by Phoebe
“There are different kinds of spiritual gifts, but the same Spirit is the source of them all. There are different kinds of service, but we serve the same Lord. God works in different ways, but it is the same God who does the work in all of us.”
1 Corinthians 12:4-6 (NLT)
In the past several months, we have had the privilege of hosting several short-termers, not only from Singapore, but from South Korea and Taiwan. Many of them came for very short periods time for one or two days. Although these visits are very short, they managed to achieve quite a lot and opened many new possibilities for us.
This got Jon and I re-thinking about the role of short-term missions teams. This reminds me of a research which I conducted when I was in bible college, when I interviewed Thai pastors and missionaries on the contribution of missions team to the fields. While the Thai pastors and missionaries appreciate the physical and spiritual help that missions teams brought, they also found it challenging to set aside time and energy to make arrangements for the teams, coupled with managing cross-cultural team dynamics. Now that I am on the receiving end of missions teams, God is humbling me by giving me new insight.
Jon and I are seeing that missions teams are like spearheads, very focused on hitting a target. When the target is hit, many possibilities can flow out of that. For example, there was one time we brought a team to a village where we have been hoping to plant a house church. Before the team came, Jon, me and some church members from Takhro would visit this location every month to conduct Bible studies with only two to three believers.
When we knew that a group of friends were ready to come and serve as short-termers, we brought them to this village to run a children’s programme. Initially the person of peace in the village was unsure how many children would turn up because it coincided with the school holidays when children travel to other provinces to visit their parents. At the same time, Buddhist Lent celebrations were going on which meant that children would flock to the temples to collect money and snacks given out by the merit-makers.
To our surprise, the person of peace managed to gather more than 20 children and adults (see photos below)! She saw the short-term team as special guests and a good ‘excuse’ for her neighbours to gather to learn more about God. Thank God for gathering these people with whom we could share about Him. We hope to continue following up with the villagers in the coming months.
Apostle Paul’s analogy of the church as a body with many parts is not just for the members of the church in Singapore, not even South Korea or Taiwan. The church is larger than that and is one that spans across the world. We are each given unique gifts to serve this larger church body. And short-term missions allow this to be achieved.
As missionaries in Takhro, Jon and I are unable to do everything. We are unable to teach musical instruments. We are unable to bring exciting programmes every week. We are unable to conduct a day camp for a school of 300 children to give them a glimpse of Jesus. We cannot be the refreshing faces where villagers would want to come and meet. There is so much that we cannot do. But what we can do is invite, host and engage other members of the larger church who have been blessed with these God-given gifts to contribute to the Great Commission of making disciples in this nation.
Jon and Phoebe's thetomyumkongs journey. 