Lookout Magazine

A river, not a lake

THE SMELL HIT US as soon as we merged onto McCarter Highway toward Newark, NJ—a raw mixture of garbage and industrialism. I was one of fourteen students stuffed in one of three CNU vans who moaned as we pinched our nostrils shut. But twenty minutes later, all of us had acclimated to Newark’s uninviting smell. We filed into the dusty pews of a 200-year-old chapel of North Reformed Church, for a pastor to tell us it’s easier to enter New Jersey then to get out—$12 is the toll to leave the state. The March air was damp and bitterly cold, and stuffy smog hung over the “Iron Bound” part of the city. No comparison to the Florida beaches our friends were lounging and partying at for their spring break.

Senior Zach Fauver remembers the first time he took the drive into Newark last year. “Pulling off I-95 into the city, I felt like I just stepped into a third-world country.” My own first impression took on an air of class superiority. I wondered how anyone in their right mind would want to live in Newark. Even after being concerned about social justice for a long time, part of me wished for a village-like city with expensive sandwich shops, fair trade coffee, and vintage stores. Not a place, which Senior Nate Simpson describes as “trash and run-down buildings.”

What brought a group of thirty-four suburban students to Newark? The group started out from a few smaller trips started by Fauver and juniors Garret Maroon and Calvin Griffith, leaders in InterVarsity Christian Fellowship at CNU. “I was sitting in Wendy’s talking to Garret and Calvin,” said Fauver, a
Communication studies major, “and we just realized we wanted to take a missions trip for spring break. We did not know where, but when we talked to Danny Iverson, we caught his vision and passion for Newark. We knew that was the place to go.”

What is the legitimacy of this venture of good intentions? Theologians, like David Livermore, question what real benefit a short-termer could have when they come and go, leaving behind under-developed relationships and taking money that can go toward career missionaries.

"People say these trips make a huge difference in their lives," Livermore said in his speech at Calvin College on STMs in 2007. "But when we ask what's different or how they changed we get answers like 'I'll pray more' or "I read my Bible more now.'" Livermore’s research shows that the impact short-term trips lasts a short time. After six months of the trip completion, the change the trip inspires evaporates. Students revert to their old ways.

But that’s not what Danny and Kimberly Iverson have seen. Danny, the young, hip pastor of Trinity Reformed Church, started his ministry to the youth after his grandfather started working at Trinity. The young business man was dismayed that someone of his grandfather’s ability would work in the “ghetto” and went up there to save him. Instead, he fell in love with the place. He and his wife continually bring in college students to work on the falling-apart building, help with their kids club, and spread the vision to love the poor.

The couple has spent their first few years of marriage living in Newark, and do not plan on leaving any time soon. Iverson is looking forward to the ministry’s growing network, to soon include a kids’ club coordinator and a grant writer. For now, they rely on a volunteer network to help their youth ministry run successfully. They currently have several long-term volunteers working for their ministry, but depend heavily on a constant flux of college students to do week-long urban plunges. The short-termers enable their long-term ministry to keep going and make a significant change in their neighborhood.

“We have seen kids and teenagers choose not to be in gangs, have seen creativity blossom, seen improved relationships, and we have seen the youth stay in school,” said Iverson. There is a deeper desire to live with a higher purpose, crimes are disappearing, there has been less drug trade, and they have been able to provide more jobs and vocational training to people in the neighborhood.

Oftentimes, however, short-term missions have taken away from from long-term workers. Adeney, in her editorial “McMissions,” said that one megachurch with a budget of $15 million has set a goal to send 8,000 of its members on short-term missions trips, while supporting no career missionaries.

Iverson’s desire is to see students partner with career missionaries, to catch the vision and re-evaluate their values and priorities. “We’re not a lake, taking in everything for ourselves,” he said in a talk he gave to us. “We are a river, flowing with the good news."

A fading fad?

As many as four million people a year go on STMs, reports Robert Priest, the director of the doctoral program in Intercultural Studies at Trinity Evangelical Divinity School. Missionary Seth Barnes points out that that can be a lot of waste. According to USA Today, "alternative spring breaks," a type of short-term missions trip, has become a growing trend. This has taken over spring break, which has been traditionally used to chug down kegs and get tans on a beach party resort. Even MTV, the network famous for its beach spring break parties, has noticed and is taking part in the growing trend. Think MTV, a division of MTVU, has done a web feature on alternative spring breaks, providing several suggestions for volunteer positions, such as Habitat for Humanity, Greenpeace, and Break Away, an alternative break network.

"I think it's a definite trend that the secular mainstream community is noticing and there's a strong desire on the parts of many in university administration and in culture, like MTV, that are wanting to promote an alternative," said Campus Crusade for Christ spokesman Tony Arnold, in an article in the Christian Post.

Are short-term missions becoming faddish? Barnes, an African Inland Missionary said in his blog, Radical Living in a Comfortable World, that those going are increasingly ill-prepared and what they do is of questionable value given the abundant resources given. Participants are often times narcissistic, have little cross-cultural training, and as result have very little impact on their missions, Barnes said.

Many short-termers do work projects—painting, and constructing run-down parts of churches and community buildings. Many work with children, playing games with them, and engaging them in bible lessons each day. Many work behind the scenes, cooking large meals to feed hungry children and adults. This latter task was my job in Newark. I had little exposure to the outside, like some my teammates, but most of the time was spent in the kitchen. I had little personal effect on any child or homeless person, but still I came back to Virginia changed.

Short-term mission trips usually benefit the short-termer more than the people they come to help, many critics have said. Yet those benefits have not always been self-indulgent. Suburban students, by leaving their comfort zones, are challenged to re-evaluate how to live their lives. “Through talks with one of the pastors, I was taught how the church should look like. Through Danny, I was taught how to die to selfish ways in order to live for Christ,” said sophomore John-Mark Walker.

Many advocates of STMs propel a vision of action which they see in Jesus’ teachings. “Jesus tells us, "Go into all the world spreading the good news." The passive approach to faith is an oxymoron—we can't sit still and practice the kind of risky faith steps that Jesus advocated,” said Barnes. “Christ sounded a clarion call to battle. Religion for couch potatoes placing a premium on safety or formulas doesn't sit well with our Lord. We've been commanded to get out of the malls and into the streets.” However, Barnes advocates his belief that short-term missions should always be done well, and outlines measures to be sure of a positive experience, including preparation, experience from the trip leader, and work with a local leader.

Students Training in Missions, is a program in InterVarsity Christian Fellowship which equips and empowers students with the tools to go on STMs. It propagates a compelling view behind this notion—we are blessed to be a blessing. Plentiful in resources and opportunities, it is not only a responsibility to give back; it is an act of love.

“Our short-termers have helped gather more people and initiate more programs," said Danny. "They enable us to reach out to more people. And we help teams understand more fully how to live for god and live for others.” Furthermore, more resources are being poured into city. By tapping into student networks, there is more supply toward the program, making it sustainable and raising financial resources needed to survive. “A Robin-Hood effect has been created,” said Iverson. “Through love and encouragement. resources are re-directed into a proper channel. Students can raise money to go and serve others, instead of spending money on meaningless things. They’re investing in something outside of themselves.”