It’s only been a couple weeks since we returned from Haiti and already we’re planning our next trip back, most likely in October.

It’s becoming clear to me that short-term missions is one of the most powerful ways to do discipleship that has long-term life-transformation condensed into a short, but impactful, period of time. It’s basically following Jesus’ model of discipleship by traveling with teens to do ministry as you teach and model for them them what discipleship is all about. (Note: there’s a difference between missions trips and work projects. I’m talking about missions trips.)

Because of that, it seems to me that, not only should we be doing more mission trips, but we should also be pushing more resources toward it than we do. Since my church’s fiscal year starts July 1, I recently proposed reallocating over half of my youth group’s budget toward two trips to Haiti next year, which will probably be approved.

Listen to the testimonies and stories from the adults and teens on our last trip to Haiti. It explains why.

I’ve also learned that there is tremendous value in doing church-wide missions trips rather than just youth group trips. When parents, adults, grandparents, siblings and college students all come together to serve, something incredible happens and the impact is far greater than if it’s just a group of teens with a couple adult leaders.

Church To Church program

You can also get involved by participating in Adventures In Mission’s Church To Church program, an opportunity to partner with a church in Haiti for prayer, encouragement, rebuilding, and even trips to lend helping hands. In fact, Mark Oestreicher, Doug Pagitt, Seth Barnes, and others have formed a team are going back to Haiti next week to finalize the Church To Church program. They’re also trying to raise $35,000 to fund the salaries of a few Haitian leaders for the next three years who will lead and mobilize the effort on the Haitian side, thus impacting even more churches and communities for many years to come.

You can follow their trip on Facebook and Twitter.

Posted on May 20, 2010