Some thoughts on short-term missions

Summer is coming and for lots of people that means it's short-term mission season! I've only been on one STM. India when I was 18. I was woefully ill-prepared - as much my own fault as anyone else's perhaps - and I'm sure I committed any number of faux-pas. Like dancing without shoes on because flipflops are so hard to dance in. No one told me how inappropriate it was to have no shoes on. No one told me that flip flops are for indoor wear in India - until years later my friend who is married to an Indian mentioned it. Who knows what other worrying things I did on that trip in my ignorance!

Anyway I wanted to link to an excellent blog post by Tara Livesay, whose name some of you may recognise from the Haiti Earthquake coverage last year. She blogs about some of the problems that can arise for long-term missionaries after the short-term mission has gone home (or even while they're still there). It's worth reading if you're thinking about going on mission, just so you can be better prepared than I was. If you read the link, do read the comments too, many people have made interesting points and given helpful advice for would-be short-term missionaries. And if you don't read it now, do bookmark her blog to read later anyway. It'll make you laugh and weep and cry out to God for Haiti (and other things) - sometimes all in the same post.

Here's the link: http://livesayhaiti.blogspot.com/2011/03/thinking-through-stm.html

Something good

I don't know who is actually reading this but I wanted to talk a little bit about Haiti.

I've never been to Haiti. Like virtually anyone reading this, it only really got onto my radar back in January after the earthquake. So I can't claim a special relationship or anything like that. But since then I've been following a couple of blogs of people who are out there, including that of the Livesay family, who simply blow my mind. Their love for the people and the country is amazing, and the things they have been doing out there and plan to do next are wonderful too.

I'm linking to this one post which is about the hospital they want to build, and why, and the funds that they will need, but I encourage you to read the whole blog, because these are wonderful people who really love God but don't make out that it's all easy or that they're perfect. I find that encouraging and inspiring. And they're funny too. :-)

http://livesayhaiti.blogspot.com/2010/09/bombard.html