start a business) and one piece of advice.

That advice is that you want your STM engagement to be heading somewhere.  Many churches have multiple trips that are all essentially doing the exact same things (often not very strategic things), only in different places.  If we take all that has been said so far about language, partners, long-term vision, etc. you want each trip to build on the previous trip and eventually leave the folks in your body at a place to find THEIR ROLE IN THE CHURCH’S MISSION. Let me give an example.

Let’s say you adopt the Moroccan Arab people as a church.  Your vision is to do whatever it takes to see this people reached.  What might a STM program look like that led to the fulfillment of this? Perhaps it begins with simply getting all your folks on the same page about what mission is and what your church’s part of the Great Commission is.  Having that 101 trip with a group like Engage Global and making the Perspectives on the World Christian Movement course a key part of your church’s life would go a LOOOOOOONG way towards that end.  I talked to someone yesterday who just returned from a week with Engage Global in Minnesota and he said it was “beyond words” and that there were moments when they forgot that they were still in the U.S.

But what after that?  Well, now that we are on the same page with those foundational issues, we can now help our folks fall in love with Moroccans.  Why not set up a 201 trip to a place like Boston, Massachusetts, where tens of thousands of Moroccans have settled over the last 20 years.  For this trip, you could partner with folks there that are focused long-term on reaching these people.  So, your trip would both expose your people to Moroccans (eat in the increasing number of Moroccan restaurants – Moroccan food is delicious by the way, visit a mosque, help run a soccer camp while getting to know Moroccan young people and their parents, etc.) AND further the long-term work of folks laboring to plant the church in Morocco.  They get real ministry experience that helps them meet real Moroccans, and they come home more interested in Morocco instead of Haiti or Guatemala.

What next? Perhaps a 301 trip to Marseille, France where close to perhaps 1 million Moroccans reside.  Spend a week in the port, starting conversations with Moroccans coming to visit.  Help connect these Persons of Peace to long-term workers both in Europe and back in Morocco.  Doing this outside of the U.S. gives you a little more cross-cultural experience and requires a little more of your folks.  While it would be better to be in an English speaking contexts, sometimes that’s not possible, and there is value in getting out of your comfort zone.  An alternative might be to do the same thing in Manchester, England for instance, BUT you’ll likely be working with a mix of Arabs instead of primarily Moroccans.

For folks with more time available (school teachers with the summer off or university students), they could take a 301 through an organization like Cafe 10/40 who runs a very good 3-month, overseas mentorship in North Africa, designed to help them get a good taste of long-term work.  For those focusing somewhere other than Morocco right now, I highly recommend PIONEERS short-term program called the EDGE.

Well, once you have workers on the field, there may be a dozen different short-term things you could do to bolster their work, but you also need the above program helping all of your folks begin to see their role in mission.  With each step (from 101 to 201 to 301) more is expected of those who go…many may not ever go to a 301 trip and that’s OK.  Orientation, mentoring, and debrief should be rock solid for all three.  Your church’s vision should be discussed in detail at all three.  That way, even those that never go on 201 or 301 have a strong understanding of their role in the congregation in completing the task you’re asking God to do.

The metaphor may get lost outside of the gun-loving southern part of the U.S. but you want to set up your target and aim all of your guns (even your STM guns) at it.  That’s how you’ll make your greatest impact.

Reforming STM #10 – Who Chooses Partners

What I share here is true not just for STM partners, but anything that your congregation may do in partnership.

The Church should choose her partners.  That means that the Church (i.e. pastors, elders, leaders) must explore and vet potential partners.  Of course, these partners must have a similar vision as the Church.  For instance, if we want to reach 10 Unreached People Groups in the next 25 years, we need partners (training organizations, agencies, stm opportunities, etc.) that focus on that and have a track record in it.  They will be the ones who can help us get to where we want to go.  They don’t drive the bus…but they are helpful as we move towards our desired destination.

In an earlier post, I lamented over how often we have partners that aren’t really helping us move towards our vision (often because we don’t have a vision), but when it comes time to reconsider who we partner with, we dig up some blessing (ex. they are great to work with OR our people enjoy that trip) to justify the relationship.  But, the Church chooses partners, not just to help us with our Vision, but also because it’s also a pastoral issue.  It’s part of shepherding God’s sheep well.

