Family is the core unit of Creation and the best metaphor for the church of God. So why should it surprise anyone that families are just great on short-term mission trips. When Sherrylee and I started LST, our children were 7, 5, and 3, and they went with us every summer. At that time, we got lots of people asking if it was a good use of money to take the children. Terrible question—as if it would be better use of God’s money for Dad or Mom to leave for weeks at a time. Here’s what we learned about taking families on short-term mission trips!
- Your children can have no better Christian experience than first seeing Mom and Dad sharing their faith, then later, working beside them. If you care at all that your children find their own faith and don’t reject yours, then sharing short-term mission projects with them is the best opportunity.
- Children are a magnet in foreign countries. Wherever we would go, people gathered around our children, loved on them, wanted to talk to them. This brought us into contact with people in a very natural and friendly way that we would have otherwise never met.
- Whole families are a rarity in mission churches. Many women without their husbands find their way to our mission churches. Or you have a college student without parents. The example of Dad and Mom with their kids all worshipping and serving God together is very special to those we serve.
- Multigenerational families are even more special! The only thing better than the whole family going together is the whole family with Grandpa and Grandma—who are probably in the prime of life—and faith. LST has sent many three-generation family units, so we know the impact on those we serve. Our daughter and her new husband went with her Grandparents to the Ukraine nine years ago—and they still tell stories about it.
- Taking whole families requires sacrifices on everyone’s part, but since when were sacrifices bad for anyone! Our middle child was a baseball player. Every year, we left the country after 2-3 weeks of summer baseball season, which was hard on him. We always signed him up, bought the uniform, and paid the fees so he could play the 3 or 4 games that happened before we left, but we did not let it keep us home. We did buy newspapers everyday so he could keep up with the baseball scores, and we made special arrangements with Americans overseas to record the mid-summer All-Star Game. Then when we came through, we made a big deal out of watching it together. Was it a sacrifice? Yes! But he learned very early that in our family, God’s work came first. And today he is a man of God, which is all we could have prayed for.
I am convinced that if we learn as a family to serve God first, we will do church better. First the little family, then the big family.
Mark's Blog 
Great thoughts, Mark. Janine and I learned much from you and Sherry, as we watched your interaction with your children, both on and off the mission field. And now, some of our most precious memories and proudest moments are of our own children, as we have shared short-term missions experiences with them. I love it that they cannot wait to get back to Honduras this summer.