Notes on Short-term Mission Trips

Posted by mike |

Having a group from your supporting church or mission is a great way of helping them to see what God is doing here in Thailand.   Below are some thoughts concerning short term mission trips that I have gained from my experience in organizing several trips here in Thailand and doing a research paper on the benefits of short term mission. 

  1. There are many types of short term trips- study tours, donor visits, exposure trips, exchange visits to partnered churches and communities but the overall purpose of cross-cultural mission and this includes short term mission is:  to help our people and our churches understand, enjoy and take seriously their calling as part of God’s  worldwide Church.   This means helping them appreciate the wonders and the needs in the contexts of others who are also struggling to live as God’s people.  This implies both giving and receiving.   Good short term mission trips will be spiritually enlightening experiences – sometimes uniquely transformative for the individuals and the churches involved (All trips therefore should have scheduled times when participants can debrief, pray and reflect on their experiences.  Ideally this should happen on a daily basis).  Asking participants to keep a journal of things they experience, see, hear and feel is also a good idea.
  1. Short term mission trips should be comprised of a balance between ‘ordeal’ and ‘comfort’.  Food is one good example.  It would be a shame for someone from the US to go half way around the world and end up eating McDonald’s hamburgers for every meal.  They should not, however, be forced to eat something they find totally unpalatable for every meal.  This balance should be the aim in other areas as well – teams should be exposed to different ways of doing and seeing things, but they also deserve a treat now and again to keep them going!  A movie, an ice cream or a trip to the seaside to end the visit is an occasional good idea.
  1. Short term mission teams come in all shapes and sizes.  It is often easy (and beneficial) to arrange a youth work camp, but it is also essential that CCT churches get to know your families, your older folk, your women’s groups, your ethnic minorities, and your disabled people.  How can we arrange trips that would include all these groups?  Might it not be a good idea (in terms of our own fellowship) to sometimes have teams that are intentionally heterogeneous, comprised of people from the whole spectrum of our church life?
  1. It is also beneficial to have teams that are a mix of local ‘host’ people and visitors.  In the past I have seen a church team from overseas partnering with a city church in Bangkok to visit another community on the Burmese border.  This was highly beneficial to all three groups (a real eye opener for some of the Bangkok people).  Another trip was a youth camp where 20 visiting young people teamed up with 20 local young people to build a meeting hall for a local community.  There were significant relationships formed as they lived, worked and worshipped together.
  1. ‘Mission Interpreters’ are a very valuable asset for a short term trip.  An interpreter is someone that has experience in both cultures, both contexts (and ideally speaks both languages).  Long term mission personnel (either those presently working or those who have retired) can sometimes fill this role.  Their purpose is not only to translate what people are saying, but to help the team and the hosts interpret each other’s meaning and context.
  1. Because the purpose is not just for the benefit of individuals, local churches in the sending country should be asked to feel part of the mission trip.  Fund raising, commissioning services, having participants share in various ways when they return are all ways to make this happen.
  1. Not many Thais speak English so this is a definite, though not insurmountable, obstacle when considering short-term mission trips to and from Thailand.
  1. Time and effort should be taken to recruit the right people for the trip.  Make sure the people going are healthy physically and mentally and that the travel insurance for the group covers all eventualities (and has good evacuation coverage). 
  1. If the group is to spend any time with children or doing children’s work then Child Protection procedures need to be followed.  These should include references, police check and personal confidential declaration (You can obtain all the forms excluding the police check from the CCT Office of Child Protection).
  1. Giving and receiving gifts is part of every good friendship especially in Thailand, but teams should be cautious in this matter.  Try not to give gifts as an individual to individuals (there will be exceptions of course). These can be misinterpreted and can lead to jealousies.  A modest gift from the whole group to the whole community is much less problematic.
  1. Sometimes one visit might be the start of a significant relationship with a church or community.  This is great! Such relationships, however, need to be entered into with caution, given the cultural differences and the possibility of misunderstanding.  As a help (not a hindrance) to good working relations it is important that both the CCT Ecumenical Relations Office and the regional director or mission office from the sending country be informed about any developments and programs between local churches arising from mission trips.
  1. Proper orientation for both the short-term team, their ‘senders’ and the host parties is essential

    Orientation for the short-term team

      1. It is important that short-term team members and those supporting or sending them understand that the purpose of the visit is more to learn and receive than it is to give and help.  This will lead, hopefully, to an attitude of graciousness towards their hosts and will open the possibility for positive outcomes for all from the experience.  They should receive some orientation before they even commit to the trip so they can make an ‘informed’ decision. 
      2. Ideally the CCT Ecumenical Relations Office can run an orientation program for teams coming to visit here.  Short term teams should be made aware of culture (including taboos- dress code etc.), history and the present political situation of the country and the specific communities and churches they visit.  They should also be made aware of the things that might prove difficult for them physically, emotionally and spiritually in the specific context to which they go.  The point should not be to avoid the difficulties but to engage and explore the differences between our two cultures.
      3. Short term teams from the Global South should be helped to understand that the purpose of the visit is not just to have fun (though fun should be an essential element).  They are being invited as the people of God from one place to visit and minister to the people of God in another (sometimes very different) place.  Their calling is to observe [and listen to God] and speak (perhaps prophetically, which often means critically!) into that other context and to allow what they see and learn to change their way of seeing and doing things in their own church, community, country.

    Orientation for the host communities

      1. The purpose of the visit should be made clear to the host community.  (In the case of Global South communities receiving teams from developed countries) The host communities should be made aware that the purpose is neither to make connections with wealthy Westerners or Koreans etc. in order to find sources of funding for projects, scholarships etc. nor are the visitors here just for fun, but also to work and be challenged.  The visitors will find some of the ordinary day to day things we do very interesting and would love to help us do them – like cooking for the family, going to the market, drawing water from the well, feeding cows and pigs, going fishing, harvesting rice, coconuts etc.
      2. (In the case of Global South teams visiting the developed countries)  The host should be made aware that the purpose is not only to make the guests feel comfortable, but to explore our different contexts and to share the faith that comes alive in different ways in these different contexts.  Effort should be made to help visitors see that there are poverty and ‘hard places’ in the US too.  Let them help us see our own context through their eyes—we might be surprised by what they see!  Visitors (especially visiting leaders) should be asked to lead prayers or preach, etc. even if they feel awkward doing it or their English is less than perfect.

Besides my paper (which you can find in the resources section of the website) there are many excellent resources out there concerning short term mission – how to prepare for it and its benefits.

This one I have used to good effect several times:

Cambell-Evans, Sally, Peoples, Places and Partnerships: A Workbook for Your Mission Trip Abroad, Ecumenical Working Group for Mission, Louisville Ky., 1989.

DVD and curriculum to prepare groups for short term mission: http://www.christianitytoday.com/special/roundtrip/