Bill Walsh is the Director of International Outreach at Desiring God.

We are rejoicing this week in the Lord’s provision for our Creole resource project for Haiti.  Many of you have responded and we have met our goal of raising $20,000 to fully fund this publication. Thank you for your partnership!

Read about our work to create and print a translation of the For Your Joy booklet for Haiti.

Many of our partners are currently engaged in humanitarian and church-strengthening work in the country after the devastating earthquake. They have come to us asking for a translated resource to help them bring the gospel together with their work in relief and development for the region. So far 57,000 have been requested.

If you or your organization are active in Haiti, please let us know if you’d like to request bulk copies.

Pray for the wounded and those who have lost family members. Pray for the many Christians and ministries currently working there. Meeting the deep spiritual, social, and physical needs of Haiti will require transformation of hearts, churches, and communities. Ours and theirs.

Last year DG International Outreach initiated a project that involves providing a small theological library for 16,000 French-speaking pastors in Africa.

We partnered with Éditions Clé and SIM to translate the book Battling Unbelief into French so it could become part of this set.

The translation work is complete and the funding is halfway.

Please pray for and consider supporting SIM so that African pastors who lack sound biblical resources can grow in their understanding of the truth and be equipped to teach their congregations.

Photo courtesy of Food for the Hungry

Se yon sèl eksplikasyon ki genyen pou sakrifis Bondye fè pou nou an. Pa gen anyen nan nou ki te ka fè nou merite anyen nan men Bondye. “Se yon bagay gratis li ye” (Efezyen 1:7). Sakrifis Jezi a se pa yon repons ak valè nou. Se pa paske nou gen valè ki fè Bondye fè yon sakrifis ki gen valè pou nou. Se pito valè enfini pa Bondye ki anvayi nou annabondans. An rezime men sa lanmou diven an ye : se yon pasyon ki pouse Bondye fè tout sa li konnen, li peye gwo pri pou li chame yon seri pechè ki pa merite sa, konsa pou li ka plen kè nou ak lajwa padan tout letènite ; kè kontan ekstrèm sa a ap gen kòm baz li, laglwa enfini Bondye.

It has been more than a month since the catastrophic earthquake in Haiti and, as often happens, the news coverage is gradually declining in the face of other critical world events. But, the human tragedy continues to be staggering. In January we directed you to a number of trusted ministries doing relief and development work in-country. Our own Lukas Naugle made a brief trip down with Churches Helping Churches to investigate the situation.

As the weeks go on, many of these organizations will be shifting from emergency relief to long-term development work. They will be laboring alongside Haitian nationals to re-build their infra-structure and society. The most effective development organizations will employ a holistic approach that involves strengthening physical, economic, social, and spiritual dimensions.  They will also, whenever possible, work in and through the local churches and their leaders.

Our vision for International Outreach is built on partnering with trusted ministries like these. We aim to provide God-centered resources as tools for spreading gospel truth and strengthening the church in regions of the world where the needs are most acute.

In the weeks since the earthquake, we have been receiving requests for a Creole-language resource from a number of our partners. In response, we are creating a translation of the For Your Joy booklet that can be used for evangelism and discipleship. The interest has been strong, so we are planning a print run of 100,000. We plan to provide cases of this booklet free of charge to partnering ministries working in Haiti.

In order to do this, we’d like to invite you to consider a gift towards this project. Visit our donation page and designate “Creole Resource.” Our target is $20,000.

If you or your organization are working in Haiti and would like to obtain copies of this booklet, please visit this online form and give us your information. We will be in touch with you once they are ready.

And if you don’t read Creole, here’s the translation of the quote above. Pray with us that God might use this truth to bring lasting hope to many Haitians.

There is only one explanation for God’s sacrifice for us. It is not us. It is “the riches of his grace” (Ephesians 1:7). It is all free. It is not a response to our worth. It is the overflow of his infinite worth. In fact, that is what divine love is in the end: a passion to enthrall undeserving sinners, at great cost, with what will make us supremely happy forever, namely, his infinite beauty.