Let me illustrate.  I know several people who were passionate about their faith, so much so, in fact, that they wanted to take 6-12 months of from school or work to invest in a discipleship program.  They start looking for an opportunity that fits them.  Perhaps they hear about one from a friend or find one online.  They approach their Church leadership and say, “I’ve found this program that I’d like to do, will you support me.”

A larger percentage of these people than you would ever dream, go on these experiences, and it goes so poorly that they come back not only not equipped in discipleship or ministry, but also questioning their faith.  The experience was so bad, they were so poorly cared for, they saw such warped Christianity that they weren’t even sure they wanted it anymore.

Besides saying, “no,” to their original request, there are 3 possible reactions:

1. “Yes, let’s do it.” This response is unconscionable.  Church leaders will be held accountable to all responses, but if you agree without knowing the organization, you’ve failed as a shepherd.  That may sound harsh, but it is intentional in this case!
2. “Let us look at this organization and make sure this is the right opportunity.”  This is a pretty good response.  It shows pastoral responsibility and care.  But, it is reactive, and if you want to do this right, it should take several hours.  If you have to do this several times a year, it is time consuming.
3. “I’m so excited that you want to invest in your relationship with God in a focused and intentional way.  This organization sounds good, but we’ve actually be cultivating a relationship with another organization called XXXXX who runs a program like this.  Many of these sort of opportunities are poorly run, so we wanted to find the absolute best option for our people.  We really trust them to lead you through what could be a life-changing time.  Why don’t we have lunch this week so that I can share with you about them, and we can put together a plan about how to proceed?”

Now that’s a different kind of response.  It shows true excitement over what God is doing in the life of this person.  It affirms the desire expressed, and then directs that to a path that has been proactively and prayerfully vetted.

Pastors, elders, and leaders, this is a part of YOUR job!  Do it well.  It could bear amazing fruit in the life of your congregation if done well.  If done poorly, it could sink you.  It could propel your people towards your vision, and it could equip them well for playing key roles in that mission.

Reforming STM #9 – Types of Partners

So, I want to come back to those two types of trips that we talked about yesterday: 1. The on-field long-term partner and 2. the STM program facilitator led trips.  Which one you pick determines what you can get out of it.  They can’t both accomplish exactly the same things.  Certainly, there is overlap, but nowhere close to 100%.

The first trip (long-term partner on the field) is great for sending folks to strengthen a long-term work.  It’s not always the best at helping someone know if they should go long-term or not.  That’s because the trip isn’t focused on them, intentionally.  You can add a more investment, development, discernment component to it, but it’s limited by what the long-term partner needs.  If he/she needs you to build a school, and you start on day 1 at sunrise and finish day 7 at sundown, then hop on a plane home, you’ve served the partner well, but left little room for this self-discovery or exploring long-term work.  The STM participants spent all their time babysitting for, encouraging, and serving the long-termers.  That’s a very good thing, if that’s what you’re going for.

These trips aren’t mission trips per se, but encouragement or service trips.  They don’t often include space for connecting with nationals, though some do.  Again, it all depends on what the long-term partner needs.  If she needs you to plow the ground with praying-walking and evangelism, then you’ll get a lot of ministry experience, but if he needs you to run a children’s program for a conference for missionaries, you won’t (at least not with nationals).

The 2nd kind of trip (STM program facilitators) are different.  They are aimed at the STM participant.  They COULD have space for real ministry and real reflection on each person’s ongoing role in mission.  Many of these don’t do this well, but again, they could if they wanted.  What won’t happen on the shorter version (5-14 days) of this trip, typically, is getting to see real life on the mission field or contributing to any long-term initiative.  Again, you could do these things.

PIONEERS’ Edge Program does, as do many others, an excellent job of blending the mentoring/development opportunity of this type of trip with the long-term impact of the previous type of trip.  That’s because the EDGE program is designed to expose participants to real life mission work in partnership with long-term church-planters they have stationed on the field.  Again, most STM agencies that primarily run STM trips aren’t able to do this because they don’t often have a long-term vision, so they try to put together a trip that is fun, a little challenging, and that keeps you bringing folks back every Spring Break or Summer.

Here’s the deal, you need both a long-term impact to your short-term mission engagement AND a developmental/discovery component as well.  You can do both in a single trip, but it’s difficult.  And most (not all) trips out there, that are run repeatedly, struggle to really accomplish either of them because they exist for the short-term.

