The $10 Mission Trip
I recently received a donation check for $489.48 from Good Shepherd United Methodist Church in Fort Wayne. In April Good Shepherd decided to stay in Fort Wayne and serve our community rather than going to the Gulf Coast for a short-term mission trip over spring break as they’ve done for the past 5 years. They had a great week and were able to accomplish quite a few NeighborLink projects and projects for some of their members who needed help.
I was surprised to receive a check for almost $500 last week and wasn’t sure what it was for. Come to find out after speaking with their pastor, they had budgeted $500 for expenses for that week.
It makes me excited to know they were able to stay in Fort Wayne and only spend a little over $10 in project expenses for an entire week of service.
Realizing they just completed a $10 mission trip in their own community has caused me to think about short-term missions in general. It doesn’t take much for me to think about my own community in my position at NeighborLink.
In 2005 Princeton University released a study that found 1.6 million people took short-term mission trips of an average of eight days. Estimates of the money spent on these trips is upward of $2.4 billion a year. Even though this data is now 5 years old, it’s can’t be far off. Give or take a few hundred millions of dollars and we’re still in the billions. That’s a lot of money leaving our local communities and not necessarily going into the communities or countries we’re traveling to. Most of that money is eaten up in trip expenses.
Is there anything wrong with this? Some would say so but with all things, there is enough data on each end that supports the fight to continue them. I’ve been on a couple of short-term trips and I wouldn’t trade those experiences for the world.
Do I feel like I changed the world? Only if I count the change those trips made in me and recognize my place in the world. I’d say those trips changed my worldview significantly, but I think a backpacking trip through Europe would also do that.
There are 2 main things that I’ve come to realize over the past couple of years that have changed my perspective on short-term trips.
1. Cost
2. The Needs in my backyard
The money spent on the two trips I’ve gone on and including my wife on the last one was well over $10,000. Over $6000 of that was in airfare alone and probably half of what was left was spent on covering my costs while there, leaving very little to go to actual impact on the ground in the countries I’ve been to.
I know how far $8k-$10k would go in Fort Wayne serving the marginalized homeowners we see. I also know that the time invested locally will far exceed the monetary value spent. Good Shepherd is proof that you can make an impact locally without spending nearly anything. The most important aspect of staying locally is the ability to develop relationships with the people in need.
If you’re a church or Christ-follower that believes in mission, isn’t it about relationships? Isn’t it about the long lasting transformation that comes from those relationships?
When I think locally, I think about playing tee-ball. Projects and connections so easily prepped that you could never strike out. You may not hit it out of the park, you may get a few outs, but it’s never been easier to hit a home run. You just have to step to the plate.
Consider staying local the next time you think about a mission trip.
