Friday, November 08, 2013

Not a Fan of Missions Trips

I don't want to offend, but I'm not a big fan of missions trips, at least how most of them are conducted. They drag impressionable young people off to booogal googlla somewhere and they see dire poverty. Without understanding the come back to the USA and somehow decide that it's our fault they are poor. That our being rich is somehow a curse on us because they live on a dollar a day or some such. That is flawed economics and flawed theology. It messes kids up. IF they grasped what and why they would understand and begin to deal with the cause and not the symptoms. It creates guilt where none should exist. Worse, it can cause them to reject the very thing that would help these poor people get out of poverty. Not everything we call mercy IS. One more thing, IF you have ever preached about how rich we are compared to the poor people of the world ... I beg you to STOP. You are creating attitudes that will impoverish the very people you are preaching to and make things worse, not better, globally.

2 comments:

Anonymous said...

I agree. Ask most "career" missionaries (those who have spent at least 10 years on mission fields outside the U.S)., and they will agree that these very "short-term" mission trips do not properly "educate" the American visitors to the mission field about the reality of mission work and the real needs of the indigenous people. .. (by someone who served 12 years in Africa... h.h.)

Anonymous said...

I agree. Ask most "career" missionaries (those who have spent at least 10 years on mission fields outside the U.S)., and they will agree that these very "short-term" mission trips do not properly "educate" the American visitors to the mission field about the reality of mission work and the real needs of the indigenous people. .......................................... ..
(comments by someone who served 12 years in Africa... h.h.)