How to Give Away Your Faith on Your Short-Term Mission Trip

First, let’s consider how God’s process of evangelism works and then we will discuss our role and what we need to do to prepare. From Scripture we know that God is actively involved in the process of bringing people to Himself. Also, we know that God uses the Holy Spirit to bring conviction of sin in the lives of people, and, upon hearing the gospel, enlighten them of the truth that they can gain forgiveness by exercising faith in Christ’s sacrificial atonement as payment for their sins. Having said this invites the questions: “How does the Holy Spirit perform this work?”, and “Is there any way I can identify a prospect in which He may be working?” The answer to the first question is “Needs.” The Holy Spirit uses needs. The spectrum of needs used by the Spirit may range from something like deep introspection about the meaning and purpose of life to, on the other extreme, something catastrophic (health, jobs, finances, marriage, etc.) In answer to the second question, those needs will stir the unbeliever to begin looking for help and, with regard to your trip, it may take the form of their showing an interest and inquiring about your plans. They see someone excited about and committed to a cause that has lasting value and they want to know about it. More than the details, they want to know how you got that sense of joy and purpose.

Given that we may encounter some God ordained prospects before, during, and after our venture, how can we best behave so as to identify them and draw them to the Savior? Colossians 4:5-6 offers some insight. “Conduct yourselves with wisdom toward outsiders, making the most of the opportunity. Let your speech always be with grace, seasoned, as it were, with salt, so that you may know how you should respond to each person.” This verse is rich with ideas about how we can relate to unbelievers. We are to spend time with unbelievers and, when with them, wisely redeem the time for eternal purposes. Following the example of Christ we are to “salt” our conversation with things that will generate curiosity and desire. The result will be that we will be given clues to help us in knowing if there is interest and how we are to respond.