So, who are your partners?  What organizations or missionaries help you accomplish your long-term vision?  What should you look for in a partner?  How can you tell a great partner from a “just ok” one?  That’s our next post!

Reforming STM #8 – Logistics and Administration

This will be short and sweet.

You can divide STM trips into 2 categories.  Those facilitated by an organization that runs an STM program and those done through visiting a long-term partner on the field.  They are typically very different kinds of trips.  They often differ in size of group, activities on the field, resources for prep and debrief.  What I want to say right now is they also differ in who should handle the logistical administration.

If you choose to partner with an agency that runs a STM program, as opposed to a long-term partner on the field, they should do all the work for you in terms of logistics.  I know a few churches that have to employ a paid staff person to do all the work (processing funds, visas, etc.) that a STM organization should be doing for them.  This is a no-brainer, yet it keeps coming up, so I mention it here.  If your partner makes you do all of the work, find a new one.  As the “experts,” they should already have a streamlined process that requires little of you so that you can focus on preparing spiritually, culturally, and evangelistically.

Now, if you are sending a team to visit one of your long-term partners on the field, YOU should do all of the work.  They are up to their eyeballs in the long-term work.  They likely can’t find a volunteer or paid-staff person to do this, so it’s on you, and rightfully so…you are trying to advance their long-term work, not the other way around.

So, sure, I’ve not told you anything you didn’t already know, but at least I can check “Blog” off of my daily to-do list!

On the Passing of a Loved One

I’m taking a short (1 post) break from talking about STM to share something a little more personal.

My father died in July.  We had a distant relationship.  He left my mom and us kids when I was 14, and in the words of my sister, he “disappeared” for 20 years.  I had cordial, regular conversations with him, but nothing of substance or depth – nothing like what most kids would want from any parent.

My best friend’s father is dying now, and besides supporting, praying, encouraging, weeping with him, the only piece of advice I gave was this: “Make a rolling/ongoing list of every conversation you want to have with your dad, and start doing it.”  Every few days, something new comes to mind, and I think, “I wish I could ask my dad about that.”  Friends, time is getting shorter.  Whether your mom and/or dad are sick or healthy, you’ll never think that you had too much time with them or too many conversations.  Make it happen!

Reforming STM #7 – Do you have a 101 trip?

So, as we start to rebuild our STM engagement, one thing we can do that is fairly easy AND can help change the entire direction of our STM participation is to have a 101 trip.  What’s that?

A 101 STM trip is an opportunity that your church offers to folks interested in missions, whether long- or short-term, which is both introductory and required.

It’s introductory and required because it will be the first time that Helen or Jose Christian has engaged in STM through your congregation.  Even if they’ve been overseas 50 times elsewhere, you want everyone within your body to be on the same mission page.  During the orientation, the trip itself, and the debrief, they learn what mission is, why your church is engaging the way you are, and how they can be a part of it.  They learn that God isn’t taking them somewhere for 7 days simply for the sake of that trip.  He’s giving them that experience because he is always and ever moving them toward greater service.  They learn things like the fact that there are around 6,500 unreached people groups on the planet who have yet to receive viable and sustained access to the Gospel.  They are challenged to think not about what sounds fun, but what will help get the Gospel from where it is to where it is not.

The 101 trip also helps you prepare them for next steps.  Listen, you don’t want to send folks on multiple trips, perhaps to very different contexts than you own without knowing that they have some solid missiological grounding.  They may have to navigate complex cultural differences…that’s not good if this is their first time overseas.  That’s part of the beauty of a 101 trip.

I love what Engage Global does as a 101 option, blending education, exposing, and equipping while encountering immigrant communities of unreached people groups in Minneapolis.  NYC International Project is going to start running Seed Weeks this year where churches can come alongside of long-term work among unreached people groups in New York City and get training and engage in real evangelism.  Notice that both of these trips are stateside.  The trips are in English.  If someone isn’t willing to go on a 101 trip, you don’t want to send them somewhere else.

For my brothers and sisters not living in the U.S., perhaps there are similar options in your context.  Or maybe you need to be the one creating this sort of opportunity in your country or region.

