What God is Teaching Me in Belize/ Why I Think Short-Term Missions are Important

         So today is Saturday, which means that I have been in Belize for two weeks. And this morning I have been thinking a lot about why I am here. I saw an article that someone had posted on Facebook today called “7 reasons why your two week trip to Haiti doesn’t matter.” Quite a striking title right? I begrudgingly clicked on the link, with my mind already made up to disagree with whatever this cynical, superior, uninformed blogger had to say. Well, I agreed with her. For the most part, everything she said was true. Short-term mission trips have played such a critical role in my life, and I get so upset anytime I hear anyone complaining about the ineffectiveness of them. But “voluntourism” is a thing, and I have been on trips that teetered very heavily on that line. And I realized part of the reason why I have been dealing with so much guilt on this trip: in the back of my mind, I am worried that this journey to Belize is nothing more than voluntourism. And that scares me.  So I am going to flesh that out. And maybe you will learn something along the way too.

I know what kind of trips people are referring to when they use the term "voluntourism". It’s the trips that involve paying $2,000–$4,000 to spend 10 days in a developing nation, when that money could have been given to organizations that actually do tangible, sustainable work. It’s the trips where wealthy Americans sing songs and play games with local kids who fall in love with them and whom they then leave; trips where temporary medical fixes are offered for long-term problems; or where buildings are poorly constructed and in the process jobs are taken away from locals. The rest of the time is spent “seeing the sights” and souvenir shopping. It’s the trips where participants return home with a conglomeration of selfies, chaco tans, and stories of how their eyes have been opened and how grateful they are to have been born in the U.S.. Meanwhile, the people groups they leave behind are unchanged or worse-off, and both parties are left with a “white superiority complex,” the idea that the world needs to be like America, and Americans are the only ones who can change it. The whole experience results in a personal pat on the back because of the Band-Aid that was placed over the gaping hole in whatever nation was visited. It’s a very gross and vile picture.

“But Jordan,” you say, “What about Jesus? What about groups that go on these trips in the name of Jesus?” Well, that is a good point. I think this particular article was directed towards trips promoted by large organizations that profit from “voluntourism” but do no real sustainable work in these communities. These trips are often marketed towards students looking for something to add to a resume as well as a chance to explore a cool new place with just enough “service” so that they don’t feel guilty. But there are plenty of mission trips, Spring Break/Summer youth group trips, and so on that fall under these same categories. I think it is easy for us to say, “Well, one of our goals on this trip is to tell people about Jesus, so it must be ok.” But doing something under the “banner of Christ” doesn’t always justify it, and I think we need to be fearfully aware of that. Doing something under the banner of Christ means that people will be watching you and how you behave and will be associating those characteristics with what it means to be a Christian. Also, it is hard to bring someone to Christ in 10 days (if you even spend each of those 10 days with that person), and you may see no direct spiritual fruit from your efforts. I don’t ever want to limit Jesus and the way He works. I have heard stories of people going on short-term mission trips and encountering natives who have had dreams of Jesus, though they had never heard of Him, and who then experience genuine conversions. It happens, and it is real. But before I go any further, I think it is really important and necessary to look at what Scripture has to say about this topic.

Paul is, in my opinion, the greatest missionary who ever lived, and the majority of his life consisted of “short-term” mission trips all over the Mediterranean. But Paul did not go into these places, teach, help out a bit, and leave. He was constantly writing letters to check up with believers in these cities and to address issues they were facing. He trained up and sent out other believers to go to these places and to do the same thing. A large portion of our New Testament consists of accounts of all of this, so I feel like it must have been very important to God that we understand missions and see how it is supposed to work. So this brings me to my current thoughts on this topic. Before anyone embarks on a “mission trip” of any sort, I think it is important to evaluate the why. Are you going for you? Are you going so that you can say you went to Africa or South America and have the Facebook pictures to prove it? Or are you going because you truly understand and believe in the work being done in these places, and you see an opportunity for you to do some actual, sustainable good. Sustainability is a really big thing for me. Even if you go into the depths of the Amazon and bring an entire tribe of people to Christ, what happens when you leave?  If you go into a school and spend a few days teaching math or teaching a child to read, what happens when you leave? Made it personal there didn’t I? But these are questions we must be asking. These places that you go on your mission trips are NOT museums. These people are NOT part of an exhibit. They are NOT lesser than your home country. No place is perfect. There is plenty of work to be done in the U.S. and plenty of people who need help.

