IFB missions trip?

[Sophie]

I've wanted to go on a missions trip for a very long time, and recently some of my IFB friends told me about a teen/young adult missions trip that one of their churches is taking to Mexico. But I'm a little bit wary because I don't know much about how IFB churches like to conduct their missions trips. Has anyone ever been on one?

Are they insensitive to other cultures? Because if so, I'd rather find a non-fundy missions trip, even if it is a little more expensive...

[exOBCstudent]

(06-25-2012 01:19 PM)Sophie Wrote:  I've wanted to go on a missions trip for a very long time, and recently some of my IFB friends told me about a teen/young adult missions trip that one of their churches is taking to Mexico. But I'm a little bit wary because I don't know much about how IFB churches like to conduct their missions trips. Has anyone ever been on one?

Are they insensitive to other cultures? Because if so, I'd rather find a non-fundy missions trip, even if it is a little more expensive...

You'd be much better off going with a more balanced evangelical church on their mission trips vs the IFB group's trip.

I've done a few trips with the IFB and they don't change their way of doing things just because they're in a different country. Plus, Mexico isn't really a great place for Americans to be visiting at the moment.

[Perry]

Yeah, the IFB foreign missions trip I went on included a day in which we wandered around a European city's center and passed out tracts and street preached. Keep in mind this was a country in which English wasn't a primary language. That part was embarrassing. However, the rest of the missions trip in which we visited villages and house churches and worked at the orphanage at which we were staying was okay, except for the language barrier.

I'd recommend not going on an IFB missions trip, personally.

[Lady Julian]

I've been on several missions trips, including one this summer. Every time, one of the best and most challenging parts of the trip was meeting believers who worshipped and who believed differently than I did. You may not always agree with them, but it's a growing experience to learn to embrace people with whom you disagree as part of the Body of Christ.

An example: I am not at all Pentecostal (have never heard a "voice from God" or a "feeling" from God or spoken in tongues). But I made a Pentecostal friend on a recent missions trip, who belonged to a tongue-speaking church. She was one of the most mature and kind people I knew, and the revelation that she was part of a Pentecostal group shocked me and forced me to "broaden my horizons" in terms of what is possible in terms of the church's expression.

So, please go on a missions trip! But don't go with an IFB group.

EDIT: Editing fail last time I posted.

[Darrell]

Quote:Has anyone ever been on one?

I've been on the receiving end of more than I care to remember.

It's not usually a good idea to go with a bunch of fundies. I'm really hoping this trip with World Vision works out in August. I'd like the chance to do something other than the normal "missions trip."

[Historian]

I've been on the receiving end of a bunch as well. There were definitely some great people who showed up, who loved the Lord passionately and really did care deeply about the people they were meeting. A few of them I count among my friends.

But for the most par...disaster. Totally clueless about what is Biblical and what is American Fundy and hence horrible for the culture here. Turning people off, teaching the commandments of men as "the gospel," and worst of all endangering the persecuted subterranean churches by blasting in without any concern for the mess they're leaving behind, or any interest in finding out what is and is not dangerous or even useful. Then they leave. At the very worst they get picked up, kicked out and blacklisted from returning. Then they go home with their war stories and garner much glory. Meanwhile the worst that can happen to the people they leave behind is imprisonment, torture and death; loss of job and any chance of every getting one again, confiscation of all property and funds, blacklisting of their children from decent schools, etc.

But having said that, I should also admit that there's been trouble here with short-term people from all kinds of groups, to one degree or another. It's hard to avoid it completely when you're talking short-term, since you're so often dealing with people who know nothing of the culture and language, and often with very young people. In my experience if there's a good age balance the whole trip is better. You need some 20s to be enthusiastic and tireless and please your hosts by trying every new food without throwing up, 40s and 50s to bring real wisdom, life experience and common sense to the table, and some 30s to hold everybody together and keep everyone calm. (The nature of the place I am means we rarely see anyone under 21 or over 55, so I don't know much about all-teen trips or anything.)

And, just as an aside, the wisest thing I've ever heard that applied to group mission trips? From Men in Black: "No, a person is smart. People are stupid." When you get people into a group they do the stupidest things abroad; behavior they'd never engage in if they were back home and alone. Dangerous things, obnoxious things, and they truly "just didn't think."