For whom is the Short Term Mission Trip?

As I sit in the staff meeting of one of the most influential churches in the world; I see leaders of various summer outreaches (short term mission teams) to different nations reporting to the senior pastor about their success stories.  Video clips and slides, with fitting music, of their spoils in foreign lands are projected to the meeting with intermittent clapping of hands by the members of the meeting in celebrating their victories.  The slides and video clips take us in a ride with them to the place they have just conquered for the glory of God (wonder if it is really for God's glory).  We start with them in their cameras from the very beginning till the end; the departure from the church, the bus to airport, the plane, the welcoming in the foreign land by their resident missionary along with some local helpless hands who are forced to present the bouquets to the incoming dignitaries.  As the team moves from the airport; the pictures and the clips continue to take us to the house settings of the missionary in the land, and gives us a sense of visiting some mansions of multimillionaires of the land or to the corrupt politicians because the economy of these nations tells us that life in these mansions is only possible with extra-ordinary amount of money which is only available to the multimillionaire businessmen or to the corrupt politicians but now it appears that we can also add certain missionaries in that list. 

As the team enters the mansion, almost every member is seen falling on the knees as if they have entered the most holy place on earth.  The mansion has enough space for 10 to 15 members who start unpacking their bags; some start putting the local outfits in order to be able to touch the local population within the period of time they have in their hands; one week or 8 days at the most.  As they move in and around the compound of the mansion; they run into the drivers, watchmen, gardeners and other servants of the missionary and immediately start putting to the test the language they had learned while they were preparing for this mission trip back in their homeland.  These workers of the missionaries are very kind to these ignorant, foolish and gullible team members who cannot comprehend whether they are being treated with kindness or craftiness; they cannot tell whether they are treated with kindness because of who they are or what they can leave behind for these people when they return.

Soon, some of the local church member (leaders) appear at the mansion and with the pleasant smile on their faces start familiarizing with the team.  Together, they begin to give a final touch to important aspects of their missions to the nation; worship dance with various cultural elements, stationeries, balloons, some gift items for every member who will be attending tomorrow's church worship.  They also have brought some boxes of old clothes, medicine, and some musical and electronic materials but these things are handed to the missionary who can use his or her discretion as what to do with them. 

Its time for the church; local people begin to pour in regardless of whether they are Christians or not and otherwise half empty hall, today it is jam-packed.  You could tell the difference between believers and non-believers the way they behaved.  The believers had some kind of a depressing look on their faces and mostly kept their heads down, either praying or avoiding the cameras whereas the non-believers were smiling and making sure that their faces were in as many pictures and videos.  Most of the members are shabbily clothed; only the leaders and missionary's workers have some good clothes on them; these are the most active members in the church.  They never sat in worship; they were busy in helping the mission team to perform. 

The worship began, fewer songs today because the visiting team also has to sing, they had been practicing these songs and dances for weeks if not months; but these songs are not in the local language, no one understands except the team and the missionary family.  The leader of the team preaches, local pastor is not seen in the pulpit today (may be he was told to cook); the missionary introduces the speaker and then translates the sermon but the look on the face of the believers tells that there is nothing to be blessed with that message but the non-believers continue to smile and even respond with "Hallelujah" and "Amen"!  In the children's worship, there is much fun; candies, toys, balloons and some stationeries and even a school bag!  As the worship is over, the visiting team is already at the door standing in line; handing something to every church member as one leaves the hall; it is a small towel with the name of the church printed!  There is food today in the church; everyone appears to be having a great fun and the major part of the mission trip done!

The next day the team heads to an orphanage; hands over some clothes, balloons, and toys.  They even venture outdoor evangelism but local people give them some quirky looks and move on.  The day is done with that; team takes rest and the missionary then takes them to an exotic restaurant in town for the dinner.  As it is now too late at night, the team crashes because tomorrow they have to teach to the local leaders that the missionary has invited from various churches; some of these leaders the missionary supports financially because they have lately joined him along with their congregations and others are invited with the possibility of future support if they bring their little congregations with them and join the missionary's growing church planting ministry.  As the training session ends, with only about 25% of teaching being understood; the local leaders who are surviving on missionary's mercy claim that they had been greatly blessed with such a great learning experience!  When they begin to say goodbye (some of them had come from very distant and remote areas of the country) to the missionary; they tell him "please when the next mission team comes, bring that team to my church"!  The missionary gives them a look of appreciation and thanks them for being such a faithful bunch of followers and promises them that he will try to bring the team to their churches as soon as possible. 

After two days of sightseeing, the team is back to the homeland and ready to edit those videos and pictures to be presented to the main church and also the the members who helped them financially for their mission trip.  After the reporting, senior pastor is greatly pleased and asks everyone in the meeting to thank God for such a great success of his church's outreach!  I also slip out of the room and start writing this blog!