wfn.org | Short term mission

[BethAH@mbm.org]

January 17, 2001
Beth Hawn
Communications Coordinator
Mennonite Board of Missions
phone (219) 294-7523
fax (219) 294-8669
<www.MBM.org>

January 17, 2001

Short-term mission experiences require preparation, sensitivity

“Deep in the Appalachian Mountains of central Pennsylvania is
Lewistown, a region still heavily populated by Amish and
Mennonite people.  Half of the residents in this community live
in the low- to moderate-income range.  More than 1,800 homes in
the area are in need of substantial rehabilitation.  In these
beautiful surroundings, you can provide the kind of help that
these residents cannot provide for themselves.  There is a wide
variety of home-repair and renovation projects to be performed.
If you and your church youth don’t do the work, who will?” – ad
recruiting participants for a short-term mission experience

ROSEMONT, Ill. (GCMC/MBM) – As Del Hershberger read an ad by a
national group that provides short-term experiences, the irony
rolled off his tongue:  “If you and your unskilled church youth
don’t do the work in this community of Amish and Mennonite
craftsfolk, who will?”

Hershberger’s example of inappropriate motives for short-term
mission experiences came the closest to home for more than three
dozen Mennonite pastors, service providers and others
participating in a Jan. 11-13 short-term mission consultation,
“The Impact of Short-Term Missions on Congregational Life,”
organized here by Mennonite Board of Missions.  But it was not
the most outlandish.

In Tijuana, Mexico, a youth pastor who organizes short-term
mission projects for church groups finds out very quickly whether
groups come to serve the community’s needs or to insist they have
a better way of doing things.  “For the ones who insist they know
a better way, he takes them to a wall and says, ‘Folks, paint
this wall,’” said Jorge Vallejos, director for MBM Short-Term
Mission, telling the consultation participants, “The wall has 30
or 40 coats of paint.”

In Denver, when youth groups encounter the city’s homeless
population through DOOR (Discovering Opportunities for Outreach
and Reflection), there is one man who eagerly awaits believers
distributing leather Bibles.  “They have interesting paper.  Do
you want to know what the paper is good for?  Rolling marijuana,”
said Glenn Balzer, director of DOOR, which organizes experiences
in Denver, Chicago and Miami.  “One guy gets ‘led’ to the Lord
four or five times a year. When he runs out of paper to roll his
joints, he gets ‘led to the Lord.’  ... The groups go away
thinking they’re leading someone to the Lord.”

“What is the purpose of short-term missions?” asked Hershberger,
coordinator of Group Venture, a program of the Commission on Home
Ministries of the General Conference Mennonite Church and MBM
that helps congregations plan short-term mission experiences for
groups.  “I believe the most important reason for going on a
short-term mission trip is discipleship.  Discipleship involves a
journey of walking with Jesus and others who are followers of
Jesus.  It is imperative that the mission trip be placed in the
context of learning and growing, of waiting and listening, with a
healthy dose of humility.”

In 2000, Group Venture began providing orientation sessions for
group leaders to help them prepare their participants, primarily
high-school-aged youth, for their mission experience.  “Going
with all the answers suggests either an unbelievable arrogance on
our part or an unwillingness to be open to learn based on our
larger picture of God and the world that we encounter,”
Hershberger said.  But with sufficient pre-trip orientation and a
commitment to “do no harm” in the host community, the
participants in short-term mission can have their lives
transformed.

Kidron (Ohio) Mennonite Church is located “in a very rural,
sleepy community ... pretty far removed from any of the urban
centers of Ohio,” according to Pastor Terry Shue.  “The number of
short-term mission workers [from the congregation]  has helped to
increase our worldview as a congregation,” Shue said.  “There is
a direct, positive and verifiable relationship between those who
have done short-term mission work and those who want to go into
long-term mission work.  ... The emphasis is about teaching a
lifestyle of service and not just an event.”

As it hosts short-term experiences, the Los Angeles Faith Chapel
in Inglewood, Calif., has encountered its share of insensitive
participants.  Some participants felt they had come “to teach us”
and expected to be taken to Disneyland and Universal Studios,
said Pastor Chuwang Pam, a native Nigerian.  But, “really the
blessings far outweigh the pain,” said Pam, describing the times
when participants build relationships with the congregation and
are able to share their gifts in the community.  “When that
happens, the day or evening a participant is leaving, you should
come to our church.  It is like the participant is dying,” he
said.  “Two months later, two years later, we’re still making
references to them.  There is a relationship, and it is
long-term.

“Overall, short-term mission has truly, truly been a blessing to
us,” he added.

The blessing, according to consultation participants, clearly
flows in many directions.  Two congregations in Goshen, Ind.,
Clinton Frame and Yellow Creek Mennonite churches, sent their
youth groups to Brownsville, Texas, where the youth spent time
with the family of Juan Raul Garza, who is in a federal
penitentiary in Terre Haute, Ind., and could become the first
federally executed prisoner since 1963.

“It was a profound experience for us as our young adults
encountered their children,” said Robert Shreiner, pastor of
Clinton Frame Mennonite Church.  “This child said to our MYFers,
‘Can you tell me why your people from back where you live in
Indiana are going to execute my father?’

The youth group participants returned to Goshen and began writing
letters to President Clinton and making phone calls to seek a
stay of Garza’s execution.  “It caused our youth to really get
into the issue of capital punishment,” Shreiner said.  “The
lesson that our youth learned through that experience was to
become more responsible, not only as kingdom citizens but as
citizens within our community, within our state, to help do what
we can to change a direction for a family they had personal
contact with.”

Short-term experiences make up the fastest-growing segment of
mission and account for more than 90 percent of all mission
assignments.  While proponents say short-term mission introduces
participants to a lifelong commitment to service, critics say
such efforts perpetuate stereotypes, create dependency, and
destabilize the communities they’re intended to serve.  Yet
participants in this three-day consultation saw room for
short-term mission with integrity, particularly when it is
connected to long-term ministry initiatives and done with respect
for local cultures and needs.

“I know of long-term missionaries who do a lot of destruction
too.  ... It’s not whether you are short- or long-term, but it is
an issue of where the heart is,” said Balzer, whose program
encourages participants to “see the face of Jesus in the city.”

“If their mission is ‘we’re coming to Denver to bring Jesus
Christ to the city,’ that sounds nice and sweet and theologically
lousy,” said DOOR’s Balzer.  “Jesus Christ is alive and well in
Denver.  Before you can bring Jesus to a situation, you need to
discover where Jesus is.  ...

“We tell every group that comes to Denver, ‘What we want to see
happen is to have your heart broken by the things that break the
heart of Jesus,’” he said.  “We want to help young people
understand that faith is more than a Sunday event, something that
could be lived out in their lives.”

MBM is compiling resources from the Jan. 11-13 short-term mission
consultation, “The Impact of Short-Term Missions on
Congregational Life,” on its web site, www.MBM.org.  For more
information, e-mail ShortTermMission@MBM.org or call
219-294-7523.

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Tom Price        PHOTOS AVAILABLE