Short-term missions gets a bad rap. Having participated in several different types - one of which I didn't know was even considered "short-term" until I returned from it - of these trips, I understand where the rationale comes from, but also chalk it up to being outsiders.
The trick about these trips is that they serve some sort of basic need at the same time as growing the individual who is "serving" there. I do put this in quotes because I returned far from jaded but eyes opened to the reality that it's not everything you think it will be before you go. Someone tried to tell me this and I only got offended at the attempt to parse and condense my experience before it even occurred! I, of course, could not recognize this untimely gesture as a valid point until after I had had the experience myself.
My faith became real to me on a week long building trip with my youth group the summer before my freshman year of high school. I never admitted, or even really knew that I hadn't fully understood what this whole Jesus thing was about; not in my heart of hearts, anyway. I got something out of the message of the program that we put on for the local community we were there to serve. Now, I don't mean to advocate for missions trips to save the people on them, but my story is one of a life changed by something so simple. Being a punk of a fifteen-going-on-sixteen-year-old, I needed to get beyond my suburban bubble and see how others lived, and when we were telling them about how they need Jesus, I realized I need Him too.
Youth With a Mission (aka YWAM) was an experience of personal growth on a whole other level. From my naive and loosely-factual knowledge of the point of a Discipleship Training School, I thought somewhere along the line I'd just get comfortable with street evangelism and someone would give their life to Jesus...even though street evangelism how it was (and still is) in my mind is far from who I am and what I would do. When it came down to it, after the fact I can say that the most influential and important part of that trip was going out into the world and seeing others; knowing that they need love. And in seeing them, loving them in just a second because they exist and they need it. That will change your life forever.
Seeing the world will change your life forever.
So even though a large part of why I didn't go back was because I didn't feel comfortable attempting to raise support again, I would absolutely support someone I knew going on to that experience because you never know what will come of it. They might go on to help end human trafficking, or they might spend a few years as an aimless career-wanderer blogging about...stuff. But I still hold that it is absolutely worth it.
I've said before, and I'll say it again, there is incredible value in getting out in the abyss and looking beyond the end of our proverbial nose to see that there's others, and they're beautiful. We find that the things that we are so preoccupied with don't even begin to matter. Suddenly, that new iPhone or the thing whose purpose is unknown on slight discount at Target are just not worth it. Prostitution becomes not a joke but a painful reality. Food standards. The ability to live for your dreams! I hear a lot of talk about privilege, and one hell of a way to shatter all of our ideas about how we don't have enough, is to go see how little others live with and on.
And this is not to say no one on the street has ever been brought to Jesus through these kinds of trips, but that there is invaluable experience to be had in getting beyond your borders and seeing what else is out there. That the transformation of simply seeing other people, and trying to love them for a second in the scheme of your life, makes an impact. Like anything else, we may not fully be able to quantify that impact, but we need to stop perpetuating the baseless falsehood that it's meaningless.
