Are you a church leader looking for a short-term mission trip?
Tyndale Bible Translators (TBT), like you, wants to develop in your church members a passion to live for God. In previous decades,short-term mission teams who did construction and painting, are now almost always best accomplished by hiring local nationals who need the work in order to feed their families.
The director of TBT actually had an entire evangelism ministry open up because God blocked his efforts to get several American short-term construction teams to come help him. That resulted in him hiring nationals to do the construction and painting work, and some of the construction workers became Christians.. TBT needs churches who are training their people to serve in their own community.
Is your church painting the houses of the widows in your church and the community? Is your church helping single mothers care for their children? Are you reaching the unlovely right where you are located? Are the high school and college students in your church reaching out to non-Christians or discipling others, helping with Vacation Bible School/Camp, Sunday School classes, or youth groups?
While it is more difficult these days getting police checks for church workers, it is a proven fact that the best long-term training for mission work and spiritual growth is to involve college and high school students in discipleship ministries. High school students can help teach Sunday School and college age students can help with the youth.
It is true that sometimes a short-term mission trip can jumpstart a spiritual life. However, in most cases, a short-term mission trip runs on high adrenaline during its short duration, which is followed by an adrenaline letdown. It is better to build discipleship ministries at home, and to involve church members in longer-term local ministries. This develops the tenacity and skills in them that the church and missions like TBT need in those who serve with us.
If you don’t know where to start, we suggest that you contact the local police or fire chaplain, or an inner-city mission director who serve in your community, to discuss both short-term and long-term ministry outreaches.A good book on making short term missions more impactful is Global Adventures In Short Term Missions: A Practical Guide For 360° Spiritual Development (available at Amazon or Barnes & Noble).
Are you thinking of serving with Tyndale?
Missions have different personalities and focuses, but you need a sender to go overseas. Believers can more easily choose a sending organization by three questions:
- What am I passionate about?
- What am I willing to suffer for?
- Where do I sense God wants me?
Christian service is about flexibility. It’s about dying to comfort and self and going where God wants us to serve, whether for months or years. You do not need short-term trip experience to become a long-term missionary. No airplane seat or ocean crossing gets anyone ready for overseas missions. But years of service in the church and community where God has you right now does make you ready.
Why Serve by Faith?
All who serve with Tyndale Bible Translators (TBT) are faith missionaries, which simply means TBT does not provide salaries. People and churches you are involved with and have served alongside are the ones God will use to tithe and help you serve elsewhere around the world. Your church mission committee may also choose to send those, like you, who have actively served in the church. Know that being a faith missionary, with no company salary, is part of learning to depend only on God. It is scary, but God builds our faith in amazing ways, as people want to be partners and send us!
Not Good Learning Languages?
Did you go to Bible School? Wonder what to do with that education? TBT specifically needs Bible School or seminary graduates and those who have good Bible knowledge who love studying the Bible! ! Are you willing to serve cross-culturally as a Bible translation team facilitator? This job doesn’t focus on learning a foreign language. Since Tyndale’s focus is enabling national people to translate in their own mother-tongue, we support them, to get the Bible translated. (Teaching Westerners the language takes their focus off of translating the Bible.) Yes, you can and will learn language along the way, but naturally, slowly.
How Can We Help National Translators?
Your role in TBT as a Bible translation team facilitator is to help others succeed in tasks God gives them. You will essentially be the team “English dictionary,” explaining verses and word meanings and checking drafts for accurate meaning. You’ll troubleshoot computer needs and help with the team finances. You’ll also do Biblical research for hard-to-translate verses. Since languages are complex and diverse, easy verses in English may be difficult to translate into the language you are serving.
Not Your Fit?
Besides Bible Translation Facilitators, Bible translation also needs auto mechanics, teachers, nurses and doctors, bookkeepers, electricians, sailors and IT computer help desk experts. This is just a partial list of team members needed to serve together in Bible translation. If you want to serve God with your skills, Tyndale Bible Translators would love to extend an invitation to you. Call us!
Missions often work together overseas. TBT would be your home agency and may, with your permission, place you in a school (if you are a teacher), or another location where another mission also needs your skills.
How Does Tyndale Serve You?
Read more about Tyndale Financial Considerations.