Could you take your church’s partnership with your mission partners one step further? Could your church send a small team out to serve short-term alongside your mission partners for a particular purpose?

A short-term mission trip doesn’t need to be very long. Perhaps the mission partners are running an evangelistic events week or leading on a bilingual summer camp. Perhaps it’s just a ‘normal’ week of overseas mission.

There may be people in your church who want to partner more intentionally with mission partners, or who are beginning to explore global gospel mission for themselves. Or maybe there are people in your church who speak the language of the country your mission partner serves in. This was the case at Emmanuel Bristol, who sent a team of three Spanish-speaking volunteers to join Julian and Nicky Milson who lead Iglesia de Jesucristo in Valencia, Spain, for the church’s first holiday club earlier this year.

Julian and Nicky were greatly encouraged by the team: ‘The vast majority of our ministry is in Spanish, so it was great to give Spanish speakers/learners the opportunity to use their language gifts with us in a missional context. The church family were wonderfully encouraged by their visit too, as a practical expression of partnership in the gospel. One thing that made the team particularly easy to accommodate was that they were ready and willing to do anything and everything that was asked of them, but they were also happy to occupy themselves and didn’t expect to be entertained by us for the whole visit. They were clearly here to serve us and our ministry without giving us more work to do.’

And Kit, the student worker at Emmanuel Bristol who visited as part of the team of three, testified to how exciting it was to see the Lord at work in Iglesia de Jesucristo: ‘The Milsons were particularly encouraged by members of the church family being ‘bought in’ to the idea of holiday club and giving up their time to volunteer, even if it was a bit out of their comfort zone. They were also encouraged by the number of children who came along and particularly those who then came to church on the Sunday with their families. As well as these things, we were encouraged by spending time with Julian, Nicky, Jemima and Theo – getting to know them better and strengthening our relationship with them as mission partners.’

There are many ways to strengthen your gospel partnership with the mission partners you support. If you don’t know where to start or if you’d like support running a team, contact Anastasia Gibbs, Crosslinks Short-term Mission Coordinator, and/or the mission partners you’re hoping to visit. Crosslinks can offer safeguarding advice and suggest ways to ensure your visit is a benefit to the mission partners.

With the help of mission partners and Crosslinks, you’ll be able to work out when is best, how long to go for and what getting involved will look like – and strengthen your gospel partnership. Start the conversation: short-term@crosslinks.org