Traditionally, short term missions is just that … short.  For all the work you do to plan, prepare, to get people involved and engaged and to raise the prayer and financial support necessary, your mission to (insert your location here), is often here and gone before you know it.

Yet there are so many opportunities along the way to engage people — the very people who ultimately catch a vision for and support missions within your church all year long.

Sitting in a Missions Network meeting recently in Central California, one man (with white hair and some wrinkles which equals wisdom) said, “Short term missions is for the whole church … the whole church benefits when a team heads for the field … but we’ve got to find ways to engage them.”

After a short term mission is over, rare is the church that’s still actively talking about and finding ways to connect people to the summer mission to (where ever you went) 2 weeks — let alone 2 months — after you return.

Everyone is looking for a return on their investment these days, and the church is no exception.  When it comes ROI (Return on Investment) — the kind that matters to God — for short term missions, MissionMakr is the communication and impact tool you need to pull it all together from beginning to end (and then some).

When do short term missions have long term impact? When …
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Thanks to my good friend, Rick Lowe, at Wayside Chapel Evangelical Free Church in San Antonio, Texas, we want to make available to those of you who do house building trips a powerful devotional that’s focused on lessons about the home and family during  construction.

Special thanks to Rick for allowing me to make it available to others!

Here’s his first of 4 simple, but profound points …

1.    Unless the Lord builds the house, those who labor, labor in vain. Psalm 127:1.
a.    We talked about who King Solomon was and how God had charged him to build the first temple.
b.    Then, we looked at the efforts that so many were giving to make this house a quality work (straight walls, plumb corners, water tight roof, level floor) and how God asks us not just to pay attention to the physical details of the construction, but also the spiritual details of our lives.  In particular, the foundation that we build our lives upon.  Is it upon God and the work of His Son Jesus, or other things?
c.    You can also refer to Jeremiah 22:13 and the spiritual attributes of justice and righteousness that should accompany our lives and interactions with our neighbors.

The devotion has four complete points with Scripture references to both the Old and New Testament.  It’s perfect to prepare the head and the heart before the hands get moving!

Thanks again Rick!  Download it here