I love this photo we received from some great International Outreach partners who are heading to the Philippines shortly.

A doctor and his wife will be departing from Rochester, Minnesota to join with Filipino doctors in medical ministry for the unreached and physically-needy in rural regions of the country. They will also be ministering to indigenous pastors in the backcountry and bringing along resources from Desiring God to assist in theological training.

This is a great example of cross-cultural partnership for holistic ministry to those in need. It’s a great joy to be a part of this effort.

As we engage in Theological Famine Relief for the Global Church, one of the core burden’s on our hearts at DG International Outreach continues to be the incredible need for Global South church leaders to receive biblical equipping for their ministry. Some say that 85% of pastors worldwide have had little to no theological training whatsoever.

We are partnering with an increasing number of ministries using informal, short-term approaches for training pastors in developing nations. We are donating books and media in English and other languages to help in this effort. Also, we have written a curriculum for informal theological training, based on John Piper’s book, The Pleasures of God.
 
One new ministry that we are happy to partner with is Training Leaders International. This ministry was born out of a desire to provide careful theological education to places where training is hard to come by. This ministry has brought together an outstanding board of well-known godly men to help the mission.
 
Training Leaders International equips young evangelical scholars to train church leaders where theological training is lacking or not available. Seasoned missionaries and cross-cultural teachers mentor young competent evangelical scholars who have the desire to teach but do not understand how to do so in a different culture.

Every trip is done at the request of, in cooperation with, and in submission to local national leaders, theological institutions and churches.

It is our prayer that the long term effect of the mentoring will bear fruit through some teachers being called into full-time, cross-cultural missions, while others gain an ability to understand the important issues and be better equipped to partner with the global church while ministering in the United States.
 
Please take a moment to read more about how you can support Training Leaders International.  

With you, we at DG International Outreach are watching the news coming out of Haiti and praying for the victims and those who will be working to bring relief in the coming days. One of those groups bringing aid is Food for the Hungry, which has become a great partner of this ministry. We would like to encourage you to support their work.

Their vision is to answer the call to respond to physical and spiritual hungers worldwide through action and advocacy for those who Jesus spoke about when he quoted the prophet Isaiah in Luke 4:18,

He has anointed me to preach good news to the poor. He has sent me to proclaim freedom for the prisoners and recovery of sight for the blind, to release the oppressed.

Here is how they are describing the situation:

FH staff on the ground have indicated that food and water are not available for purchase within Port-au-Prince, and that looting is already beginning as desperate people try to obtain what they can.  Major medical facilities have collapsed, hindering first aid help for those injured in the quake.  Communications are almost impossible, and a fuel shortage is cutting off transportation.  FH has only been able to contact five of our 20 Haitian staff members.  Meanwhile, survivors and rescue workers are digging through rubble to reach people trapped in collapsed buildings.

 Here’s the latest on how FH is responding:

FH’s Relief Director is en route to Port-au-Prince to join the efforts of Haitian staff and to assess our next phase of response. Staff in the Dominican Republic are also standing by to join relief efforts as soon as it is possible to cross the border. 

FH’s wholistic development initiatives reach tens of thousands of Haitians with HIV/AIDS and child survival programs in several of the poorest slums near Port au Prince, including Petionville, Jalousie and Bois Moquette. These areas were hit severely —the homes and other buildings in these slums are built on steep, unstable hillsides and not built to code.  During this crisis, program staff will utilize existing relationship networks to bring emergency help to these communities.

A wonderful brother and partner of this ministry told me this story recently and I knew right away that we should share it with you. It illustrates the kind of God-ordained provisions that we joyfully witness almost every day. We’re withholding his name to protect his ability to get visas for travel to sensitive countries.

The call came from the office of the President of Burundi (Central Africa). Since the cessation of civil war a wonderful new Christian President had been elected and he has a new and vibrant Secret Service and National Police Force. He wanted them trained in leadership, but it needed to be leadership taught from the Bible! What a joyous request from the President.

