What’s in this for you? What’s in this for them?

This is a photo of the church in Cartegena, Columbia during worship. A friend from our church named Brian Massey is the IMB missionary there. His gift is music and teaching and he does a wonderful job there in Columbia.

Today post will be the second post in a series concerning steps for preparing for a mission trip. It’s amazing how many people benefit from a short-term mission trip. One church group came up with 37 distinct benefits of sending a mission team. These benefits will flow in three different directions: toward those you serve, your group, and yourself.

Some benefits to those you serve:
• You bring fresh energy, willing hands, and encouragement to your hosts, both the missionary and the national.
• You provide the resources or know-how to fulfill a need.
• Your host experiences community with the larger body of Christ as you worship and work together.
• Some may come to Christ

Some benefits to your group:
• What you learn in another culture shapes and brings new perspectives into the group.
• Leadership abilities grow and become stronger.
• Others are encouraged to grow by stepping out of their comfort zones through observing the group in action.
• People live out newly examined values in light of a larger worldview when they return to their home church.
• The group gains a new vision and enthusiasm for serving at home.

Some personal benefits:
• Make new friends with your team and hosts.
• Be challenged to grow spiritually.
• Use your gifts to build the body of Christ.
• Grow a larger heart for the lost and needy.
• Learn to live and love in the diversity of another culture.
• Experience fulfillment as you strive to learn, love, and serve I the name of Jesus.

That’s a pretty impressive list, isn’t it? Yet when you return home from your trip, you will add some benefits of your own. Looking at these lists can also be a little intimidating. Can God do all this through you and in you? You’re likely to experience dependence on Him in a whole new way. You will need to depend on His power, not your own.

Look at the list of benefits and mentally put a check mark by the ones you get most excited about. Pray for these things to become a reality. In the book of Ephesians, we find some real encouragement about depending on God. In Ephesians 3:14-21, we see what God’s power can do. Record three ways that His power can help you.

Now take some time to write out a prayer about your need to depend on God’s power and not your own in light of your responsibilities on your mission trip.