If you have participated in a short-term mission trip or helped someone else to do so, you have probably heard this question. Couldn’t you get “more bang for the buck” by just sending money?

Sometimes the answer is definitely yes! The explosive growth in short-term mission trips over the last 40 years has produced plenty of horror stories. We’ve heard the stories about short-term teams assigned to paint the same walls other teams have just painted. And about how well-intentioned-but-poorly-oriented short-termers have caused all kinds of problems by inappropriate giving. And that some participants are driven more by their need to feel superior than by a genuine desire to learn what God is up to in a local situation and come alongside it.

There are many such stories. So why go? Why has International Ministries identified short-term mission as one of the priorities to be pursued in the Responding to the Call strategic plan?

There are two fundamental reasons: first, that God calls us to go; second, that nothing has more transforming power than direct personal relationships. Sending money is good, and can be vitally important, but authentic personal relationships are eternal. Today, they are mutually encouraging. Tomorrow, they are mutually transforming. Forever, they are the reality God is building.

JD Reed serves in Bolivia. He comments on how short-term mission teams have affected the churches in Cochabamba and Santa Cruz:

We host 10—12 teams annually. I can tell you stories where churches and ministries have been changed and are better because of the work of volunteers and volunteer short-term mission teams. But, when I am talking to them about the teams, they rarely mention the specific project people worked on.

The secret to making an impact is not to focus on the work for the project, but on the people who are doing it. Right after one Bolivian pastor thanked me for my time and support, he began to do some name dropping. He spoke of the pastor that came and prayed with him when they first arrived at the site and asked God to protect his family in their ministry. He spoke about the nurse who was with the team and helped bandage and comfort the people of his church before thinking of the needs of the team. He smiled when he talked about the older lady who wasn’t able to do the “work,” but spent hours playing with the children at the work site and trying to communicate with their grandmothers.

Debbie Mulneix, serving in the Philippines, shares the impact short-termers have on long-term missionaries:

When a work team comes, missionaries know that help is on its way. These people can make the most depressing day better, just by being with us. We are encouraged by their activity, even if it is just helping to clean a cupboard, because we recognize all that they have walked away from, just to be with this mission. We know that there are more like them at home, wherever they came from, who are praying today for the ministry, for the people and for us. That is powerful knowledge.

It’s not that they tell us anything new, but they put a face on truth, the truth that we are each given jobs to do for the furtherance of the Kingdom. A volunteer helps to remind us that you have not forgotten us, and neither has God.

We invite you to make friends with children and grandmothers, pray with pastors and encourage global servants; to grow in a new understanding of God’s love for all people, for all cultures and for you. And be transformed by the Holy Spirit and be used to bring transformation where you are sent, and where you return!