Mission Trip Summary

I chose to evaluate my home church's missions program for this paper. A big part of this decision was curiosity; I had never in my five years at my home church heard anything of a well-formed missions program, and upon receiving this assignment became very intrigued. I interviewed a good friend of mine, who is also an elder at Kentwood Christian Church, by the name of Mike Boumis.

My personal view of mission revolves around Servant Leadership or what can be better called “Incarnational leadership”. This is rooted in the life of our Lord Jesus Christ, as “He took a towel” (John 13:2-5) and washed Peter’s feet. He was efficient with people, had goals in sight, but was also relational over being task-driven. This kind of leadership produces new churches filled with real purpose and motivation as people are called, appreciated, loved, encouraged, discipled, involved by mentoring and discipleship before they are deployed in ministry (Prov. 27:23; Mark 10:35-45; Luke 22:26; John 13:2-17; 1 Cor. 3- 4; Eph. 4:1-16; Col. 3:13; 1 Thess. 5:13-14; 1 Peter 3:8;

There is a great quote by Blake Mycoskie about mission trips that says, “Trips like this aren’t vacations…they are so much more. These experiences show you what’s possible and challenge you to examine the paths you’ll take in the future.” Claude and Kelley Nikondeha have spent five years running a community development mission in Burundi, a landlocked African country. Kelley Nikondeha tells of how they prepare their mission teams for the week and when they return home after a short term mission trip experience in Burundi in an article entitled, “Story-telling and the Short Term Mission Trip.” Kelley Nikondeha elaborates on the four points she expresses to all groups, “Give me a word. Tell me one moment. Take a break to rest. How was your trip?”

Last Sunday at church Father Ron said something that hit home for me. He said that a mission begins with an invitation. I grew up in a rural area in the highlands of Nairobi, Kenya. Life was not easy and I always made a point of maximizing the opportunities I got. I grew up knowing that I wanted to be in a profession that really helped people improve their wellbeing. When I got the opportunity to go to university I choose to do Biomedical Science because I was very good at science and I thought that being a scientist was my calling. However, becoming an adult and having varying experiences like volunteering in a children’s home, working in the field doing research, working in a laboratory and currently working as a nurse aide has taught me

My first mission trip was five years ago when I was in eighth grade. Both my sisters and brother had gone on various mission trips and the one to Detroit was my first opportunity. On that trip we worked on fixing up a couple churches that held youth group events. My team and I weeded, painted, planted flowers, organized and cleaned the churches different offices and activity rooms during the first couple days of the week long trip, the second half of the week, my team and I consisting of middle schoolers, put on a day camp for the kids around the area to play games, do crafts, eat lunch, listen to worship music and a message. It was a great experience because the adults gave the responsibility of leading the camp to us kids. As far as cultural differences, they were mild as Detroit is only a few hours away. The housing many families were living in was not to the standard

Latin America is known for the low education rates. This is unfortunate because high percentages of the countries in this situation are children under 25. For example Peru has an overall population of 45.88% of children under 25, Brazil has 39.74%, and Guatemala peaks at 57.56%. Without solid education, this population will continue to live in poverty. While planning a mission trip, it is important to note what a country is truly in need of. All of these countries are needy. They need better farming, clean water, and more stable communities. But that all stems from a need of knowledge. They are most in need of education.

In my lifetime, many experiences have changed my character, with the most memorable being the mission trip I took to Parmelee, South Dakota. This endeavor showed me how to be caring and love everyone, despite their circumstances. Although it took time, I learned to show kindness to everyone and not just the people I feel comfortable around. During my missions work, one child revealed to me how to be compassionate to people who may not deserve it, and to give to other unconditionally.

Out of all places I could go I would ultimately pick Kenya, Africa. When I was a little girl, my mom told me stories of how she went there for a mission trip and how it was an experience of a lifetime. But, Kenya has changed a lot since my mom has been there. The amount of people that face starvation has drastically increased over the past few years. I intend on going to Our Lady of the Lake of University and receive my bachelors in Nutrition and become a licensed dietitian. A dietitian’s job is to promote dietary health and devise eating plans based on the science of nutrition. I want to do exactly that except on a much greater scale. Around 1.5 million Kenyans are facing starvation across the country especially in arid areas due to low rainfall.

Think about the poverty and problems that all countries around the world are facing today and every day. As Americans we have an urge to go into these countries to help as much as possible because of that we have begun a revolution. Americans began going on mission trips around the 1960s but did not really pick up until the 1990s. The trend grew after multiple natural disasters, Americans saw and need and went, since then short term mission trips show no sign stopping anytime soon. As the popularity of leaving our comfort zones, many people have found issues with the way the trips are led to the extent of questioning whether or not these trips are really worth the amount of money and time that they consume. Through periodicals, interviews, narratives, and articles, I will show the issues and improvements that could be made to the living situations, attitude of the Americans, and relationships that are acquired during the short term mission trips.

In the realm of outreaching Christian mission, there is a voice who is talking an intelligible message. In Let the Nations Be Glad!, John Piper makes a superb showing task of treating a few significant points identified with missions and the explanation behind missions in today's self-serving, postmodern world. He tackles head on with numerous diverse incorrect musings and convictions identified with missions and he gives a brief scriptural reply to each of them. In every one, he explains why missions have either floundered or succeeded. Piper exhibits a perfection in missions which has the glory of God as its preeminent, larger purpose.

Over the years, many models have been developed and implemented to endeavor to make disciples. Some of the models have been effective and others have not. Among some of the most biblical and efficient models are the ones that involve small groups. Within the small groups models, they can be broken down into further detail, such as pastoral involvement, the church’s goal, missions mindedness, etc. In this paper, I will explain my philosophy of small groups in a church and the importance of the relational group in authentic disciple making. I will also explain how missional groups can help the body of Christ move out into the community. Finally, I will summarize my status in regards to living in community with other believers and being missional with that community.

In spring of 2016, my youth group and I began planning a trip to a neighboring city. This wasn’t just any trip however, we were going on a mission. Each of us there were bound and determined to

First of all, any missional mental model should be derived from missio Dei itself, which is "the mission of God to bring about redemption of the world" (Sunquist 2013, 7). When we carry this mission out in suffering for God’s eternal glory, we need to imagine how in the future his goodness, his beauty, and his harmony will cover the entire creation. I think it’s necessary for us to have this vision of his glory and be aware that whatever we do is not our own ministry. The idea of us joining the ministry of Jesus Christ is

The last of the initial tasks for missions is spreading the Gospel. Once a strong, healthy body of believers has been organized that is well provided for and self-sufficient it

We believe that the normal way to think about global missions is that missions = discipleship. A lot of people believe that global missions is only about evangelism, but to be effective evangelists, we are to be devoted disciples first. A fully devoted disciple will naturally be an evangelist from the overflow of their hearts and souls as they are grounded in the Word and attuned to the Sprit of God. If you are a disciple, then missions is your DNA and you will live daily on mission with Jesus. It is who you are and how you choose to live: living radically, passionately, sacrificially for a God who wants all to be saved.