So why do we go at all? Well, first of all we go because of verses like Acts 1:8, Mark 16:15, Matthew 28:19, Luke 10:2, etc. Jesus specifically called us, as followers of Him, to go out into our cities and into the nations to love people and to make disciples. But He also left us with examples of how to do that. There are Pauls who are called to go and plant churches. There are people called to stay in those churches and cities and do more of the long-term work. But there is also a role for short-term work, which we see in the NT. In Philippians, Paul writes to the group of believers in Philippi, thanking them for sending Epaphroditus to encourage him and explaining that he hopes to send Timothy to encourage them. I learned this lesson when I went to Tanzania three years ago. I felt guilty about that trip too because the mission trip I had gone on the year before was a medical one, where we were doing something more tangible. But I think the lasting effects of our work in Tanzania ended up being greater than those of the medical trip. In Tanzania our job was specifically to encourage the leadership and members of a church that our church had planted several years prior. The leader of our team had actually lived there with his family for several years and had personally trained the pastor of the church. He travels back every year with a team to encourage the church and train the leadership, and I learned firsthand the importance of spiritual encouragement in mission work. I am learning that in Belize as well.

Mission work is hard and draining, and months and years of little results begins to weigh heavy on one’s heart. Earlier in the week I talked about this with a young woman my team has been working with and being mentored by. She has been in Belize for around a year and she is doing work involving sex-trafficking on the island. She expressed how grateful she is for short-term teams and how much of an encouragement they are to her. She told us how mission work is often times like the night sky. You can look up and see some of the stars, and if you take a picture you can glimpse a few of the ones you saw. But you can't see all of them, and you can't quite grasp the magnitude of what you're looking at. GOD sees the big picture. In fact God orchestrated the big picture, and the work we are doing now, though we may not see it, can have a huge impact. But not only are we serving as encouragements, we are continuing and assisting in work that is already being done and work that will continue to be done after we leave. That goes back to the sustainability aspect. I know that we are just one small piece in the work being done in the schools of Ambergris Caye and the overall community here. Education is a huge part of a community, and this trip is proving that to me more and more every day. The amount and quality of the education accessible to the average member of a community plays a large role in the jobs the people will have, their overall character, and the quality of their lives and the lives of their families. And oftentimes I think the best way to bring the Gospel to people is to be Jesus to them first, to meet them where they are and to meet their physical needs before addressing the spiritual.

Especially in a place like San Pedro, Belize, most of the people here know about Jesus and can recite Bible stories to you. All of the schools are private and typically affiliated with a church, and it is part of their culture to go to church. Yet many of the girls drop out of school and become prostitutes because they can’t afford a living for their families any other way. Many kids drop out of school in general because they can’t afford it and end up on the streets, which can lead to selling drugs or prison or other sorts of trouble. And there is a huge difference between being taught facts about Jesus and being taught how to have a relationship with Him. Have I had a wealth of opportunities to talk to people about Christ in the two weeks I have been here. No, I have not. But I am in the process of building relationships with people, and I am loving on kids who are rarely shown love. I am showing them that they do have the ability to make something of themselves and to overcome their circumstances. I am encouraging workers and teachers and students and taxi drivers and shop owners and the like. I am listening to stories and sharing stories (don’t even get me started on the importance of sharing stories). And I am learning so much.

