What is Missions?

Wondering just what Missions is? Well look here over the next few weeks and months as Nicole Picciotto explores that question based on her experiences from several short-term missions trips. Here is the first installment:

Mission trips:

What do you normally think of when you hear “Missions” or “Missionaries”? I would imagine most people think of people like the Pierces ( David and Annelise, Naomi and Quinn). Full time/Long-term missionaries, Those who have made a commitment to God to serve Him in a remote area for several years. But Missions means more than just the long-term trips.

Short term trips are also used by God to spread the message of Jesus Christ. I've been on several short term trips and it can be hard to feel as though you've made an impact on anyone's life.

Some trips are mostly or purely social. Most of the people who go on these trips are people who enjoy engaging people in conversation which leads to the sharing of the word of God. And then there are those who embark on these trips wondering “What on earth am I doing?”. People like me who faced with the opportunity to speak to strangers, run and hide. So for me I've always questioned my part in going. The disheartening part of these trips is they are really short (a week or less in some cases) you don't really form a strong bond with any one person you meet, which in some cultures in vital to leading a person to Christ. Even when you get the contact information life gets back to normal and you find yourself not keeping in touch like you imagined you would.

So then, why would God send you on such a trip? Well I have found in my experience is that God sends you to serve the Missionaries he has placed in the location you are visiting. Its a little awkward sometimes, when you go to Russia and visit the local church you support (Alexei Kotchan and family) or as Matt and I did when we went to The Dominican Republic to visit missionaries we support (Hugo and Sarah Liborio), and all the missionaries seem to want to do is show you around. You start to think “How am I going to serve God like this, playing tourist?”. Well you are.... but not the way you might think. You are spending time with your brothers and sisters in Christ. Just spending time with them, showing them you care and that they are not alone is just as important as spreading the word of God.

Many of the full time missionaries live on a spiritual battlefield, as where back home if you are well connected to a church its more like being at a home base, where supplies, fellowship and encouragement are all around you. So I'm sure you can get the picture of a soldier (missionary) out in the battlefield and you the “short-term missionary” are like a support troop. You may take no ground from the enemy, or witness someone come to Christ etc. But you are serving God by bringing supplies, fellowship, and encouragement to your brother/sister. In short that is what God has taught me. I'm not saying that is the only purpose God has in sending you on a short-term missions trip, but it is one lesson I have learned.

God gifts us uniquely and we must seek to serve Him in a way our gifts best enable us.
--Nicole Picciotto