Upon landing in Burundi we were met at the airport by Pastor Theopolis (name changed) and taken to our hotel to prepare for the week of training. We met with the Colonel of the Secret Service and I must admit that most of the Burundian officials wondered out loud what the Bible could really say about leadership in post-war Africa.

By mid-day of the first day of training the postures of the men and women changed from laid back to sitting on the edge of their seats. We had given each of them a Bible in French and it was beginning to come alive to them. They were seeing how the leadership issues and examples from their new Bibles  connect to a post-war nation.

Stories could go on about the week of training. I left the officers with tears in my eyes. They had a Bible and manuscript of the Bible teachings, but they asked for more. They wanted to study about this glorious and wonderful God. I had nothing more to give them, until…

A few months later I was meeting with Bill Walsh of Desiring God International Outreach and we discussed the needs in central and eastern Africa. After that conversation, Desiring God decided to send me cases of books that would benefit the pastors and the Secret Service men and women.

But how to get these heavy boxes there? The shipping cost was prohibitive. Three wonderful cases of books for Burundi, but who travels to Burundi?

I was at home when the phone rang. It was Pastor Theopolis. We chatted and I asked about the ministry and his continued work with the Secret Service and National Police. He said that many were now Christians and working in churches across the cities and nation, but they were thirsty for materials.

I told him of the cases and then the news came! Theopolis was calling me from a two-day visit to Virginia and was leaving the next day on the evening flight to Amsterdam. It did not take me but a few minutes to get his address and depart for the FedEx office. The three cases would be in pastor’s hands by 10:00 the next morning and in Burundi two days later! Theological training was on its way. God’s providence is magnificent.

The ministry of Desiring God International Outreach is a blessing from God. And couriers are that special link—people who can stuff a duffle bag with resources to help relieve the theological famine in this world. Now there is a marvelous library in central Africa and Christians who can access a deeper understanding of God.

But, in my travels to 40 nations I also know that we need these materials in other languages—Russian, Turkish, simple Chinese, and many more. I was blessed that God flew one pastor to the USA to become his own courier, but I would guess that every church in the USA has at least one “courier” that will be headed overseas in the next few months. The goal is to take that extra duffel bag and Pack Hope!  

Will you be traveling from the U.S. overseas soon? Learn more about how you can join us in getting free resources around the world.

You’ve put together a checklist for your upcoming overseas trip. Gone over it numerous times to make sure you haven’t missed anything. (After all, where you’re going, you can’t just make a quick stop at Target for something you forgot.)

Now that all your clothes and toiletries are packed, what more do you need to bring?

How about packing some extra hope?

We’re looking for international travelers to help us donate and deliver critical resources to our partners in faraway places.

The global Christian church has experienced tremendous growth in recent decades. But with the increase in numbers there remains a widespread famine of biblical teaching, leaving many weak. DG International Outreach is partnering with a growing network involved in cross-cultural ministry. We distribute books and media to friends involved in missions and church-planting all over the world. But, international shipping is exorbitant, often costing more than the resources themselves.

That’s where you come in!

Whether you’re a business traveler or a missions worker heading to the field, we want to pack your bags full of Christ-exalting, hope-filled resources.

Here’s how it works:

As you prepare to go overseas, let us know if you are willing to serve as a courier. If we have a partner near your destination in need of resources, we will ship them to you stateside before you leave. Your role is to pack them in your bags and deliver them upon your arrival.

Through this very practical means, you can join us in providing theological famine relief for the global church. Together we can pack hope in your bags and deliver God-centered teaching to believers in need all over the world.

Special Offer for National Conference Attendees

We will have a special opportunity for those who will be attending the Desiring God National Conference this coming weekend.

The International Outreach team will be set up in the Exhibition Hall/Bookstore, prepared to sit down and talk with you about connections you may have with missions and church-planting efforts outside the United States. We will be ready to send cases of DG resources with you on the spot if you will make a commitment to getting them overseas in the next 6 months.

