Pioneering movements through short-term missions

I did my first short-term mission trip when I was eighteen and just out of high school. We helped build an air-strip at Tifalmin in the remote Western Highlands of Papua New Guinea. It’s nice to know that after 40 years it’s still serving the community.

Imagine if on your next short-term mission you could help build a multiplying movement of disciples and churches that continue for generations.

I’ve been thinking about Troy and Oggie’s Mexican adventure and what they can teach us about leaving a lasting legacy through short-term missions. Here’s a list of my take-aways:

• Troy and Oggie trained the locals in what they were already doing back home.
• Troy’s lack of Spanish meant Spanish-speaking Oggie had to step up and take the lead in training.
• They partnered with local churches and pastors who were ready to learn and implement.
• They began immediately in the community before the training started.
• Stories of what God was doing spread from person to person.
• They moved from training in the classroom to immediate engagement with the community.
• They trained just enough to get people started in the harvest.
• They trained the locals in simple but powerful methods for sharing the gospel, making disciples and forming new churches.
• They trained the locals to train others.
• As momentum builds Oggie will provide coaching from a distance.
• He will return to run Mid-Level training and take the local believers to the next stage.

Last year I got a glimpse of what this could look like when Russell Godward and I went to Kenya to train.

How could your next short-term mission leave a legacy of reproducing disciples and churches?