Have you heard about the incredible impact of short term mission trips? Check out Jessica’s story of how God moved powerfully.
Jessica* was in New York City for a Seed Week, our 1 week Christian mission trip. She felt unsure about sharing her faith, but she asked God for an opportunity to share the Gospel.
After learning some cross cultural evangelism methods, she was still hesitant about it. Before the trip, she was very passive about sharing her faith. But what happened next changed everything.
At the Queens Mall, she met Zuana.*
Zuana never intended to live in NYC, let alone the USA. She was an engineer from Nigeria and the mother of 2 young boys. Zuana fled for her life from her abusive husband and came to America.
The same day Jessica was doing evangelism, Zuana lost hope that anyone would help her in this new country. She sat down on a bench and began to cry. She felt so lost and prayed for help.
Jessica saw Zuana crying on the bench and initially thought to herself: “She’s upset. She won’t want to hear about the Gospel today.”
But God had a different plan. Jessica prayed that she would have the chance to share the Gospel and then realized that all she has to do is open her mouth.
The Holy Spirit prompted Jessica to talk to Zuana, and Jessica obeyed. Jessica didn’t know, but God answered both of their prayers at that moment!
Read to the end to find out what happened!
In this article, you will learn what happens on short term missions trips, why they are important, and how you can get involved.
What Are Short Term Mission Trips?
Short term mission trips are outreach opportunities that are a month or less. The purpose is to give high school students, college students, and adults the opportunity to engage in mission work.
Short term mission trips can take many forms and involve different types of ministry.
A short term missions trip might look like:
- Community development in Africa
- Youth ministry in Mexico
- Teaching English in Romania
- Street evangelism in New York City
Ultimately, a short term mission trip offers team members a chance to get outside their comfort zone and share Christ in ways that bless members of the local community.
Let’s explore the value of short term mission trips!
Why Are Short Term Mission Trips Valuable?
God uses people like you on short term mission trips to reach others with the message of the Gospel. Your mission trip is a life changing opportunity for unreached people to know Jesus, but can also be a life changing experience for you!
You can learn valuable lessons and come away with a radical new vision for the Great Commission!
Here are 4 ways short term missions trips can bless you and others:
Learn Skills You Can Take Back to Your Community
Your mission trip will typically involve some training beforehand. It is likely you will engage in some short workshops on topics like:
- Developing cross cultural intelligence
- Sharing the Bible with non believers
- Understanding Unreached People Groups (UPGs) and the Great Commission
You probably have people in your own city who are from tribes and nations that haven’t heard the Good News of Jesus before. (More on this later!)
Not only will you use these skills on your short term mission trip, but you can take them home to help bless your local church and local community.
Grow Spiritually
A short term missions opportunity is a great way to grow stronger in your relationship with God.
Taking a week out of your regular routine, you’ll have unique experiences and feel your passion for the Great Commission ignite.
Missions trips are a chance to listen to the Holy Spirit and take steps of obedience to follow Him.
As you do outreach and evangelism, you can mature in your own discipleship in Christ!
Build Connections for Long Term Workers
Did you know that mission teams on short term mission trips can be a huge help to missionaries?
When short term team members engage unreached people in spiritual conversations, long term missionaries (also called “workers”) are there to follow up in discipleship. We aim to start churches through people who are living outside their homelands. And a person you meet could be a future church leader!
Connections you make on your trip can also strengthen and build local churches.
Help You Discern a Call to Missions
Short term trips can be a powerful way for God to get your attention. When you introduce Jesus to some of the least reached people on your mission trip, you may sense God calling you to continue doing mission work.
Many workers on the mission field first consider international mission work while on a short term mission trip!
Now that we’ve seen why short term missions trips are important, let’s explore what these trips look like with our international missions organization.
Short Term Mission Trips with International Project
International Project exists to start churches through unreached people living outside their homelands.
We work in New York City and other strategic cities like Dallas and Rome because they are home to people from so many cultures. In fact, estimates are that nearly 40% of New York City residents are immigrants!1
We host a variety of short term mission trips throughout the year. Here is what makes our mission trips unique:
Emphasis on Evangelism
We focus our short term trip opportunities on engaging people in spiritual conversations.
Evangelism is important because it introduces Jesus to non believers who may never have heard of Him!
Based on Luke 10:2 where Jesus says, “The harvest is plentiful, but the workers are few. Ask the Lord of the harvest, therefore, to send out workers into his harvest field.”