Please look for us where you see the graphic below. We’d love to sit down and talk! Lord willing, you may end up with a little extra luggage as you depart from Minneapolis.

Friday was spent hiking through the various communities built along the side of the Andes with Food for the Hungry partners. We were able to spend time with three remarkable pastors—Pastor Ramos, Pastor Navarro, and Pastor Antonio—and one of the community presidents. It was instructive to see the holism that accompanies the ministry of these pastors and their churches. Both words and deeds have to be present in these poverty-stricken communities.

“Holistic ministry,” of course, is fast on its way to becoming another evangelical cliché. But these pastors are a testimony to the power of a truly gospel-centered ministry. It is a worthwhile study to work through the complementary nature of Jesus’ demonstrations of new creation (miracles and confrontations with powers) and his discourses that follow. The preaching is an explanation of the miracles. And the miracles are testimony to a new reality; the new reality of God setting the world aright through the life, death and resurrection of his Son. This pattern is also repeated through the testimony of the church in the book of Acts.

We are whole persons, with intellectual, psychological, physical, and spiritual needs. Gospel-faithful ministry must tend to all of these. The vision of International Outreach is to strengthen the global church to carry out holistic ministry. And part of holistic ministry is the faithful preaching and teaching of the gospel.

It has been a thrill to listen to the pastors here and hear of their triumphs. It has also been a joy to provide resources and help them along in their service to communities in dire need.

Read the post from Day 1.

This week Mike Thate and I are in Lima, Peru as part of a vision trip with Food for the Hungry. DG International Outreach has partnered with FH over the past couple of years in several ways. We have given them resources for their candidate school and staff in the field. Also, you may have seen a past blog post about an FH famine relief project in Myanmar that Desiring God supported.

On this trip we are continuing to strengthen our partnership with our friends at Food for the Hungry. We are spending time meeting with Peruvian church leaders in some of the poorer communities of Lima in an effort to gain understanding of the nature of holistic ministry and the part that DGIO can play in bringing some relief to the theological famine.

Here’s an update from Mike on our first day:

Today was a full day of cultural orientation, spent mainly between the Peruvian Museo de la Nacion and the Franciscan Monastery and Museum in Lima, Peru. The entire seventh floor of the Museo is dedicated to the terrorist activities from 1980 - 2000. According to the video shown at the head of the tour, the seeds of violence began in the lecture halls of Maoist communist philosophers, notably Abimael Gúzman who lectured at San Cristóbal of Huamanga University. The twenty years of bloodshed stole the lives of some 70,000 people.

While walking through the Museo, one couldn’t help but feel the massive implications of failed utopias. The promise of a “better tomorrow” has repeatedly proven to be a noose around the necks of the recipients of these “promises.” When the future is the all-consuming goal the present becomes malleable to whatever whims are currently in power. The power of the gospel is the now-and-to-come nature of the kingdom and the continuity between this earth and the earth that will be reborn at the Lord’s return (Revelation 21). The groans of this earth are heard and will be redeemed (Romans 8) instead of simply scrapped or “cleansed.”

Lon Allison's article "A GPS for Global Mission" from Lausanne World Pulse sums up well the current questions and issues relevant to the global changes underway in the church. At this stage, I think questions are more helpful than anything. Here are four that Dr. Allison raises,

1. Since the demographic shift to the Global South is at hand, how do Western mission agencies and churches respond?
2. Resources, both financial and human, have, in general, not shifted. When should they? More importantly, how should they?
3. How does the Church in the West welcome missionaries from the Global South and East to re-evangelize our continents?
4. What role is there for ongoing mission to the Global South and East from the West?

These ought to keep us thinking for quite some time. They will be key in the discussion that takes place at the 2010 Third Lausanne Congress on World Evangelization in Cape Town, South Africa.

