MissionFundraising.com/JimWaltersOnline.com

ShortTermMissions.com published an interesting article on how to stay safe on mission trips. I will highlight a few of the items listed, but if you wish, you can read the whole article here.

The author tells us he was on a business trip in China, and decided to venture into the jungle, on his own, just for fun. He was quite thrilled with the sites, including the monkeys. After he returned, his national co-worker was appalled that the author did this, because “this is June!”, which is when the “cobras” are out in number. Therefore, one should be aware of the following:

• Know the Rules: Don’t act like a giggling tourist. Find out from local people what is safe to do, where it is safe to go, and what to avoid.
• Situational Awareness: Be on the alert of what is happening around you. Make yourself a “tough target”; know where to go if trouble finds you; be alert to people who are paying “undue attention” to you; listen to your inner survival signals.
• Practice Security Behavior: don’t read your city map in public areas because you just announced to everybody that you’re a newbie, and unfamiliar; don’t count or display your money in public; don’t let vendors know that you’re unfamiliar with their currency by asking them to “take what they need” from your hand. If you’re American, remember that many are not currently pleased with Americans-so only display your passport when absolutely necessary.

My own final commentary and addendum: don’t say to yourself, “We’re on a mission trip for God, He’ll protect us.” Yes, God may very well protect you, but He may also say you ought to use a whole lot more wisdom than you’re currently portraying. Proverbs tells us a “prudent person sees the evil coming, and hides from it.” Prov 22:3. We live in a fallen world, and the affects of the fallen are on the “just and the unjust.” Graves are full of Christians who were doing “God’s work”, and still befell accidental or intentional harm. Pray as if all of the “protection” depends upon God, and act as if all the protection depends upon you!

May God bless your work, whether it’s a short term mission trip or a career mission move. If you need help in knowing how to raise financial support, we can help. Just go to our Products Page.

Gary Skrobot

Technorati Tags: mission trip safety

Thanks to MissionsLaunch.com, we have the opportunity to see the reaction of the Gamo People Group in Ethiopia as they watch the “Jesus Film” in their own language. I was humbled as I realized how jaded I have become to the death and resurrection of Jesus, because the story is so familiar to me.

In a recent previous post I quoted an article that stated a local pastor, preaching in the people’s own language had a much larger response than showing the Jesus Film had. This story below is quite the opposite.

I urge you to watch this short video, and see how powerful hearing the word of God in one’s own mother tongue can be.

We have tools on this site to help you raise financial support for your mission trip, and church planting ministries. May your ministry be as effective as seen here.

CBN has published an article discussing whether or not short term missions are effective for the kingdom. You can click here to read the full article “Are Short-Term Mission Trips Effective? - Christian World News - CBN Here are a few highlights:

• A Burden Instead of Helping: The articles highlights a couple instances where the short term mission team actually created more of a burden for the full-time missionaries there. Not all full-timers are able to effectively use a short-term team. “There have been teams of young people that have come down, their hearts are in the right place, they love God, but a team of 125 people, the logistics are huge on the missionary family.”
• Amazing costs: “The money that they spent on food alone was enough to pay for one of our week trainings for the Kuna on the island,” he explained.
• But what about evangelism? “I’ve seen someone show the Jesus film over three nights and a handful of people got saved,” Brummett responded. “And the last night they let a Kuna pastor that preached and thirty five people got saved. He preached to his own people in his own language with his own heart, and that had a tremendous impact.”
• Do short-terms missions help generate full-time missionaries? “Because the expense the church is going through yearly to send people overseas, we should be seeing more career missionaries,” he continued. “In fact, the opposite of that is true: we’re seeing less and less long term missionaries.”
• Should short-term missionaries stop going? None of the missionaries CBN News interviewed said that churches should stop their short-term programs, but rather need to re-think their focus and make sure missions dollars are being spent wisely - and not neglecting those who have given their lives to full-time service.

This website and blog, MissionFundraising.com, is dedicated to helping people raise financial support for short term missions, upgrading the support level for full time missionaries, and providing necessary resources for church planters. The points raised in the above article are worth discussing. We continue to support those going on short term mission trips, yet feel it’s important that the trip be well though-out with specific, achievable goals. As someone who has been both a short term, and a full time, missionary, I agree that evangelizing in a foreign country by short term-ers may not be very effective, and may even cause “damage” in the eyes of the local church, or the resident full time missionary. Providing for specific physical needs (medical, building, sanitation) may be a better choice for short term trips.

What’s your view? Please make your own comments by clicking on the “comment” link.

Gary Skrobot
Info@MissionFundraising.com

Technorati Tags: effective short term missions

I found an interesting post about how Seth Godin’s (famous marketer) perspective on how to change the world can be applied to missions. Follow this link to view a 17 minute video of Seth Godin’s talk, and/or read an interesting application of that talk to missionary work.

Gary Skrobot

Technorati Tags: missionary ministry leadership

This is a copy of an article posted by Mr. George Verwer. I do not know this gentleman, but I found this article interesting, so I’m re-positing it here.

