By Jim Pratt

Since March of 2020, the Mission One program has, to a large extent, been in a holding pattern. While the needs at our international locations are more significant than ever, we have been unable to send mission teams due to travel restrictions. In the past 18 months, we have only sent two small teams; one to Honduras and one to Mexico.

During this waiting period, we have developed stateside mission trip opportunities. In the fall of 2020, a small team traveled to Gainesville, Missouri, to assist Real Life Gainesville Church with getting their facility ready for its grand opening. In July 2021, a student team of 20 individuals from Agee Fellowship Church in Poplar Bluff, Missouri, traveled to St. Louis, Missouri, to assist the Westside General Baptist Church in community outreach to homes damaged from storms in the area surrounding the church. The team also helped at a local shelter.

Again, we are gearing up to offer mission teams, interns, and short-term missionaries to serve in Guam, Honduras, Mexico, India, Jamaica, the Philippines, Saipan, and West Africa. In addition, we will offer multi-cultural opportunities stateside and opportunities to be involved in disaster response at various locations.

We are planning to have a full schedule of teams in 2022. As early as January 2022, we hope to send a medical mission team to West Africa to assist the Yeomans in community outreach. Plans are also in preparation to send teams to Honduras in February 2022.

Other medical mission teams, construction, servant evangelism, and leadership development teams will be scheduled for our international locations. We are also planning stateside teams for 2022.

The Mission One program exists to provide support and aid to our missionaries and nationals working in our different fields. Our program offers opportunities for individuals to participate as members of mission teams, as interns, and as short-term missionaries.

Our teams are as diverse as the people who participate in them. Some are highly professional, such as our medical teams, which provide dental, optical, physical, auditory, and medical help. Other teams offer construction expertise, educational training, servant evangelism, and leadership development.

Our internship program is available to upper-level high school students and college-age students. Our interns usually serve from two to eight weeks in one of our international fields. The internship responsibilities depend upon the location and the needs as presented by the missionaries and national workers. In many cases, college credit is available.

Short-term opportunities are available to adult individuals at each of our international locations. Our short-term missionaries usually serve from two weeks to one year. The responsibilities depend upon the skill set of the short-term missionaries as we as the needs of the field location.

Short-term mission involvement is an incredible way to promote global outreach. They are also a fantastic opportunity to minister to the needs of others and to draw closer to Christ. However, if you go on a mission trip with the wrong motive or motivation, you can cause harm to yourself and the people you are attempting to help.

There are four reasons not to go on a mission trip. First, you want to save the world. Some people go on a mission trip believing they can put on a superhero cape and personally solve every problem they encounter. Jesus is the answer to any and every problem in the world. Our job is to point people to the Savior. We are not the savior.

Second, you are doing something for the locals they can do themselves. We should not be guilty of damaging the ongoing development of the groups we serve. We must work alongside the ones we are assisting. We must harness the power of the local community.

Third, you want quick and easy results. What you accomplish in a few days on a mission trip can have an eternal impact if you do not look for immediate results. Beginning and nurturing a work led by local believers is the best option.

Fourth, you are just checking off a spiritual box. Going to the mission field with the right motivation will ensure this is a good investment of your time. Make the most of your mission trip by putting aside your plans and expectations. Ask God to work in and through you to accomplish His purpose.

Among the many reasons you may want to go on a mission trip, there are at least five that stand out above all others. First, the Gospel will take on more meaning to you than it ever has before since you will encounter Christians who are truly going through times of persecution and trials.

You will find their faith truly infectious and compelling, making your faith become more authentic.

As Americans, we are spoiled to so many comforts of life. Such materialism finds little place in most of the developing world. The scriptural discipline of simplicity will become more real than it perhaps ever has before in your life.

Together the first two will have a tremendous impact on your worldview. It will expand in ways that will absolutely surprise you. This expansion of your worldview will also have an incredible impact on your prayer life as you begin to see the world through the eyes of others.

The challenges of observing the lives of fellow Christians around the world will deepen your faith as well – put simply your faith will grow as a result. You will find yourself challenged to exercise your faith in ways you may have never considered simply because American conveniences are not readily available.

And fifth you may be surprised at how God begins to work through your experience to solidify a call on your life. General Baptist Global Missions’ three newest missionary families begin their pursuit of fulfilling their call to missions by participating on mission teams.

I sincerely believe that if you want your life to be forever changed if you are serious about your walk with God, if you’re going to encounter God, then participate on a mission trip.

Contact me at jim.pratt@generalbaptist.com to schedule or participate in a Mission One trip.