Please pray for John Piper who will be speaking at the event and for the Desiring God team who will be traveling there next year.

Twenty years ago, Bethlehem Baptist Church sent out a missionary family with Arab World Ministries. The relationship with AWM continued when in 2003 John Piper spoke at the AWM conference and highlighted the joy of serving God in missions.

For the past few years, Desiring God has been collaborating on a project to translate Piper sermons into Arabic for free online access. Now the sermon series Desiring God, preached back in the early 80’s is available both here at DG and through AWM’s Arabic-language outreach websites.

AWM began 128 years ago in Algeria and today has ministry teams throughout the Arab world. They employ two strategies: church planting through evangelism and discipleship, and mass media outreach through literature, radio, TV, and the Internet.

The interactive, relational media of their web ministry engages, evangelizes, and disciples young adults. These online ministries include mentoring, blogs, chat rooms, podcasts, television series, and an online magazine.

Desiring God and Arab World Ministries are dreaming about additional translation projects. This region of the world remains one of the least reached. Please pray for more ministry outreach among the Arab peoples.

While Ryan and his family prepared for long-term missions, he graciously gave his time as a volunteer for DG International Outreach. He brought tremendous skill and integrity to his work which bore wonderful fruit including this helpful post.

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As our family prepares to move overseas, we sometimes encounter this question in one form or another: 

Is the Western missionary model still legitimate?” 

The question stems from a variety of concerns and perspectives, but our basic answer must be “yes.”  Even with the high cost of sending and recent shifts in the global Church, it is still strategic and fitting for Western missionaries to cross geographical and linguistic boundaries in the pursuit of new worshipers of Jesus. 

Here is why I think so:

1. God wants his name to be great in every place as well as among every people. 

Though missiologists in the past couple of decades have rightly emphasized the importance of unreached people groups ("nations") as the focus of the Great Commission, there are a number of texts which seem to require a geographic and not exclusively an ethnic focus (e.g. Malachi 1:11). 

The Great Commission cannot be fulfilled by only reaching the unreached who migrate to America, or Christ doesn’t receive the glory he deserves.

2.  There are still hundreds of remote peoples who haven’t heard the gospel.

Many Unreached peoples are unrepresented in reached cities. In these cases, someone is going to have to cross cultural and geographic boundaries to deliver the message in the flesh.

3. Too little money is given to missions, not too much. 

God has blessed this nation with an abundance of resources, yet a staggeringly low percentage of Christian spending is channeled toward missions, especially missions to the unreached. 

When God’s people here in America are biblically calibrated, there are plenty of resources both to continue sending workers from the West, and to support indigenous pastors and church planters.

4. In many cases, the Church in the West has something to offer. 

With a long history of Christian thought, abundant resources, and relative lack of persecution, the Western Church can often make a contribution in places where the Church is younger and less grounded. 

Just as it would be arrogant to think that we know it all and have no need of the global Church, it would be arrogant to sit on our wealth of resources, history, and doctrinal development rather than make it accessible to the world.

5. Crossing cultures is a fitting means for the message. 

When Christians from more privileged and dominant-language cultures (such as America), set aside their comforts, rights, and security in order to identify with and minister to people of lesser-privileged cultures and more obscure languages, something powerful and gospel-adorning is communicated. 

To wrap up our posts from China, we’ve asked our friend and guide during this trip to describe the activities of our day and point you to a valuable online source of information on China.

*               *               *

As a friend of DG, and someone who has lived and worked in this great land for 20+ years, I have had the privilege of playing host to the team this week. I absolutely love showing people around and helping them to get a glimpse of what God is doing here.

We spent a good part of the day in tourist mode—shopping, eating great food, and visiting the Temple of Heaven. This is where the emperors of old, who were regarded as Heaven’s representative on earth, came once a year to make sacrifices and offer prayers on behalf of the people. 

We also visited with a friend of mine who runs a tea house and heard amazing stories of how God is using her and her tea house as a launching pad for spreading the Good News.