I am not saying I agree or disagree with every point here; however, I have been both a short term missionary, and a full time missionary. I will soon post my own thoughts on short term missions, but for now, read the article below, and feel free to add comments about your thoughts.
——————————————————————————–

Ten short-termers we don’t want

Short-term mission trips have become very popular and many churches run their own
programs. Some churches want all their members to go on a trip.
Having been involved for 50 years with both short and long-term mission has given me
some very strong convictions about who should go and who should not go. Here are ten
short-termers who really should stay at home.

1. Mr Selfish - the person who mainly cares about themselves and how much they can get out of the trip.
2. Mr Tourist - the person who just wants to see the sights and hear the sounds. Not interested in hard work, serving or presenting the Gospel.
3. Mr Lazy - they will have many reasons each day as to why they cannot get out into the work.
4. Mr Big-Spender - they bring a lot of money/travellers checks and want to spend much of their time shopping.
5. Mr Insensitive - people who push their own country or culture and are insensitive to other people’s culture. They often leave behind a very bad testimony.
6. Mr Critical - These people see everything that is wrong in the church and country, even among their co-workers. It is contrary to the basic message of I Cor. 13.
7. Mr Unteachable - they are often very prejudiced and stubborn and bring hurt and confusion.
8. Mr Prayerless - to me, it is unthinkable to have prayerless people in ministry or service. We are in spiritual warfare and we must use the weapons that God has told and given us to use.
9. Mr Addicted - people, especially with sexual addictions, should not go. They can so quickly bring huge offense and even scandal. People with alcohol and other drug addictions need to get that sorted out at home.
10. Mr Proud - Pride is such a deadly sin and often leads to division and broken relationships. People with heavy national pride easily insult and hurt the very people you are trying to serve.

Yes, short-term mission is a serious ministry and must be done in a way that will honor
God and bless the people we serve. There needs to be serious orientation, interviewing
and training before people go. There should at least be some life, action and godly reality
before a lot of money is spent to travel and serve among people in a different country and
culture.
George Verwer
george@verwer.om.org
George Verwer
PO Box 17
Bromley, Kent
England BR1 3JP
Phone: 44 (0)20 8777 5258
UK Mobile: 44 (0)7860 426426
Email: george@verwer.om.org or georgev@swissmail.org

_________________________________________________________________-

Posted by Gary Skrobot

Good Giving in Hard Times!

Did you see the article in May 2009 Christianity Today called “the Non-Profit Surge?” This issue is a great read — and the cover story relates to CT’s survey of 1,800 active Christians and how they might alter their giving. The survey results might surprise you.

Despite a recession (CT says 8.1% unemployment and 10% of mortgages troubled), a total of 34% of the “committed givers” in the survey said they intend to donate more money this year, not less. Another 44% said that intend to give the same amounts this year as last year. Do the math, and only one in five givers indicated that they would be giving less.

My own observations from our church, and from missionaries with whom I’ve chatted, are that people who are still employed and rocking along through life are not afraid to keep giving or even increase giving. People who are between jobs, however, simply don’t have it to give.

The trick for missionaries and church planters and mission-trip goers this year, is going to be to start early, communicate clearly and cast vision strongly. The money is still out there; God wants his people to be giving to missions, and we have not “touched the hem of the garment” in developing missional stewardship among American Christians. That’s why I write these blogs and publish handbooks. All of us who are Christian leaders need to be sounding the trumpet for people to invest more in missions these days, not less.

Jim Walters
Jim@JimWaltersOnline.com

If you are a citizen of the United States of America, there are certain rights to which you are entitled, and certain responsibilities which you must fulfill. One of the most prevalent responsibilities each citizen has is paying taxes. In turn, we all receive certain benefits because of the taxes we pay.

Jesus told us that it is right and proper to pay taxes when he said, “Give to Caesar what is due Caesar, and give to God what is due God.” But, we also infer that while giving to Caesar what “he” is due, there is no need to give more than what is due!

The government of the United States provides its citizens an incentive to financially support non-profit organizations, such as churches, mission organizations, et al. This incentive is rather powerful, as many citizens would prefer not to give financially, unless they are able to take advantage of the government’s incentive, namely, the Tax Deduction.

If you are asking people to support your ministerial work, but are unable to offer your supporters a tax-deductible receipt, you are very likely inadvertently showing potential donors the door, while they continue looking for someone else to whom they will give their tax-deductible dollars, instead.

Setting up your own non-profit 501(c)3 ministry may not be as difficult and overwhelming as you think. Yes, there is an application to file, a bank account to open, even a Board to select; but, all of this can be rather straight forward if you have a helpful checklist to follow.

Be sure to check out our Products page, and especially our “Steps to Starting a 501(c)3 Ministry” handbook.

Questions? we’re happy to do our best to answer them. Just add a comment to this blog post with your question, and we’ll let you know what we know.

Jim Walters

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