Mission Trip Checkup: On MissionSample

Impacting Eternity through the Temporary

Something we send with disaster relief teams is hygiene kits. Each kit contains small items like shampoo and toothpaste that can restore dignity to people in times of extreme need. Many recipients have temporarily or permanently lost their homes and everything in them, so it is a small way of providing them a sense of order and care.

These kits don’t last for months. But in the moment of a person’s greatest need, receiving a hygiene kit can feel like an enormous kindness because of when it was given.

Your mission trip may be nearing its end, and we hope and pray you’ve seen some amazing works of God that will impact lives for eternity. But sometimes, the most heartfelt work on a mission trip will be felt like ripples for only a short time.

Apart from sharing the eternal truth of Christ, our earthly work is overwhelmingly temporary. There’s a comfort and discomfort to that, because it takes pressure off us, but it also makes us think deeply about the impact of what we do. We want our mission trips—like our lives—to matter.

Good news: just because our work and our lives are temporary, they still matter. Deeply. Operating in the temporary is essential because it’s where all humanity resides. It’s where Christ meets us, and it’s where our eternal works begin.

The work you have done may fade, and yet, it may bountifully produce fruit in areas you’ll never know. Only God knows what the long-term results of this trip will be. And that’s okay.

Being obedient to the Word of God will likely cause you to continue to go on mission trips, as you act for the sake of justice, as you grow in your love of mercy, and as you humbly follow God (Micah 6:8). Keep planting the seed of His Word in you, and He’ll keep drawing you to serve in ways that impact eternity…and the temporary.

Practical Considerations:

• Have you resisted doing something because it didn’t seem significant or “eternal” enough? In light of today’s devotional, is God prompting you to do it anyway?
• Some of the most important things to do toward the end of a mission trip is to recall the impact and what you’ve witnessed and what you’d do differently. Write down the highlights of your trip so far. Those memories will probably stay with you the rest of your life, but the details will fade unless you record them now.

(Thank you for taking part in this plan! As you prepare to go home, be sure to finish strong with the final part of this devotional series, Mission Trip Checkup: Returning Home.)