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Short-Term Missions---Vital Supply Link to Christ's
Front-Line Troops
Most Evangelical Christians who have been supporting short-term missions in the area of northern Mexico are aware of the escalated crime and warfare due to and among the various drug cartels operating in this region. It has put short-term missions in the spot-light so to speak, and primarily due to the fact that many churches have called a halt to their short-term missions going to this volatile area. But anyone familiar with missions, both short-term and long-term, are aware that many are fraught with dangers in foreign lands. The JESUS Film workers and Mission Aviation Fellowship run into these dangers all the time, day in and day out, it's just part of their daily routine in life. But their missions don't stop. Many missions in India, both with Gospel for Asia and independent ones run into the same dangers. We in America tend to forget the dangers the missionaries we send out on long-term missions encounter. In America we are often insulated from high levels of persecution, crime and open warfare our long-term missionaries encounter on a daily basis. It is only when we consider taking a short-term missions trip, perhaps sponsored by our local congregation, that we start counting the cost, and regrettably decide to not take a short-term missions trip. Our congregations, alike, are deciding not to endanger members of their congregations who would make such a trip, by deciding not to have one.
Front-line troops and their vital supply lines
Missions and missionaries going into foreign lands, bringing the Gospel of Jesus Christ to the world in various locations are the front-line battle hardened troops of Jesus Christ for evangelism. They fulfill every day of their lives the preaching and publishing of the Gospel around the world, mostly in dangerous 3rd world countries. Short-term missions trips bring vital supplies to many of Jesus Christ's missionary front-line troops. They are the ones on the front battle lines of the Gospel, living every day in dangerous areas we sometimes don't dare go to, areas where we may decide not to take a short-term missions trip to. I often use the symbol of warfare to describe what evangelists are up against because it fits. We're fighting a spiritual war of information against the enemy, Satan, heralding the Gospel of Christ around the world, the way we are commanded to (cf. Matthew 24:14 and 28:18-20). Satan will often throw real warfare conditions at us, in an attempt to stop the Gospel. During World War II there was a heroic U.S. Army Supply outfit called the Red Ball Express which supplied our various fighting divisions on the advancing front lines of battle as they were streaming toward Germany. Supply lines are as vital to front-line troops as the very troops themselves, for they would grind to a halt without them (as General Patton and his famous 3rd Army once found out the hard way). Just as vital are those who contribute the needed goods into the supply lines. There are two ways to contribute, one by being part of the supply line via short-term missions, the other is by contributing to the major international evangelistic organizations. One way is outlined on this site's Mission Statement, and we can all participate in this effort in our own personal private lives with no outward fanfare (see http://www.unityinchrist.com/missionstatement.htm for details). The other is by both supporting and going on short-term missions. What was the Red Ball Express like, and what did it do to help win World War II? Log onto: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Red_Ball_Express and http://www.defenselink.mil/news/newsarticle.aspx?id=43934 and http://www.skylighters.org/redball and read those first-hand accounts.
Jesus' Front-line Troops in Tijuana and Juarez
running out of vital supplies---vital supply lines faltering
Sara Gomez Lopez and her mother Martha, co-founders of Tijuana Christian Mission (TCM), amid heightened violence and reduced financial support, are keeping up the Good Fight. Katelyn Beaty, writing for Christianity Today's CT-Direct, details what front-line battle troops do for the proclamation of the Gospel and the transformation of the communities they live in. These people live in the danger zones of the world, the sick-zones. Read for yourself what is going on in Tijuana and what short-term missions can do to keep the supply lines open by logging onto http://www.christianitytoday.com/ct/2009/october/35.46.html. I could not stop reading this article until I had read all four pages. Martha, Sara, Susy and Seth are on the "front battle lines" of Evangelism and Christian C.A.R.E. If it weren't for the restrictive copyright rules of CT-Direct I would copy this article word-for-word and place it in both my Missions section and Evangelism section of this website. We must not stop supporting international Christian missions and/or orphanages. Jesus Christ has not and will never sound retreat for his soldiers on the front battle lines until he returns or calls them home. And we must never stop supporting them . And going on short-term missions is like taking a supply convoy to our front-line troops, just like in WWII or any war we've fought in, with one exception, we're doing it for Jesus Christ, our Commander in Chief. What an honor. Has Jesus called you to be in his Red Ball Express? If so, it's a supreme honor. If not, you can support those that have been called to do so, either directly through your own church, or international evangelism in general through the $5.00 a week program outlined on this site's Mission Statement. Jesus in Matthew 9:10-13 said "Those who are well have no need of a physician, but those who are sick." That is where the Gospel is most active, that is where the front-line troops of Christ are located, in the sick parts of our society and the world. What follows are a few other 3rd world missions I know of.
http://www.unityinchrist.com/evangelism/sisterchurches/BlessiOrphanHome.htm
http://www.unityinchrist.com/evangelism/excerpts_isawjesus.htm
http://www.unityinchrist.com/evangelism/worldmission.htm
Log onto http://www.unityinchrist.com/missionstatement.htm and easily support them all.
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