The Shortsightedness of Short-Term Missions

Let’s see how ambiguous I can make this post.

Recently I visited a family in Africa. They are there on a shoestring budget, but making it. My visit coincided with a short-term group of 9 Americans. The career missionaries were responsible for the short-term housing, work projects and everyone seemed to get along fine. The women on the American team fell in love with the career missionary’s kids, especially the three-year-old boy. They cooed, hugged and played with him. All good stuff.

The career missionary family is not in leadership position, but is what some would call “support staff.” The short-term teams provided funds for the team project and of course spent at least $2000 each for their 10-day excursion, which comes to $18,000 or $75 per person per hour to experience life outside of the U.S. The visitors go home, the missionary family remains behind to struggle with language, culture and the issues that only a career missionary will face.

Here’s my question. In all the time the short-term team was there did they ever really sit down with the career family and ask about what their lives were like? Did the short-term team get any insights on how to pray for the missionaries, the work, the country or any real working knowledge of the people that the career people have given their lives to serve? While they may have shared candy with the cute missionary kids, I wonder if they even have a clue of the missionary’s financial needs?