Mission Trip

The needs are great all around us and summer is approaching. Youth groups are preparing for summer mission trips, churches are preparing to take mission trips to disaster zones and college students will serve in needy areas.

Since returning from the tornado damaged areas of St. Louis area and Alabama, I have been repeatedly asked, "when are we going?"

This is a genuine question arising out of people's real desire to serve those whose lives have been affected by natural disasters.

All of this has caused me to think more deeply about "mission trips." Leonard Sweet, writing in So Beautiful, says, "We don't need more mission trips but more people for whom all of life is a mission trip." 


In a world where it is easy to live a segmented life, one can easily think about "going on a mission trip" and then returning home. It is easy to think that the "mission field" is the place of service and home is the place where we prepare for mission trips.

Recently I read a startling statement that puts all of this in perspective..."Just because God sent you doesn't mean God told anyone else you were coming!"


My prayer is that my life will be a "sent" one that follows where He leads, rather than a life that depends on "mission trips" to get a ministry fix.

This summer there will be lots of "mission trips" for students, churches and other groups. Many of them will be somewhere "over there." Don't forget that today is a "mission trip!  Enjoy the journey!