In 2002, my wife, Carol, and I wrote the article below (edited for length) about the blessings and challenges of short-term missionaries working with us here in Japan. We now say in even stronger terms than back then, “Short-term missions is a great (net) blessing!” Because of God’s blessing through short-termers returning as career missionaries, our MTW Japan Mission is growing rapidly while most Japan mission groups are shrinking. I could add many new stories, but the points and stories in this article still work just fine. Enjoy, and please pass this on.

Short-Term Missions: Blessing or Bother?

“It’s not worth the money to send short-term missionaries!” some say. “Send long-term missionaries or give it to Indigenous church planters,” others say. “Send only those who are fully trained and committed for the long haul.”

We hear and appreciate these concerns. However, as MTW long-term church-planting missionaries working with many short-term missionaries serving anywhere from two weeks to two years, we could not be more enthusiastic about their role in kingdom advancement. Sure, there is a cost—to the long-term team receiving them, to the ones coming, and to the sending church. But the great benefits to the ministry, to the receiving team, to the sending church, and to the short-term missionaries themselves far outweigh the cost.

A great blessing to the ministry

From the beginning of our Japan ministry, short-term missionaries helped us throw a wide evangelistic net. As Seima Aoyagi, our team’s director for the Chiba college ministry, says, “Since Japanese students love to meet and talk to Americans, the short-term missionaries and teams bring us many, many contacts that we Japanese staff could never gather ourselves.”

“Since Japanese students love to meet and talk to Americans, the short-term missionaries and teams bring us many, many contacts that we Japanese staff could never gather ourselves.”

Follow-up by email: Hudson Taylor could have never imagined!

“I am so thankful for Bart and Judy from Orlando,” says Harumi Soneda, who came to Christ through our team. “They came on a two-week mission trip, showed such warmth and love to my husband, my two college daughters, and to me. They invited my daughters to visit them in America where God really opened the eyes of my older daughter to the gospel.”

Harumi tells with great joy how Yoriko came back to Japan eager to study the Bible. In an email to Bart and Judy, Yoriko wrote, “I know now that He is with me throughout my life (and even more), no matter what happens and no matter what I do … I just wanted share this joy with you two. I cannot wait to see you in June!”

Bart and Judy were reluctant 10-day missionaries, “dragged” to Japan the first time. Now they bring a team every year to help share the gospel. They are passionate mobilizers of people, money, and prayer. All because of that first 10-day trip.

Short-term missions raises up long-term missionaries

Eighteen-year-old Judith was our first short-term missionary. As Judith did outreach with Japanese high school girls and helped Dan with team administrative chores, God gave her a heart for Japan. She returned to Japan for two years after college, stayed for three, and now is back as a proven, able long-term missionary with a passion to reach Japan.

Two-week to two-year to long-term (and a sprinkling of romance)


• Lisa came for 10 days with Bart and Judy on their second trip, came back two months later for two years to teach MKs, married Robert, and they came back together as long-term missionaries.
• Sally came to Japan for a summer, returned for a year with another mission, and then served as a second-term MTW team member.
• Craig and Ree came for a summer, then back for two years, but stayed for three. They are now long-term.
• Anne Marie joined our team for a year at age 66 and stayed four years.

So many who serve short-term with our team are gripped by Japan’s “lostness,” and they return to their home churches aflame with a missions vision …

This is just a handful of examples. I could offer many more. Investment in short-term workers is an investment in long-term kingdom work because many return to the field.

Short-term missionaries strengthen the missions vision of the sending church

America certainly is spiritually needy, but it is also one of the most gospel-rich countries on earth. So many who serve short-term with our team are gripped by Japan’s “lostness,” and they return to their home churches aflame with a missions vision, passionately inspiring others to pray, give, and come as new workers for the harvest.

Short-term trips mobilize prayer

One short-term team came to help with outreach activities in a new Tokyo suburb with no church of any kind. The team was a great help, and we made many new contacts. The greatest impact on the team, though, was through our monthly four-hour prayer concert in which we plead with God to pour out His Spirit, “… that the desert (of Japan) would become a fertile field, and the fertile field a forest” (Isaiah 32:15). God worked in their hearts; for several years they have gathered monthly to pray for an hour for our team and for Japan. We have seen this over and over again as God uses a two-week or two-year experience to mobilize fervent, informed prayer for kingdom advancement.

Great spiritual benefit to the missionaries’ children

We are so grateful for the friendship and blessing that many short-term missionaries have brought to us, especially for the impact on our children. Much of the blessing of raising our children on the mission field has come from God via these precious short-term partners in ministry. Often in their late teens or in their 20s, the short-term workers have loved our children and been godly models who were also “cooler” than Dad and Mom. They talked to our kids of Christ, ministry, and purity. They gave much.

Full disclosure: the cost of short-term missions

For full disclosure, we do need to talk about the cost. Sadly, there have been cases where the cost to our team has outweighed the benefit from the short-termer. There have been times when their needs far exceeded our capacities, or where we failed to give the necessary time and energy to these brothers and sisters because of ever-increasing ministry demands. Those times have stretched us to develop greater dependence on Christ and they have modeled for the new Japanese believers the power of the gospel in broken lives. But it has all been well worth the cost! I cannot imagine where our Japan ministry would be today without the contribution of short-termers over the years, and the ongoing contribution of the many who have become career missionaries.

I cannot imagine where our Japan ministry would be today without the contribution of short-termers over the years, and the ongoing contribution of the many who have become career missionaries.

Long-term impact

The short-term missions zeal seems certain to have great long-term impact on the world. Tens of thousands of short-termers have fanned out in missions service around the world. God often uses the experience to call workers to return long term to the places where they served short term. And God sends almost everyone back to their homes deeply affected by what they experienced, much more ready in heart and head than most other Christians to mobilize the Church to pray, give, and partner with the work on the field.

This is an edited version of the article originally published in Looking Forward: Voices from Church Leaders on Our Global Mission by Mission to the World (Winepress Publishing, 2003). Updated 2025.