I’d be lying if I said I haven’t seen and even been a part of mission trips that have had unintentional self-fulfilling and aimless work attached to them. Most of those trips look the same. You step off the plane, build some houses, give kids some candy, paint a few walls, Instagram pictures with children whose names you don’t even know, and then write a status about what a great mission trip you had that week and how it changed your life. A week that had the potential to be something great was ruined by the mentality that many Americans bring to short-term missions. Groups frequently focus more on the materialistic value of handing a child a pair of shoes or hammering a house together while ignoring the relational value that is worth so much more. So, while I understand that mission trips have the potential to be fixated on empty busy work, you must understand that when done correctly, there is nothing “meaningless” about short-term missions.

While I have seen and been a part of self-fulfilling mission trips, I have also seen and been a part of many selfless, Christ-centered mission trips. I have watched as groups stepped off the plane and poured love into the lives of every person they encountered; A love that didn’t revolve around stuffed animals and clothing, but instead around broken Spanish and laughter. I have watched groups be intentional in showing drunk, scared, lonely, and smelly people that they matter in this world and that we are all the same. I have seen concrete walls around the hearts of broken teenagers slowly begin to fall as they realized the Americans weren’t there to hand out presents to them, but to be present with them. In a place filled with crime, hopelessness, and desperation, I have seen love, hope, and joy form through the intentionality of relationship.

Now, please don’t misunderstand what I’m trying to say. There is nothing wrong with building houses. There is nothing wrong with buying shoes. There is nothing wrong with painting walls. But, there is so much wrong with believing that is enough. The truth is, those houses will wither away, those shoes will fall apart, that paint will start to fade, and the work you did on the trip that you say has “changed your life” really hasn’t changed theirs. The missing piece is the burning desire to be known, to be seen, to be cared about, and to be loved in a world that is telling them they aren’t. You can spend the whole week doing good deeds, but without intentional interactions, you will never fulfill that desire.

“Being unwanted, unloved, uncared for, forgotten by everybody, I think that is a much greater hunger, a much greater poverty than the person who has nothing to eat.”

Short-term mission trips can be empty, but when focused on relationship, love, and sameness, we are no longer the rich people ready to give out gifts and they are no longer the poor people looking for handouts. Instead, we are the children of an incredible Savior coming together to love and to be loved by each other and by Him, and there is nothing meaningless about that.