Short-Term Missions Trips Go Online
An update from Todd Peterson, Pastor of Cross of Grace Church, El Paso, TX, and Key Leader for our STM Project…
If you’ve ever been on a short-term missions (STM) trip, then you understand what a life changing experience it can be. Experiencing first-hand the challenges and struggles of life that many people experience living in third world countries and being able to, if only for a short period of time, show them the love of Jesus by meeting some of those significant needs is an experience that can reshape your perspective for the rest of your life.
Understanding that organizing and executing one of these types of trips is very challenging, we wanted to find a way to open up the opportunity for this life changing experience to as many people as possible in Sovereign Grace. Therefore, with that in mind and as a starting place, we’d like to ask any SG Churches who already organize their own STM trips, to consider if they might be opening up a few spots for people in other Sovereign Grace Churches to join them.
To facilitate this, we’ve created a webpage on the SG Missions website, that will enable churches to post a detailed summary of the trip they are hosting (click here). The website walks you through the process of posting the most relevant details of the trip so people outside the church can understand elements like the location, mission, costs, and even any skillsets needed for the trip. It also allows you to attach a more detailed “FAQ” type document if you have one, and if not, walks you through how you might be able to develop one.
Our hope is that once the details are entered into the website a trip profile is created and posted, we can spread the word, and people from other churches can then go view the trips and their details, find a trip that might fit them, and send an application to the trip leader. The trip leader can then work with the applicants to decide if they would be a good fit for the team and the mission of the trip.
Our vision would be to eventually have a map of the world dotted with locations where missions trips are taking place and churches that are being connected through the opportunity to go and serve the nations together in the name of Jesus.
As an initial step, would you please consider joining us in this effort by submitting your trip on our website? As this is a brand-new venture, your patience in advance is appreciated, but if we could get these trips uploaded and posted in the next 3-6 weeks, that would be great. We look forward to seeing what God may do through these trips.
