steveh53

My Church donates a lot of money to many missionaries and supports many people within our church when they travel to South America to help build churches. Some of our teenagers go on missionary trips overseas too. They are always asking for more money to finance these trips and missions. I don't mind donating money to a good cause but when I here how much money it costs to support these people on these trips, I feel that we are throwing our money away. For instance in a country where a person can be fed for $25.00 a month, it will cost the missionaries $5000.00 a month or more to stay there. That is double what it costs me for all of my bills at home and that includes mortgage and taxes. I can book a vacation to Aruba in an all inclusive resort for that kind of money. It seems to me that Churches could be built cheaper by local people in these poverty stricked countres. What is the advantage of sending a crew of 20 unskilled Americans to do the work and stay at expensive hotels and eat at expensive resteraunts? I feel sometimes that our donations could be better spent and the money used more efficiently. Why doesn it cost $5000.00 a month to spread the word to people in a country where the cost of living is next to nothing?

I realize that this is probably not going to be a very popular opinion, so I am ready to take my lumps here. I am not cheap but I don't like throwing hard earned money away either.

Steve

Joyful

You have valid point!

I am from Okinawa and know some American missionaries there. It seems they are not accomplishing much in Okinawa. They don't know how to approach local people; I don't know why that is, because they speak Japanese.

I am wondering why so many people take short term mission trips to foreign countries they don't even know and don't speak their languages. How can they reach out to people? It seems to me they are wasting a lot of money by this kind of christianity. It is super expensive to take this kind of trips.

steveh53

Exactly! My Church is sending a crew of at least 25 people to Argentina to help build a Church for some poor congregation. They are staying a week and it is costing them at least $2500 for each person. Most of these people don't know a level from a hammer and have no masonary or roofing experience at all. The Church is funding at leastv $2000 of the expence for each person. Now I would like to know what that $62000 would buy in Argentina. How many poor people would that 62 grand support if they were hired out to do the job localy? I don't believe that it is cost effective to send unskilled Americans to do these jobs. You are also right that they don't speak the language or know the customs of the people either. Yet when it is brought up they look at me like I have two heads or something. It doesn't make sense.

Steve

Joyful

I have talked to some churches about this too but as usual they did not care what I have to say. It is impossible to talk to organized churches.

Joyful

this kind of practice is just playing missionaries. They are making themselves feel good for nothing. They are wasting God's money for nothing.

Banarenth

The churches you guys attend really scare me. Missionaries and church building are separate issue, at least in any churches I've ever gone to. When we send people to build a church, we each pay our own way. There are usually some events planned that allow people to donate to help offset the expense, but I've never stayed in any fancy hotel or eaten good food. usually we stay with people who have volunteered their homes. Total cost is in the hundreds for the trip not thousands, and very little comes from offering. Last trip was two weeks, cost was $650. Most of it is in the flight.

Missionaries, at least the ones I've actually met and/or seen the reports are recieving more money, but not living in any kind of luxury. Most of the money goes to actually building their ministries.

steveh53

Banarenth,

Don't get me wrong, these are not bad people. They are very well meaning and the Church is too. They just don't seem to be able to add it all up and see that it is not cost effective. I don't believe that there is anything devious about it. Everyone just seems to get all caught up in the excitement of going on a mission trip and the cost is secondary.

This is not an isolated incident. Mission trips like this are fairly common. The expensive trips that the teens go on are very common too. Some of them can cost almost 10 grand a month depending on how much travel they do. I don't really care what they do for the most part but when they go around begging for more money all the time, I then have to wonder why the rest of us should keep opening our wallets to finance them. The more that I hear about it , the more I think that there is a whole lucrative industry out there profiting from the efforts of many well meaning people.

Oh No! Now I sound like a conspiracy theorist.

Steve

Banarenth

I've siimply never seen this kind of expense in a mission trip. While I do not doubt it happens, I'm surprised that it is common. the only trip I've ever seen that went into the thousands was a trip to Israel, but even then, everyone paid their own way.

Joyful

I don't believe this kind of practice is such innocent like you are making it out to be Stevey. If you have been serious about Jesus' mission we have to be very careful about everything we do. we have to be sensitive to other poor christians and countries. it is just being sensitive to others' need. this kind of practice is plain playing christian and church, IMHO. It is just normal practice in the churches.

Joyful

Why do you make trip to Israel? I hope you don't mind me asking.