I work at a missions agency, so I understand the feeling of wanting to be “out there” on the field, blitzing the unreached, and backpacking into the middle of nowhere like some Indiana Jones character. The spiritual refreshment that comes from going on a mission trip can energize and ignite your heart for the nations.
If anyone gets this, it would be me.
I’ve been on trips to 6 different countries in the world in the past 6 years. When I’m back in the States, I am planning and saving to go back as soon as I can. But I would also send out a challenge to the young people reading this post. Because you are reading a missions blog, you are probably a lot like me.
You enjoy traveling and seeing new cultures and hugging many kinds of people who look a lot different than you. You like adventure and grandeur because you’ve heard about “the nations” and you are ready to quit everything and hop on the next plane.
I would argue that everything I just mentioned is fine.
However, I would challenge you with this: do you live for mission trips or do the mission trips you go on call you to change how you live here?
Do you realize that the radical boldness that feeds you on mission trips exists here in the United States? The same God lives in you everywhere and anywhere in the world. I am challenging myself with this as well. Do I live each day with the same reckless abandon that overcomes me when I spend a week in the middle-of-nowhere Africa?
From my own experience, here are four ways to bring a mission trip back home.
Live out radical obedience in your everyday life
“And this is love: that we walk in obedience to his commands. As you have heard from the beginning, his command is that you walk in love.” -2 John 6
Do you walk in love when you wake up on an ordinary day and drink your ordinary cup of coffee before you head off to work or school? Do you listen to the Voice of the Father as He whispers direction for your day? When he speaks, are you slow to obey and quick to make excuses?
My challenge is to ask the Lord every morning, “Lord, what is one way that I can obey you radically today?”
The Lord is after your heart more than anything else. But he is also after your obedience. As you live out of a place of obedience day-by-day, you’ll begin to realize that the “mission trip high” is not as fulfilling as a life of trust and walking in love with the Father.
When you go on mission trips in the future, you will not be pushing your comfort zone as you would think. You will simply be continuing to walk as you always have been which will keep you consistent when you return from a trip.
Choose to invest in people
“Do nothing out of selfish ambition or vain conceit. Rather, in humility value others above yourselves, not looking to your own interests but each of you to the interests of the others.” -Philippians 2:3-4
This one gets me. When you go on a mission trip, you have the task as a short-term trip member to share the gospel with many people that you will never see again. You leave the following up to the long-term workers and national partners, who specialize in discipleship and church planting. You have the pleasure and excitement of seeing people come to the Lord, but you do not have a hand in investing in them.
My challenge? Invest in people here. Our time is more valuable than gold here in America.
I want to challenge myself to sacrifice some of my time to continually invest in someone who needs the love of Christ. Many people do not come to faith in one brief encounter at a cash register. Am I willing to commit to someone and love them and live life with them?
That’s how I came back to the faith after I wandered away from God. Is that your story as well? Don’t be the short-changer. Be the investor.