Short-Term Trip, Long-Term Impact - Jacob Matchak

Jacob MatchakProtestant chaplain with the California Department of Juvenile JusticeI believe that short-term mission trips can become a part of the full-time ministry to which God has called you, even if He hasn't called you to be a missionary. Short-term trips are unique in that they provide intense bursts of opportunities to learn more of God and His character in ways that push us out of our comfortable complacency. Rather then looking at them as time-outs from a personal work and ministry at home, they can be viewed as classrooms in which God personally tutors us in areas where we need to learn more of Him and His Kingdom. These classrooms open our senses to more of God and His truth than we perhaps would normally observe in the “routine” of a ministry that is full-time.During each trip that I've been on, certain passages of God’s Word have taken on new meaning as I have read and experienced them in ways that I may not have if I had remained in the normal routine. Upon returning home, I’ve been grateful to see how the truth that I learned during the short-term has had a long-term impact in God’s continued maturing of my life and the ministry He has called me to.Whether you feel called to the mission field or not, a short-term trip can be used by the Lord to teach us that we are His ministry. Through street evangelism, children’s ministry, work projects, and much more, He works in our lives, perfecting in us the life of Christ. I have seen the classroom of the short-term serve this purpose in my life as He continues to mold me more and more into His image.Click here for all the stories from the May, 2010 newsletter.