Two Traits You Need on a Short-Term Mission Trip

Emily Sheddan • Nov 12, 2015

Whether it’s your first short-term mission trip or your 10th, making a packing list is probably on your mind. In fact, your team leader may even hand you a list with specific details about the weather, appropriate dress, evangelistic materials to disperse or even the much-appreciated advice to throw in some granola bars, just in case. None of what you pack in your duffle, however, is going to make or break your trip. You are not a tourist but an advocate for God and His love.

The most important part of your preparation will be all about the heart. This leads us to ask the question: What are the most important traits you need on a short-term mission trip ?

One could endlessly name characteristics to describe the ideal short-term missionary : passion, selflessness, good health, availability, preparedness, enthusiasm, and teachability are a handful that come to mind. But as a missionary kid who has been on the hosting side as well as the sending side, I have found two of the most crucial qualities you need on a short-term mission trip.

Flexibility

A team usually prepares for many months, deciding how they will go and what they will do. They develop a strategy and purchase items needed in their place of ministry.

Changes arise, however, and flexibility is crucial. The ability to change will make or break the trip.

It may be because of a lack of communication or a lack of preparation. It may also be simply because of a change of plans that is out of your control.

In the New Testament, Paul set the bar high in mission work , though he often had to abandon plans of his own. A great example is Acts 16:6-10 , when Paul set out for Bithynia: He and Silas had a strategy for this great city, but the Holy Spirit would not let them go. Instead, the Lord revealed Himself through a vision calling Paul and his team to Macedonia. Verse 10 tells us Paul “got ready at once to leave,” showing no hesitation when the Lord communicated a new direction.

A change in plans is not where a trip turns into disappointment. This is where you learn commitment over drawbacks. This is where you learn that doing ministry with people is more effective than ministry to people. This is where you can reevaluate the reasons for and value of going on a short-term mission trip in the first place.

Once, overseas, a team came to serve with my family in an area where three tribal groups had united to form a 43-family community. At first, the team was denied access and had to withdraw. Within a short time, however, a fire broke out among these houses and the team was welcomed in for help with food and other necessities. The people immediately came together and decided they wanted to be Christians too. The team wisely promised to return and teach the people about what it means to be a Christian. After six weeks of ministry, the team was able to baptize 99 people who had made a true decision to follow our Lord. The team demonstrated flexibility and the need for change by being able to provide other needs and even come back at a later time. ­­­­­

Humility

Along with flexibility, is the need for humility. A short-termer needs to be grounded in the solid truth that our God is made strong in our weaknesses.

We can confidently go on mission trips knowing our strength is in Christ, as true humility creates a sincere recognition of our dependence on our Father.

Paul could have easily fallen victim to self-praise for his work, but God kept him humble and aware of his own thorn in the flesh ( 2 Corinthians 12 ). While we do not know for certain what this thorn was, we are told that it was an instrument of Satan by way of physical ailments and persecution. Paul begged the Lord to take it away on different occasions. The fact that God did not and that it remained as a humbling prompt for Paul to continuously seek the Lord is what qualified him. Likewise, when we are able to put aside what is distracting and serve the Lord first, it’s what qualifies us.

Construction teams would often come to my family’s area of ministry and would often arrive with expectations that they would be able to escape the heat, sleep in comfortable beds at night in hotels or that a Coke would be readily accessible. Instead, they found themselves in an area with no hotels, sleeping side by side on concrete, no air conditioning, eating what they were served and a nearby river to wash their clothes. Comfort was their “thorn,” and yet, they still got up each day, worked dawn to dusk, and joyfully did so knowing it was for the Lord.

As followers of Christ, even in the thousands of following generations after Paul, we learn God’s grace is enough to subdue these “thorns,” and His power is made perfect in our weaknesses. In many scriptural contexts, ( M atthew 18:4 and 23:12 , 2 Corinthians 11:7 , 1 Peter 5:6 ), the word “humble” is used as a verb, thereby implying action from us. We remain teachable with spirits of effectiveness when we humble ourselves and make a choice of weakness based upon the Lord’s strength.

Hudson Taylor, one of the most renowned missionaries to China once said, “God was looking for a man weak enough to use, and He found me.”

So, let us boast of our weaknesses so that He is made strong and fully glorified for the great works, once in a lifetime opportunities and seeds planted on these short-term trips. Let us be flexible so that our faith is tested, then deepened. Let us go with the right call and the right heart to minister and to be ministered to.