I know the whole purpose of the article I read this morning was to show that short-term mission trips are often focused on us instead of on the people being served and the work being done. And that is true. The “service” and “sustainability” aspects of the trip are key. But the “encouragement” aspect and “personal” aspect are just as important. What I mean by personal is how much you grow on trips like this. If it were not for the short-term mission trips I have been on, I don’t think I would ever have developed the heart I have for people or for the nations. I don’t think I would have ever realized the importance of mission work and the necessity for it. And I would have never understood the way the rest of the world lives and that I have the ability to do something about it. Now let me clarify what I mean when I say “do something.” I think so often Americans look down on developing nations and assume that they should “develop” to be like us. Yes, there are places in the world where people don’t have clean drinking water, food with the nutrients they need to live, shelter that protects them from the natural elements, and basic medical treatments for common illnesses and injuries. These are the things we can change. But not every place in the world needs internet, Fast Food, big businesses, a billion dollar fashion industry, etc. There are plenty of aspects of the Developed World that have caused way more harm than they have good.

 When you visit these developing nations and you talk to these people, you realize that maybe they understand something you don’t. That maybe achieving happiness and contentment is a lot simpler than you thought. That maybe you have been lied to by a culture that tells you you must be monetarily successful and physically beautiful and socially well-known to be worth anything. That maybe you should be a lot more grateful for the education and wealth you have been given, while realizing that a lot of responsibility comes with that. That maybe you should do more with it, because God has stewarded it to you. There is a reason why Jesus said it was easier for a camel to pass through the eye of a needle than a rich man to enter the kingdom of heaven. It is important for young people to go to these places and to see that. It is important for them to see, first-hand, how the rest of the world lives and to learn something from it.

I am almost done, but there's one more thing I want to say. Since I have been in Belize I have really struggled with guilt. There are days when I have looked back and realized that all we did was go snorkeling or to the beach or to a nice dinner or to walk around town, and I have felt so guilty. There are days when I have looked back and realized that all I did was read with Osvaldo or Moises or do math with Joel, and I have felt so guilty. There are days when I have looked back and realized that all we did was go on a tour of the poorest neighborhood on the island and talk to the people but did nothing to help anyone, and I felt so guilty. One thing I am learning in Belize, and especially through the slow-paced island time of Ambergris Caye, is the importance of the little things. San Pedro survives on tourism, so when I go snorkeling with Russel or call Henry to give us a taxi ride or buy a poorly made wood carving from Eloy or buy a bunch of fruit from the fruit stand, I am giving these people the money they need to survive. Now I don't say that to praise consumerism or tourism, but there is a place for it. The locals will tell you, without the tourists, this island would die right along with its people. And in addition to that, did you know that the second largest barrier reef in the world is in Belize? Well, I got to see it. And it was amazing. And the locals will tell you this too, if you want to believe there's a God, go to the reef and snorkel around for a while. 

Our American mentality is to go go go all the time and to never stop to look around. I am learning to not force that mentality on God or the work that I think I am doing for Him. Belize has taught me that not only is it important but it is imperative that I slow down and take a moment or several moments or a whole day to look around me and to truly see. To see the beauty of the world God has created. To see the beauty of the people He has made to take care of it. And also to see the importance of what I am doing and to not gloss over that. Three days ago Moises couldn't read sentences, and now he can. Three days ago Henry was just a taxi driver, and now he is a friend with a story and hopes and dreams. How many other things am I going to look back at three days from now or a week from now or two weeks from now and realize how they've changed? God uses short-term trips. Even when we feel we aren't doing enough God uses that too, and He uses the quiet gaps in-between. So I guess what I'm trying to say is never put a limit on what Jesus can do. Never underestimate how and where He can use you and the impact a simple encouraging word or an hour of conversation can have. And never let the world convince you you aren't doing enough. Go where Christ has called you to go and do what He has called you to do. If you aren't sure what either of those are, just be Christ to the people around you right now. Love them as He loved you. That's a difficult enough task in itself.