Reforming STM #6 – Have an Exit Strategy

Any STM trip that happens again and again and again is dangerous.  It’s dangerous for a few reasons.  First, it’s easy to get in a rut and just keep doing what you’ve always done.  Second, it assumes that the purpose of a STM trip is the trip itself instead of actually accomplishing something tangible.  These trips aren’t truly looking to make a lasting impact and instead of empowering nationals, it keeps them on the sideline.  Even when doing good things for people (building a house, for example), the trip communicates that the house is the goal instead of helping a community rise out of poverty.  If the latter is the goal, then the trips would look very different than the former.  Third, as they continue year after year, they divert kingdom funds away from new, strategic engagement.  So, what might this look like?

Let’s say your church has a relationship with a denomination or network in Country A.  You’ve been invited to come in and train their pastors (a strategic investment for sure).  It goes well the first year and you’re invited back.  Over time, you add to the curriculum, more pastors are being trained, and they are coming from further and further as word in country spreads.  What’s wrong with this, you might ask.  The problem is that at some point you are doing for the national church what it should be doing for itself.

What if instead of the above scenario, you said, “I’d love to come down and train some of your people.  So, why don’t we do this: I’ll come once a year for the next five years.  The first year, I’ll train pastors.  The second year, you can have a second group of pastors come, but I also want the first group to return to refresh.  The third year, a third group is trained, the second group sits in again to refresh, and I cast vision for the first group to become the trainers instead of me.  Year 4, I share some of the training responsibility with the first group, we cast vision for the second group to be training others, and the 3rd group refreshes.  Year 5, I’m not doing hardly any training, but I’m assisting the first and second groups as they work together to do all of the training.  By the end of that year, the training will belong completely to the nationals.  I’ll stop coming because this needs to belong to you!  And I’ll plug into a different strategic need at that point.”

What does that example do?  It starts with the end in mind!  It has a specific goal.  It seeks to empower the nationals, to leave them with a pastoral training program that is useful and a way to train new trainers.  It has a time limit.  We know when the partnership is complete and when the goal is met.  It frees up resources, when the commitment is fulfilled, to now engage somewhere else.

Do you have a trip that needs to be rethought?  Does every trip you have exist for something greater than itself?  Are you doing something for the people in any trip what they should/could do for themselves?  If they can’t do it now, can you help them learn to do it instead of just keep doing it for them?

Reforming STM #5 – The Medium is the Message

The Medium is the Message

What does that mean?  It simply means that the medium (or the way something is delivered or packaged) communicates something.  The packaging speaks volumes.  That’s why cooks work so hard on “plating” or the way the food LOOKS, not just the way it tastes.  In almost every area of life, we really do judge a book by it’s cover – right or wrong.

So, what does that have to do with STM?  What does your current STM trip communicate?  If someone went on the trip that your church has scheduled next, and that was all they knew about mission, how would they answer the questions, “What is mission?  What is the mission of the church?  What is our long-term goal in mission?”

When you ask most people who have been on a standard STM trip, they would answer something like, “Helping physically needy people.”  Why would they answer that way?  Because the whole focus on the STM trip was on helping needy people with physical needs.  So, what is mission?  For most, images of drilling wells, building housing, and holding orphans comes to mind. That’s why many Christians would equate buying a pair of TOM’s shoes with a legitimate way to live “missionally.”

Are any of those things bad things?  Absolutely not!  Will those things complete the Great Commission?  Absolutely not.  Peace Corps volunteers do those things, as does UNICEF, the United Way, World Bank, and hundreds of other organizations that have no interest in the Great Commission.  They can do those things without being in danger of advancing God’s Kingdom.

This is why I often encourage churches:  “Take at least 1 trip to a place where the people need NOTHING from you but JESUS!”  Why?  Because that is the mission.  We may do a lot of other things along the way.  We may drill wells, build orphanages, and provide micro-loans, but if we are not involved in evangelism that leads to discipleship that leads to churches being planted, then we are NOT doing mission.  I’m afraid that if a government said, “You can come and preach the Gospel, but you’re not allowed to do any good deeds,” that we’d have few takers willing to go on that trip!

So, if you do have a trip to an impoverished area planned, what might you do to keep the mission central while also being the hands and feet of Jesus in that place?  What if you gave the fountain of living water away with as much (or more!) vim and vigor than you drilled the well?  What if you couldn’t stop talking about the bread of life as you provided bread to those in need?  And what if you CLEARLY and repeatedly communicated to your STM team how what you’re doing in that place fits into the eternal plan of God to redeem men and women from every ethne?