Are you a church leader looking for a short term mission trip?
Tyndale Bible Translator (TBT), like you, wants to develop in your church members a passion to live for God. Painting and building mission trips, which in previous decades were often undertaken by short term mission teams, 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, which resulted in some of the construction workers being saved. 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 at? 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, and to involve church members in longer-term local ministries, which 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 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. There is also a good book on making short term missions more impactful titled Global Adventures In Short Term Missions: A Practical Guide For 360° Spiritual Development available at Amazon or Barnes & Noble.