Bridging Dissonance: Finding Connection in Music and the Gospel

By Emily Sheddan • 18 Jul, 2024
TEAM worker Luke Standridge and his fellow musicians use music to build connections to faith in Japan. In music terms, dissonance creates movement or even suspense in a song. It invites tension. That tension is what helps grab our ear’s attention and the interchanging of these notes with pleasant melodious parts is what makes music such a delight. In a similar way, God is using music to grab people’s attention and catalyze Gospel impact in the largely unreached nation of Japan. TEAM Global Worker, Luke Standridge moved to Japan in 2019 with no clear direction on how he was going to use his passion for composing music while doing ministry. However, after Luke got involved with a local church and began developing deep friendships, the Lord opened unimaginable doors for Luke that in time, coordinating his creative skills with sharing the Word. “People Need to Come to Japan!” Growing up as one of ten kids in a family that was heavily involved in ministry and missions, Luke never considered that it would one day be a part of his own journey. In 2016, via a Japanese language learning class in Indiana, Luke and his brother had the opportunity to travel to Japan. Hearing, learning, and using the language in the context of Japanese culture was the goal. While it was Luke’s first international trip – even his first trip on a plane - it was also his first time hearing about the spiritual condition of the Japanese people. “And just through that, God did a huge 180 change on my heart,” says Luke. “More people should come here as global workers. People need to come to Japan!” The call God was laying on Luke’s heart is echoed when looking at the spiritual landscape of Japan. The nation is home to the second largest unreached people group in the world. It is one of the most difficult places for the Gospel to take hold and grow. Japan is also home to a deep and rich culture that prizes creative arts from pottery to ink to music to anime – a fact that would help Luke find his niche in life and ministry. God’s Guiding Hand In the short three-month timespan of that first trip, Luke found that opportunities came naturally to share about life, and people’s curiosity for Christianity grew. “I left Japan knowing I just had to come back,” Luke shares. “Even if I didn’t get back to the same area, I knew Japan was where God wanted me to be.” The Lord is good all the time and all the time the Lord is good. His plans do not fail. Luke returned to Japan in 2019, and less than a week after arriving, he was put in touch with a renowned composer in Japan. The composer saw some of Luke’s music and invited him to help write the music for a beloved in-country animated show. But God wasn’t finished yet! Fast forward a year, and more connections and opportunities allowed Luke to help with music for Pokémon - a franchise that has brand recognition around the world and was being developed into a TV series in Japan. Luke recalls how the Lord began using these connections in the production world to open doors for Gospel conversations. One night while having dinner in downtown Tokyo with famous artists and composers from all around the country, Luke was asked about his ministry-focused visa. This was a rare opportunity in a setting with people otherwise uninterested in Christianity. Luke shares, “The whole time I could see God’s hand in guiding the entire thing.”

Connecting in a New Kind of “Neighborhood”

By Lorena de la Rosa and Suzanne Pearson • 13 Jun, 2024
Through creative arts and other forms of innovative outreach, “The Neighborhood” is creating connections to the Gospel and the love of Jesus. CONNECTION. It’s a common word with powerful implications. Dictionary.com defines connection as a joining or linking together; a relationship between people or objects that unites or binds them together. God has created each of us with a deep need for connection with Him as well as connection with others. Hebrews 10:24-25 speaks to this, as the writer exhorts, “Let us consider how to stir up one another to love and good works, not neglecting to meet together, as is the habit of some, but encouraging one another, and all the more as you see the Day drawing near.” This God-given need for connection lies at the heart of a creative and innovative ministry in Japan known as “The Neighborhood.” TEAM Japan global worker, Kelly and her family created The Neighborhood as a place where connections are formed through creative arts, educational opportunities, and simply just providing a space for people to be together. A Family Calling The journey to the creation of The Neighborhood began over 5,000 miles away from Tokyo, in California where Kelly, her husband Jeff, and their five children were living. The kids were the first to sense God’s calling to missions, and asked why their family wasn’t serving in this way. How Kelly and her family came to TEAM is a God-story in and of itself. “God placed a TEAM Japan worker at our lunch table the same week that the kids posed that question to us,” Kelly recalls. “We had never heard of TEAM and so we thought, ‘let’s check this out.’ After that, God just kept confirming that we were supposed to be here.” After a period of fundraising and with much excitement, the family of seven moved to Japan in 2014. For the first five years, Kelly and Jeff served as a part of other TEAM ministry initiatives, but they began to sense a stirring for something new. Creating The Neighborhood Kelly and her family truly have a deep gift for hospitality, and regularly opened up their home to others they met in Tokyo. They saw a great need for people to have a place to gather and connect, and they wondered what doors the Lord might be opening for them to meet that need. “About a year before we were to return the States on home assignment, we were just really thinking about our future in Japan,” Kelly says. “We saw a need for people to have a ‘third place’ – a place that’s not home and it’s not work. They didn’t have a church community or any other place where they could meet people and just connect.” Kelly goes on to explain that in Japan, the culture is such that people don’t generally invite each other into their homes, but as her family did so, people embraced that opportunity. “This idea formed in all of our hearts of a student ministry center – a place where we can create community and learning,” says Kelly. “It was born out of what we were already doing in our home, but seeing how we could expand it and have better space.” God’s Provision What happened next is a true testament to God’s provision. Kelly, Jeff, and the kids returned to the States and began sharing their vision for The Neighborhood with their supporters and churches who responded generously. Upon returning to Japan, the search was on for the right space. “We had a Christian realtor that we told our dream to, and he just went looking for it,” Kelly recalls. When the realtor found a 5-story apartment building, he said, “It’s kind of out of your budget but it has what you need and want.” The Lord provided the funds and the family moved into the space in November 2019. They now occupy all but the ground floor, with living space for their family as well as classrooms, areas to study or hang out, and guest rooms for exchange students or others who need a place to stay overnight. The first floor is occupied by a pizza shop – a welcome amenity for the many groups and students who visit The Neighborhood. “It’s very convenient!” Kelly says with a laugh. The Neighborhood began to see lots of activity right away until the pandemic hit in early 2020. During the height of the quarantine, Kelly and Jeff used the time to redecorate the space and plant gardens outside the building. Then as the restrictions eased, they invited individual students or families over for meals and fellowship. It wasn’t until March 2023 that The Neighborhood was able to fully open again as intended. Kelly shares that despite the setbacks of COVID, the Lord continued to provide the funds to pay the rent.
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