As the DG team's time in Beijing is winding down, our thoughts are now turning toward ways in which they can stay informed about the Chinese Church and dig deeper into the challenges and opportunities she faces. 

My main recommendation is a quarterly called the ChinaSource Journal. ChinaSource is a California-based think-tank dedicated to providing balanced perspectives and analysis on the Chinese Church. 

It's a subscription publication, but they have graciously made a special offer for DG readers. For the next two weeks, you may download the current issue for free. The theme of this issue is leadership development, and it looks at new patterns and trends in the development of Chinese church leaders. 

To quote the editor of the journal:  “Chinese church leaders are changing their strategies. Is the global church ready?” 

Yesterday we visited a Christian bookstore here in China and came across a title you might recognize. So for an update on the DG team in Beijing, here’s an image from the second day.

You may be surprised to find out that Christian books can be legally published and distributed inside mainland China.

We spent most our day discussing Christian publishing in China and getting an update on current projects involving translation of DG resources into Simplified Chinese for publication and for the web.

Pray with us that God will assist us in these projects and that they will bear fruit for the church in China.

A few months ago, Seth wrote about amazing developments in China. I recommend that you visit that post if you didn’t see it, and spend time reading the articles he links to. The Global China Center also regularly posts excellent content describing the church in China.

This past year, we’ve begun several significant publishing projects within mainland China as well as translation of sermon manuscripts for the web. God has been blessing these efforts and we are making good progress.

This week, a group from Desiring God will be visiting China to continue expanding our vision for partnering with the church to spread solid theological resources. We’ll visit leaders in Beijing, get an up-date on our projects, and learn more about Chinese culture.

Please pray that God will direct our steps and show us how we can serve our brothers and sisters in China.

Many of you are probably familiar with the devastating cyclone that hit Myanmar roughly a year ago. Tens of thousands were killed or displaced by this disaster. Many governments and Christian NGO’s responded with aid.

A lesser-known crisis is currently bringing hardship to the Burmese in a remote region of this country. Beginning in July 2008, a famine was caused by a phenomenon known as “mautam.”

Every 50 years flowering bamboo trees produce a fruit that nourishes the rat population, causing it to explode in numbers. These rats have been decimating farmlands, destroying crops such as rice and maize, the staple foods of the region. Now potentially 200,000 people face starvation. PBS has done an excellent documentary describing the situation while the Burmese government is doing little to help its own people.

Our friends at Food for the Hungry are currently working to provide relief assistance for the families in this region. God has given them great connections with local churches, but they are still working to raise more than $300,000 for this project.

The director of the program writes from the field,

[The victims] are struggling with God's good and sufficient help to do what they can to contribute to their own survival…These funds will go to the remote areas that are stranded in isolation. The volunteers look forward to the joy of delivering assistance where no others go. They will also take with them nutritional quick start gardening manuals with methods to rescue families under stress, and blessings from those who faithfully pray for them.

Desiring God is contributing to this relief effort and would like to encourage you to consider joining us. Food for the Hungry has a site you can visit in order to participate. Please pray for the Burmese, the country of Myanmar, and the workers in the field.

To finish our series on short-term missions, we go to “Seven Principles for Highly Effective Short-Term Missions” by Mike Stachura of Operation Mobilization. He points us toward the importance of a Christ-like attitude as we move out to serve those in need.

Nothing is more damaging to cross-cultural missions, short-term or long-term, than a patronizing, paternalistic attitude.  Paul came determined not to present himself, but Jesus Christ and Him crucified.  As for Paul, he wanted to be known as Christ's bondservant. A servant's spirit starts in the home church or group with a willingness to do whatever is asked. It is reflected in the team life where all members are willing to take their share of the workload. It means esteeming others, particularly national Christian workers, as better than ourselves.

As we prepare to go and serve this summer, let’s humble ourselves and ask the Lord to change our hearts as we meditate on his sacrifice for us.

