The billions of dollars, hours of time and energy that goes into mission trips all over the world has not done anything to improve the long term sustainability of the towns within the areas. The thought in hindsight isn’t bad; a group of people trying to spread their beliefs throughout the world while trying to help better the communities, but it’s when a prolific traveler and missionary get killed for the intrusion of the environment of an indigenous tribe in India as stated by Professor of anthropology P.C Joshi. It seems that the goals of missionaries have gone farther than to simply spread the religion.
According to Ethan Good, a long term missionary in Zambia, when the missionaries arrived in Zambia, Africa the people of the town made living within the textile industry. These textile production and clothing sale served as the primary source of economy for the area. They were on track to becoming sustainable and just needed that boost of support necessary to push them in the right direction, then a group of Christian missionaries arrived bringing clothes and food for everyone the production of textiles came to a halt. Then once the missionaries had left, the textile companies had nothing in production to sell. They had relied on the missionaries clothing handouts for so long that they had stopped making revenue.
This missionary influence had just pushed their progress to create a stable and independent community way back, damaging their economic output permanently. Cassandra Terri Cummings, a writer’s for The Medium, a page dedicated to explore important international topics argues “Why does a team of 10 people from Ohio need to spend $35,000 to fly to Ethiopia to paint a church when they could have donated $400 to buy paint and let the church members do it?” When missionaries arrive, their stay can range anywhere from days, to months, and even to years, and if the missionaries work with the communities rather than for them, then they will gain economic control.
According to economics professor Robert D. Woodberry at New York University, with the 1.6 billion dollars spent on mission trips each year, and 2.2 million volunteers that attend mission trips yearly. Each missionary must come up with $1,540 for each mission trip, which does not include the equipment needed for each trip. Brett Miller, a teacher and “TEAM” missionary with a master in theological studies, speaks of the long term changes that missionaries make when in these new communities to adapt to the expectations within the culture.
These ancient traditions and norms found in these communities are precious to them and when a missionary or a church decides to travel to their location to make that change casualties similar to John Allen Chau of Washington State with his expedition to the Indian indigenous tribe called the Sentinelese. In fact, the goal of many churches and missionary organizations worldwide make it an important goal to travel specifically change the culture and challenge people’s words against Christ.
Kurt Allen Ver Beek mentions in his paper “The Impact of Short-Term Missions: A Case Study of House Construction in Honduras after Hurricane Mitch”. He talks of work needing to be done in Honduras after a devastating hurricane. He continues to speak of the need for workers to rebuild the damaged land, instead of reaching out to locals looking for work, any western missionaries arrived and took over, leaving locals helpless and without work. Van Engen the senior professor of biblical theology of mission and author of many books on the subject states that not only do these people need work and assurance; they need independence. He speaks about the feeling of someone who has everything coming to give out handouts and things to those less fortunate. He explains how they don’t need another rich white Christian to come to paint their church every month. The work done is appreciated but it just makes the community feel lower then they had already felt.
When the missionaries arrive at third world areas of interests Glenn Schwartz talks about dependency. He says that the more western churches help out these churches in need, the more dependent they become on the more well-off areas. Consequently, progress will not be able to be achieved without the support of the western church, that directly with the companies within the local areas. Mark O’Donnell from the Zambian Manufacturers Association states that after a 6-month long mission trip to Zambia, all of the textile companies shut down because the host producers left and stopped handing out free clothing. Therefore the mission trips should be helping them by working toward setting these communities such as Zambia on a path that will place them in a sustainable place financially and culturally.
Noel Becchetti, president of The City Service Mission shares the concern in the effects mission trips have on the communities they visit. Noel speaks about how missionaries tend to want to control everything going on once they arrive. He mentions that people don’t make it a necessity to learn about the culture they’re entering before they go and try to change everything. Mr.Becchetti had gone to a mission trip in a jungle village in Brazil during the monsoon season and started by setting a goal to create a missionary meeting building.
This was a goal laughed at by the locals in the village, because of the impossible task. Noel and his friend on the trip ended up failing at creating the building because of the harsh weather a rainfall. Because of the admitted waste of time for this building, the mission trip was a failure in the sense that they got nothing done. Many mission trips alike have goals and aspirations that end up not helping the community because they fail to recognize the culture and norms within the environments.
Missionaries routinely must spend approximately 1,540 dollars just to travel to a target area, and according to missionary Ethan Good, it’s for no good effect. Because if ill-planned mission trips that lose churches up to 1.66 billion dollars a year. Churches and people lose money along with the target areas as proved by Mr.Good. Missionaries continuously fail to recognize the cultural norms that these new environments hold. Those failures cause lives to be lost and communities to be let down.
In conclusion, missionaries constantly fail to respect the cultural and environmental aspects of the areas they visit and end up leaving areas in a worse economic standing as they were in before. So mission trips always have a positive goal in mind but in reality, they are better off setting up a charity for these areas in need or simply donating money towards the cause of change made by the local communities. But current attempts for change within those communities are not completing those goals.
