another one of those "guilt" videos

one of my friends recommended this video to me the other day. after watching it, i felt a big BAM in my gut. i wondered how many STM teams could make a video like this?

"this STM trip for a team of 22 people cost $39,600.*

$20,000 on airfare

$6,000 on hotels

$3,600 on food

$2,500 on transportation

$2,000 on passports & vaccinations

$1,500 on souvenirs

$4,000 on a building project

...what's wrong with this trip?"

yikes.

*these are the budget numbers from a STM trip i led to guatemala in july 2002.

short-term missions for the long haul

one of the most frustrating things about short-term missions is how quickly a person forgets what they experienced. for a pastor or team leader, sometimes you wonder why you even went...nobody from your short-term team was changed for the long-term.
a good friend of mine and the former director of this network eldon wright told me once that a good STM team leader plans a trip with the "now that you're back home" part in place first. ask: "why are we going? what do we want to do with this once we're back?" if you don't do anything @ home with what you xp'd on the field, you wasted your money and you should have just gone to a resort!
i've come across some great STM curriculum that offers practical tools to enable leaders to plan, conduct and FOLLOW-THROUGH with short-term missions trips for long-term impact. it is called "The Next Mile", and you can check out their web site at www.thenextmile.org. if you decide to order the leader and goer kits, use code SMS01 when you order. they'll know you're a canuck then and they'll send it with extra special mail detail.
think about the end before you start. it might change everything in the long run...including the people who went!

calculated risk or blatant stupidity?

i'm back! i didn't know blogging was supposed to feel like homework.
i was listening to 680NEWS in the car the other day, when a story about a 14-year old teenaged boy from england caught my attention. usually news stories about teenagers on this station involve guns and shootings. this boy however was in the news because he was the youngest person to sail solo across the atlantic ocean. my first thot was: what kind of crazy parents let their 14-year old cross the ocean by himself? then his mother's comments ripped thru my ears like firecrackers in your sleep: "i'm so happy he made it. i was a bit worried for him, but at least he wasn't sitting @ home glued in front of the TV." i started laughing so hard i almost drove off the road. i couldn't help but think of all the mothers who didn't let their kids come on some of my youth events to laser-quest because of the potentially dangerous bus ride.
i shut off the radio soon after and started thinking about this boy, his mom, and the risk they'd just taken. the boy could have gotten lost, shipwrecked, died, OR played video games and watched TV @ home all day long. something about the boy's mom really appealed to me. i can almost picture her standing at the dock waving goodbye to her 14-year old son saying something like this: "call me when you get there if it's not too late!" its like she was almost daring the world to accuse her of being a bad mom, then left us no chance when she gave us her son's other option: watching TV. way too funny!
so was this a calculated risk, or just a mother gone mad? its made me think about risk in a whole new way today. i could take a risk and do something wild and different, or i could do the same old same old and nothing would change. something about sailing across the ocean on my own sounds like more fun than watching TV...even if it is a new LOST episode!
i'd like to try this risk thing on something practical in my life soon. not sure what that will be. i just know the words of that mother are going to haunt me until i do.
i'm not exactly sure how this relates to missions, except that a lot of missionaries i know have taken calculated risks to get where they are. they risked being ridiculed when they told people they were going, they risked missing out on family and friends' lives "back home", they risked financial instability when they quit their jobs, they risked their personal safety and security when they left, they risk persecution when they speak of Jesus, and they risk rejection when sharing their message of hope with others. some people would even accuse them of blatant stupidity.
it makes me think about what risk looks like then for us in our churches. maybe we could take some calculated risks in 007 and send more missionaries, more money, more teams, more prayer, more support. sounds better than sitting in our churches glued to our chairs in committee meetings...
btw, you can check out the boy's whole voyage here: http://www.sailmike.com/. he had left gibraltar on november 18/06, and arrived in antigua on jan 3/07. turns out his dad followed him 2 miles behind in his own boat! sounds like a mother's job to me.