We believe that the harvest really is plentiful and that there are spiritually hungry people ready to hear the Gospel.
This is the case for many people in New York City who have migrated from places where it is illegal to share the Gospel, or even to be a Christian.
We want to make sure as many people as possible have a chance to hear the Gospel!
Focus on Unreached People Groups
We consider a people group ‘unreached’ when no indigenous community of Jesus’ followers can engage them with church planting. Technically speaking, in an Unreached People Group (UPG) less than 2 percent of the population actively follows Jesus.
UPG evangelism is our top ministry priority as an international mission agency. That means that we intentionally look to share the message of the Bible first to UPGs, who have had little to no access to the Gospel in their home country.
Our team leaders will train you on how to engage people across cultures–both here and back in your own town.
You’ll learn how to openly share your spirituality and gauge peoples’ receptivity. From there, you can share the Good News of Jesus Christ.
Intentional Pre Discipleship
But beyond evangelism, we leverage the relationships that our short term mission trip participants make for us to plant churches through indigenous leadership.
How does this happen?
We believe discipleship starts even before someone says the salvation prayer. It’s often true that non believers are discipled on a journey towards Christ. Every step taken towards God—from hearing the Gospel to studying the Bible —teaches people how to follow Jesus.
We will train you in the Biblical basics of pre discipleship and evangelism ministry.
Have a look at what short term missions trips we offer!
Short Term Mission Trips
We offer short term missions trips for churches, university groups, and individuals. These trips take place mostly in New York City, although we also offer a short term mission trip to Italy.
Here’s the breakdown of each of our short term mission opportunities:
Short Term Mission Trips for Adults
We call these “Seed Weeks mission trips” and they are 1 week of evangelism training and practice for adults of all ages in New York City.
These trips are for individuals and small groups who want to experience cross cultural ministry without the extra time and resources needed for an international trip.
On these trips, team members will:
- Gain hands on experience reaching UPGs
- Learn spiritual conversation skills
- Develop cross cultural intelligence
This is an excellent discipleship and outreach opportunity for local church small groups to experience together! Individuals can also sign up.
Short Term Mission Trips for College Students
These trips are the same “Seed Week mission trips” 1 week evangelism trip as mentioned above, but involve a team of college students ministering together. Teams of young adults from Christian colleges or campus ministries at secular universities will travel to NYC for a fall or spring break to do a short term mission trip.
It’s the same experience we have for adults. But if you are looking for more, college students might also be interested in our 2 month internship. You will do evangelism, discipleship, and church planting alongside other college students or recent grads. During your internship, experienced missionaries and church planters will mentor you.
Short Term Mission Trips for Teens
Timothy Ambition is our 1 week mission trip for teens. High school youth groups from local churches (along with individual teens) and Christian schools form the short term mission teams for the week.
On this trip, we empower high school students to:
- Discover God’s heart for the nations
- Equip yourself to share the Gospel anywhere
- Meet people eager to hear about Jesus
Groups of high school students or individual high school students are both welcome, but all teens are required to have an adult chaperone accompanying them or their group.
Short Term Mission Trips in Italy
If you are looking for an international short term mission trip, we also have opportunities in Rome, Italy. These Europe mission trips are 2-3 weeks long but look similar to the evangelism trips in NYC.
On your short term mission trip to Rome, you will:
- Engage in street evangelism and sharing the Gospel
- Volunteer at our community center
- Assist the long term team in Rome with various service activities
Now that you’ve seen the short term mission trip opportunities you can do with International Project, let’s find the best fit for you or your church team!
What’s the Best Short Term Mission Trip for You?
There are so many great options for short term mission trips. We hope you find the one that fits your demographic and offers you a spiritually transformative opportunity for cross cultural ministry!
Short term mission trips really can be life changing! Come and see for yourself!
And remember Jessica, the short term mission trip team member who obeyed God’s prompting to talk to Zuana?
Jessica introduced Zuana to our long term workers. Zuana has grown in her faith and desires to reach Nigerian believers in her community, teaching them to make disciples and obey the Great Commission.
She’s involved in church, teaching others about God through His Word.
Short term mission trips can help make connections like those possible through Christ!
Be sure to sign up for our email lists above to get details for our upcoming Short Term Mission Trips.
Sign Up to Learn More
*Names changed to protect privacy
Source
1 https://www.nyc.gov/assets/immigrants/downloads/pdf/MOIA-Annual-Report-2023_Final.pdf
