Each year, more than 1.5 million U.S. Christians
embark on a short-term mission trip.

USA (MNN) — According to a 2009 report from Liberty University, over 1.5 million U.S. Christians go on a short-term mission trip (STM) annually.  These trips can range in location from within the U.S. (domestic) to overseas, and in length from one to 90 days.

The STM boom started gaining momentum in the 1950s and 1960s, with Operation Mobilization (OM) among the first groups to offer STM opportunities. InterVarsity Christian Fellowship followed suit in 1970, and MOSES, Inc. came along in 1988 with STMs that took place over a weekend.

Robert Bergman with MOSES says they work in tandem with local churches in the Midwest, helping these ministries shine the light of Christ in needy communities.

“The church in Detroit: we do a lot of community building, community engagement, community improvement-type things,” explains Bergman. “The church in Chicago has a women’s and children’s shelter that we work in; they have a homeless drop-in center.”

Because of the funding required to organize and conduct STMs, they are mostly a Western Church phenomenon. College and high school students usually have the most flexible schedules and minimum responsibilities, so they are frequently the targeted demographic for STM opportunities.

Liberty’s report highlights several STM advantages: providing needed goods and services to communities, sharing the Gospel, raising participants’ awareness of needs around the world, creating faithful long-term supporters of missions, and STMs role as stepping-stones for young people considering long-term mission careers.

In his decade of service as MOSES’ Weekend Trip Director, Bergman has seen STMs open the eyes of Michigan teams.

“People (from Grand Rapids, Michigan) just don’t understand that within the same state and just a couple of hours away…there are people that live in the street and break into houses to live in them overnight,” he states.

“Many people come away [from weekend trips] with a greater understanding of the blessings that we have.”

One of thousands of abandoned houses in Detroit, Michigan.
(Photo cred: SJ Carey via Flickr)

Last year, Detroit, Michigan became the largest city in U.S. history to file for Chapter 9 bankruptcy. Many factors contributed to the filing decision, but the city’s $18.5 billion debt was a chief concern.

Detroit’s population has also dwindled from a robust 1.8 million in 1950 to a mere 700,000 in 2012. Of the remaining residents, 38% are living below the national poverty line.

“The church is the only building on the current road that’s not abandoned and broken into,” Bergman explains.

Conditions aren’t much better some 280 miles away in Chicago, Illinois, the other location of MOSES Weekend Trips. About 22% of the city’s 2.7 million people live below the poverty line. According to the U.S. Census Bureau, Chicago holds the third-highest rate of extreme poverty, out of the nation’s ten largest cities.

The desperate conditions in these cities create a perfect mission field.

As they work side-by-side with unbelievers on church-imitated projects, MOSES teams sometimes get a chance to share the Gospel. Whenever this happens, they tell their church partner so local believers can do follow-up ministry.

The goal of MOSES Weekend Trips varies depending on the needs of the local church, but MOSES strives to fill the role of “helper” during each visit. Right now, MOSES and their church partners in Detroit are working together on a big transformation project. MOSES is in the process of purchasing four or five of the abandoned houses, Bergman says.

Working with their Detroit church partners and congregations from Grand Rapids, they hope to transform neighborhood eyesores into community assets: additional parking, community gardens, etc.

“My goal would be to try and get enough weekend trips set up to complete that task,” says Bergman.

If you’d like to help, get in touch with Bergman by clicking here.

MOSES provides transportation, leadership, work sites, accommodations, and meals. Bergman says that by taking care of logistics, MOSES helps youth pastors focus entirely on ministry.

Pray that more youth groups will take advantage of these weekend opportunities. Pray for God’s will to be done in the Detroit transformation project.

Sammy Tippit Ministries recently provided discipleship training for believers of an undisclosed country in the Middle East. The training was conducted in a safer country where work could move forth without fear of disruption.