Do nothing from rivalry or conceit, but in humility count others more significant than yourselves. Let each of you look not only to his own interests, but also to the interests of others.

Have this mind among yourselves, which is yours in Christ Jesus, who, though he was in the form of God, did not count equality with God a thing to be grasped, but made himself nothing, taking the form of a servant, being born in the likeness of men.

And being found in human form, he humbled himself by becoming obedient to the point of death, even death on a cross. (Philippians 2:3-8)

May God grant you fruitful and joyful service in short-term missions!

Day four in our series on short-term missions. David Livermore has written a book on this topic that we highly recommend, Serving with Eyes Wide Open: Doing Short-Term Missions with Cultural Intelligence.

In "American or American’t: A Critical Analysis of Western Training to the World," he addresses a  particular application of the short-term missions strategy: Teaching.

Some say that globally 85% of pastors have had little to no theological training whatsoever. Here at DG International Outreach, we are partnering with an increasing number of ministries using an informal, short-term approach for training pastors in developing nations.

David has some provocative analysis aimed to make us more aware of our cultural blind sides. This longer article is essential reading if you are focused on theological training of church leaders in developing countries.

Indigenous expressions of Christ’s Church exist in every geopolitical nation of the world. The entrepreneurial drive of American culture infiltrates our missions endeavors and therefore spills over into our cross-cultural leadership development initiatives. When we hear about the relentless growth of the global church, we’re inspired to bring our value-added contributions. But while the North American pastors consistently talked about urgency, the nationals consistently talked about the importance of process and of taking time to grow in relationship before developing a strategy for the kinds of collaborative exchanges that are truly needed for mutual benefit.

On day three of our series on short-term missions, we turn to Andy Crouch, author of Culture Making, for an article with some unique twists, "Unexpected Global Lessons: How Short-term Mission Is Becoming a Two-way Street."

[T]he whole apparatus of preparation for short-term trips assumes that the reason Americans invest their time and treasure is to do something for others—to check off a list of activities that will supposedly help advance the gospel. In fact, it is the rare short-term team (with the notable, partial exception of medical and dental missions) that brings such unique skills and cross-cultural sensitivity that they can make a net contribution in their brief visit. Our counterparts in the developing world are more resourceful than we imagine—and we need them at least as much as they need us.

For day two in our series on short-term missions, we feature two articles by the Chalmers Center for Economic Development. Their vision is to train the church worldwide to minister holistically to the poor without creating dependency.

The article, "Short-Term Missions Can Create a Long-Term Mess," lays out the challenges and implications of how we serve the poor.

The approach of most short-term mission teams seems to be to do things to the people instead of with the people. This approach exacerbates the feelings of inferiority that already paralyze the poor in my country and the feelings of superiority that often characterize those of us from wealthy countries. This dynamic is particularly problematic here. The government and the church have such a long history of paternalism that the people often believe they cannot do anything without the help of money and resources from others.

"Doing Short-Terms Missions Without Doing Long-Term Harm" reinforces this by showing that to authentically serve the poor we need to examine our mindset.

STM trips can play a positive role in the lives of all those involved, but a different paradigm is needed. Rather than going as “doers,” some powerful dynamics can be unleashed if STM teams go as “learners” from the poor or as “co-learners” with the poor.

Deciding what role a short-term team can effectively play is a difficult task. The staff at Chalmers recommends asking questions like these before the team even leaves:

• What is the nature of poverty?
• What does it take to alleviate poverty?
• What is God already doing in this community?
• Who are my brothers and sisters there? What issues are they facing?
• How does this trip fit into the overall picture?

This week we are going to do a 5-part series on missions trips.

The last few decades have witnessed explosive growth in short-term missions as a strategy of the Western church for spreading the Gospel and serving the poor. Your church is probably sending teams out this summer.

As we approach this season, we want to direct your attention to articles that will challenge your assumptions about what it means to do short-term missions well. Many of us have made significant mistakes in the past, and some damage has likely been done. Thank God for his patience with us.

