Encounter God's heart. Enlarge your perspective. Eradicate your fears. Expand God’s kingdom.
There has been much debate in the modern Christian church about the importance and effectiveness of short-term missions’ trips. We often hear things like, “The money you spend going could do so much more if you just sent it instead”, and “Short term missions just people into a place of unhealthy dependence”.
I will be the first to admit that these statements are not entirely false, but also the first to point to the truth that they are not true as often as some would like to believe.
The reality is that without careful and intentional training, a proper and respectful cultural understanding, and a constant posture of humility and teachability, good-hearted individuals don’t always accomplish the good that they had hoped.
However, with the right mindset and motivation for those involved, along with proper planning, preparation, and support, a short term missions trip can take on a whole new meaning and propel us all, as individuals and churches, into greater realms of success in God’s Kingdom. 
Very often, these short trips are the start of something even more amazing.
Short-term mission provides a unique opportunity for local churches to intentionally engage the world in a cross-cultural context and offers a practical outlet for people to engage in intense evangelism and discipleship activity.
The intensity of the activity is often difficult to produce at home, and the opportunity to be freed up from normal, daily responsibilities to intentionally engage in service, evangelism, and discipleship is one of the great benefits of short-term trips.
It’s one thing for us to hear about the Great Commission and be challenged as believers to go make disciples of all nations, but it is an entirely different thing for to get on a plane and travel to an unreached or unfamiliar place, encounter people who have never heard of Jesus, and then actually share the gospel with them.
Going on a short-term trip exposes us to the realities of lostness around the world in a way that no video, book, or pamphlet can accomplish.
Because the reality is that we really have no idea what we don’t know.
Dave Boisclair - MJVC Missions Representative says:
"I love both local and international missions, I believe we are missionaries in the city's we live in, the jobs we work, the places we shop. Yet international missions, seeing and experiencing different cultures, has a way of widening your perspective. In many short-term mission trips, you see and experience things you would never in your own city, you gain an understanding of the ownership you have in the gospel moving forward, your passion for the lost is dramatically deepened. People who are passionate about reaching the lost grow churches! Being a part of a short-term mission’s trip benefits everyone. Benefits the mission, benefits the person going on the trip, and most of all the church sending them on the trip, who later receives them back with a renewed passion for the lost!"
For more information on how you can be a part of a short-term missions' trip with your church, please talk with your pastor or contact our Head Office for more missions' opportunities at:
Phone: +1 (403) 286-8337
Email: This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it.
