That's the question that repeats itself over and over again in my mind every time I think about missions trips. I've been on a few. They were all very different, but also usually involved a building or work project, a meal project, and street ministry. Most trips last about a week - not a whole lot of time in the grand scheme of things, right? Most of the time it was the team who was the most affected by the trip. But then again, that's looking at it from a limited time table. Some things take years to develop.
I've been volunteering again at my church helping the wednesday night children's ministry teachers. There are quite a few kids from a nearby trailer park who come to the program. If I hadn't grown up in this particular church, I probably wouldn't be able to tell the difference between the kids. Why? Because not only is this church highly diverse, it also has been working with the kids from the surrounding area for years. The girls that I've been blessed to teach don't isolate themselves, but interact with each other. Not that they don't disagree with who gets most of the purple beads, but that's a minor issue. They really just want the necklace to be long enough, right? :)
Missions work can teach you that YOU are the problem. Until you are actually contributing to change, your long-winded speech is just hollow words. Personally, I think that if everyone got involved, then we'd have other things to talk about. Like what to do with all of the extra time and money we'd have for the community programs (even after the new facilities and equipment were paid for). That would be a good problem to have.
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