re: What are your thoughts on mission trips?

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This article- 7 reasons your 2 week trip to Haiti didn't matter has been making the rounds on facebook and a lot of people are up in arms about it.
I tend to agree that most of these people just go on them so they can feel better about themselves and post a bunch of pictures online

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I think they have a good intent, but I really don't understand mission trips that don't provide any help in terms of physical need. For instance, people who go on mission trips to places with people in poor health, no clean water, and starving children who would rather start telling them about the bible and reading verses off and not address their physical immediate needs.

I understand that the "message" transcends the physical, but how much easier would it be for them to listen to you after you've quenched their physical needs?


I know of people who raise $70k for a year, to go on mission trips to the middle east. I understand it, but these people are coming from a highly divided world that has lots of versions of the religion they already follow. How do you expect them to turn to christianity from that? You dont bring them food, you dont bring them water, you dont bring them shelter. Why should they believe you if all you are going to do is talk to them? Prove it.


Thats my rant.

I agree with you that people who only preach hurt the cause. Christians need to earn the right to be heard. The Bible clearly teaches that action and words go together (James 2:14-26). Some people are all talk and no action. And some people are all action and yet they never mention Jesus. As Christians we are called to do both - tell others about Jesus and help meet people's needs.

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It should be about meeting needs and sharing Jesus.

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My mother is from Central America and, as a kid, she always thought it was funny how the Evangelicals would come down and try to convert all the Catholics to Christianity.

the great commission. Matthew 28.

What's to argue?

I went on one and I stayed with the pastor and his family. He would get drunk and smoke weed every night and more often than not beat the hell out of his wife. I couldn't wait to get away from them.

Those trips are well-documented to typically cause more harm than good for the people that need the help.

I feel the same about mission trips to help "rebuild New Orleans."

They are basically recruiting trips.

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If there's a need, they'd do far more good sending money to a reputable organization that would hire locals to build or do whatever needs doing.

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Many do hire locals, non profits are generally shady

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Two weeks on a medical trip to Tanzania can cost you $3,040, not including airfare, which is roughly $2,000. If six people go on this two week trip, that’s more than enough money to pay for a local doctor’s annual salary. Let that sink in.

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This is part of mission trips I can never swallow. A college kid will raise $6k to paint a building in Africa for a week. You could hire a team of Mexicans to paint entire streets here in America for that amount.

There is a much bigger problem than whether or not a mission trip was successful. The problem is that there is enough global production to feed everybody in the world. Greed consumes every civilized country. So I respect those willing to endure the heat, insects, and heartache, despite the outcome. What's worse is that armies are needed to protect the villages from guerilla thugs who use the available food to exploit the people in need. It will take a global coalition to solve the problem. Mercantilism really did Africa and Latin America in. Everything worthy was stripped and a handful of tyrants used European ingenuity to control the majority. So until we are able to come up with a better solution, I think mission trips, whether they're Baptist, Muslim, Catholic, or Mormon, are all admirable.