Please don’t receive these challenging articles as admonitions to drop short-term missions as a strategy. Rather, use them to think carefully and prayerfully about how your team should approach this task in a way that will honor the Lord and serve the cause of expanding the Kingdom.

Over the next four days, we will feature articles from some leaders who regularly address this topic.

We’ll start with a few key questions answered by John Piper.

• Are short-term mission trips worth doing? 
• Who should consider going on short-term missions trips?
• What is the vision for short-term missions at your church?
  

Praise God for the times of effective ministry that he allows us to experience. If you're like me you get excited when you see the fruitfulness of any ministry that God calls you to do. It is a thrill to see him at work, putting to use the gifts and callings that he has granted to us for the cause of the Kingdom.

But in Luke 10 Christ challenges us to test our own hearts, by examining what we rejoice in most.

The seventy-two returned with joy, saying, “Lord, even the demons are subject to us in your name!” And he said to them, “I saw Satan fall like lightning from heaven…. Nevertheless, do not rejoice in this, that the spirits are subject to you, but rejoice that your names are written in heaven. (Luke 10: 17-20)

We easily slip into over-emphasizing results rather than rejoicing most in our redemption. According to the Lord, the deepest rejoicing that we should seek is the joy of the impact that the Gospel has made on our own hearts and lives.

Some questions to regularly ask ourselves:

• Do I rejoice that God, by some mystery to me, chose me before the foundation of the world, due to nothing in me, and wrote my name in his Book of Life?
• Do I rejoice that God, from the beginning, had me in mind when he was carrying out his plan to redeem a people for the glory of his name?
• Do I rejoice that God sent his Son on a mission from heaven to become the Word made flesh on my behalf, in order to save me from my sins?
• Do I rejoice that Christ lived perfectly without sin, fulfilling the law in my place, in order that its righteous requirements might be fulfilled in me by grace through faith?
• Do I rejoice that the Lord Jesus bore my sins in his body on the tree, so that I could receive forgiveness for every sin that I have or will commit?
• Do I rejoice that day by day, these truths are sinking down into my soul and, as C.S. Lewis says, re-working my house; re-building, re-furnishing, preparing me for greater works ahead and ultimately for a greater Kingdom ahead.
• Do I rejoice in counting everything as loss because of the surpassing worth of knowing Christ Jesus my Lord who is bringing me to God?
  

Why does Christ tell us to rejoice first that our names are written in heaven? Might it be because he knows that the mustard seed of faith that he plants in us is what opens our eyes and lives to the Gospel in the first place? It is only because he chose us for salvation that we even have the possibility of reaching out and being a part of his work in bringing others to salvation and spiritual growth.

True ministry effectiveness and impact springs from a heart radically changed by the Gospel. No God-granted mysterious seed of the Gospel in us—no tree of lifelong fruitfulness.

Lord, make us aware and vigilant for where our deepest rejoicing lies. Keep us focused on allowing the amazing truth of your redemption to shape our hearts while we labor in your field.

Our friend and International Outreach partner Mike Parker tells of his recent trip to Liberia with DG resources in tow.

As an example of how God is stirring up former "receiving" nations into missionary-sending nations, Joy to the World Ministries (JTW) of Malawi is hosting its second annual Chosen Generation Missions Conference, July 2-5.

This conference will be held on the beautiful campus of the African Bible College in Lilongwe, the capital city of Malawi. Its purpose is to equip and mobilize the young people of Malawi and neighboring nations to play a role in seeing God's name hallowed in southern Africa and across the planet.

The founder of JTW, Fletcher Matandika, issues this invitation:

If you would like to hear from others who have also been impacted and gripped by the glory of the Lord, please join us for the second Chosen Generation Missions Conference.  My prayer for us all is that we would see the glory of God afresh each day and worship Him with all of our hearts, soul, mind and strength. Once we experience the glory of the Lord ourselves, we will be better able to commit ourselves to taking it to the ends of the earth.