The discipleship training was actually geared toward reaching the youth of the country with a solid foundation for the Gospel. It's imperative to meet these needs since God is moving powerfully among the country's youth, says evangelist Sammy Tippit.

"There is a revival that's taking place, and that revival is centered in the youth population. So when there's a revival–God pouring out His spirit and many young people coming to Christ–it's imperative that you build a wineskin. Because if you have old wineskins, according to Jesus, when you pour the new wine in, you're going to lose it."

Discipleship helps to ensure that new believers in the faith will not simply latch onto Jesus for a time and then forget Him because they didn't have a good grasp of the Gospel.

Furthermore, Tippit says new believers are putting themselves at risk by converting from Islam to Christ. "They're putting their lives on the line. They know that when they go back [home], there's a possibility that they will go to prison for their faith," says Tippit. This is all the more reason to make sure that good discipleship is taking place. If someone is going to put their life on the line, he needs to be confident that his cause is worth dying for.

Now that the week-long training is complete, Tippit says, "We know that they're going to apply it. It's not just going to fill a notebook." Just two days after the training, Tippit received a grateful e-mail from someone being discipled by a trainee. Solid teaching is already spreading like wildfire.

As the Gospel continues to spread and true discipleship begins to take off, Tippit says the effects could be revolutionary. Tippit witnessed the spread of the faith through solid discipleship reviving Eastern Europe 20 years ago. He says discipleship in this country could similarly alter the nation.

"I am convinced that this country is on the brink of going one of two ways. It is known already as an extremist-type country, and it could continue to go that way. However, there is a movement among young people in the country not only for Christianity, but rejecting the status quo of Islam in that nation. So the impact could be literally revolutionary."

Pray that the leaders who received this training would know how to best use the wisdom which with they've been entrusted. Pray that as Muslim students continue to reject traditional Islamic teaching, believers would be there to introduce them to the Truth. Pray that God would work mightily in this country to revolutionize the nation into one that predominantly follows Christ rather than Allah.

"These pastors were hungry," said Sammy Tippit, founder of Sammy Tippit Ministries and one
of three speakers at the Ghanaian conference. "I was so impressed with their
depth of desire to grow in Jesus and make Him known to Ghana."

The conference drew approximately 1,000 pastors, many of
whom said their lives were forever altered. Speakers included Sammy Tippit,
Nigerian conference speaker Gbili Akanni, and Bishop Asanti. Tippit spoke with Akanni
at the Accra gathering, which drew 700 pastors and ministry leaders.

Tippit addressed the importance of prayer and instructed
pastors to build their life and ministry upon it. He challenged leaders to lead
a life of prayer, telling them "they could only reproduce praying church
members if they were praying pastors."

Akanni spoke at the Accra meetings, encouraging pastors with
leadership principles and challenging them with time management. He made plans
with Challenge Enterprises, host and sponsor of the two-week conference, to
follow up the conference with a leadership retreat.

In Kumasi, Ghana's second largest city, head of the Methodist
Church of Ghana Bishop Asanti spoke to the 300 pastors about discipleship.
Asanti defined what it meant for Christ-followers to love one another, God's
second greatest commandment.

Pray that pastors would apply knowledge obtained at the
conference to their daily walk with Christ.

Founder of Sammy Tippit Ministries, Sammy Tippit will be speaking to around 1,000 pastors in Accra and Kumasi. These cities are Ghana's capital and second
largest city, respectively.

Accra is the economic, administrative and communications hub
of Ghana, and over 70% of the country's manufacturing capacity is located within
the region. About 250 km northwest is Kumasi, located in the Rain Forest Region
and known for its beautiful variety of flowers and plants. Approximately 80% of
Kumasi's population is Christian; 5% is Muslim.

Sammy Tippit Ministries glorifies God through global
outreach and evangelism, equipping pastors to reach their communities.

Please pray for the
Tippits as they travel. Pray also for revival and spiritual awakening among the church
leaders in Ghana.

Click
here to learn more about STM or to support their ministry financially.