by Eddie Lyons
I went on my first mission trip as a six-year-old boy when my missionary family moved to the Philippines. I still remember getting on the large passenger ship in San Francisco and sailing past the Golden Gate Bridge on a journey that 21 days later landed us at the port of Manila. I met people who spoke a different language, ate different food, and learned customs and traditions that were new. This mission field became part of who I am. These people became my closest friends and ministry partners. My life and worldview were forever changed.
As a missionary, it was my privilege to host pastors, leaders, and teams who had come to serve with us. The experience changed their understanding and perspective of missions. As they built relationships with people, missions went from theology to lives that had been changed by the Gospel.
Jesus took his disciples on a mission trip to Samaria in John 4. The typical Jewish man would have avoided Samaria, but Jesus was insistent they go through Samaria.
It was there Jesus encountered the woman at the well. She believed his message and called the people in her village to meet him. The disciples returned from buying food and were ready to eat, but Jesus redirected their attention to why they were in Samaria on this mission trip — the people. Jesus’ instructions recorded here are, “Do you not say, There are still four months and then comes the harvest’? Behold, I say to you, lift up your eyes and look at the fields, for they are already white for harvest!” Mission trips help our people see the fields.
The relationships within the Baptist Bible Fellowship provide connections for these trips. Mission trips surely are an important strategy to build a mission program in our churches.