Build A Computer Lab

GOING ON A
MISSION TRIP?

BRING A GIFT!
Recycle computers
and BUILD A 
COMPUTER LAB!

Bring a complete computer lab with you on your mission trip!   A gift that keeps giving!!

A Cure For Short-term Missions

What's wrong with this picture. A mission team puts a lot of time, energy, and finances into a mission trip. They travel to a far off place and have a fantastic time and make great new friends. But then when it's over, and they've returned home for a while, time begins fading the memories and distancing those relationships. As Bo Cassell  writes "I think the evidence shows our typical approach to mission trips is backward, and that’s why we’re often not getting the lasting impact we expect from them. ...it’s likely we’re treating mission trips as just another stand-alone program we throw into our summer youth ministry mix. That’s why our kids stand up in church and talk about lasting change after the trip, then return to their pre-trip life patterns soon after the afterglow fades. “

Is Bo right? Are short term mission experiences just flashes in a pan? I think Bo is right on.  From my own short term mission trip experience I know it is real easy for the ministry to end real quick once the trip is over. Time has a way of erasing the memories, distancing the people that had made new and exciting relationships. There is a cure available for this, however. It's called the Internet. Now I don't just mean an email or two (but that is ok to start) but a complete involvement in the lives of those in the mission field that extends beyond the ending of the mission trip.

A quick study of "How To Build A Computer Lab" tells how easy it is to build a robust computer lab from old computers (often available for free). I advocate that the mission team undertake such a project. Once the mission team sets up the computer lab they now have a method that lets them continue to minister even after their return.

Now the mission team can build the lab and use any software they wish but I have put together a bundle of software especially for providing education. One major software I use is the operating system,  a Linux distro, called k12ltsp . K12ltsp is built especially for education and includes a large bundle of educational software. The second major software we use is Moodle Moodle is a CMS specifically designed for teaching on the Internet. It will let the mission team (and helpers if they wish) to build their own custom lessons. It is a fair assumption that if the team goes down with a computer lab and has a long range goal of maintaining the relationships they establish on the trip through online courses then the mission teams attitude will be completely different from a typical short term mission.

And if the mission team is really ambitious they can also recruit their fellow church members as teachers. I call them “virtual missionaries”. Even though they never went to the mission field virtual missionaries "go" by internet, teach by internet, and disciple by internet. What started out as a “flash in the pan” mission experience would now be a long term, perhaps permanent, ministry.