Mission ? - When some thing is missing!
I came across a fellow blogger while on holiday in Orkney. Andrew Jones is quite a well known writer especially on the topic of the Emerging Church . He was telling me that he set Jonny Baker up with his first blog
Anyway I looked up the Skinny Kiwi and found he was writing this week about an article that appeared in the Washington Post about churches in America rethinking their short term mission projects. One church spent over $30,000 in airfares to build a $2,000 dollar house. No doubt the economics need to be looked at, but what was missing from all of these American programmes was the recognition that the mission is not just the house building but it is the journey and the mix of people who go on the journey. The journey itself is mission. We always need to allow space fro the seeker and the doubter to journey with us on mission.
However used in the right way, going on a short mission trip can change the outlook and purpose of many a person. When it comes to the Vine Trust just think how many people who started out on the journey to Peru with no faith are now discovering that God can be encountered in the face of the poor. Just think how the work party trips to Peru has influenced someone like Erica. Today she and Lorna ( Known in the blogging community as Soultouch ), are in the forefront of the new missionary movement. Using technology to help bring about change by allowing ordinary people to have a voice.
I think it is really exciting when we begin to think what we have achieved to date. However there is a much bigger prize awaiting those who are prepared to think "out of the box " when it comes to engaging with the Spirit of God. Have a look at our present worldwithoutwalls web page its only the beginning but already we have over 130 movies up with around 30 partnerships all telling their stories. Before the end of the year I hope that we will be engaged in a couple of projects that will take WWW to another level. And you know what when something is missing you go looking for it. You don't give up. So ell me what do you think ? What's missing from short term mission?
Posted By: oj On: 10 Dec 2008 At: 3:38pm
I saw that you have a blog on short term missions. Looks great!
We’re building the blogroll of our short term missions blog on UrbanMinistry.org. We’d like to add your blog to our blogroll list, and were wondering if you would do the same for us. You could just call the link short term missions at UrbanMinistry.org. The URL is http://www.urbanministry.org/short_term_missions
It’s good to see others with a passion for short term missions and linking to each other seems like a great way to expand the community of people trying to bring social change on this issue.
Let me know if you have any questions or if you have other ideas on how we might collaborate and connect our communities.