I read this in an email from one of our mission trip leaders this afternoon:

"Part of mission trip is to get kids away from their normal environment. Another part is to help them realize that their whole life is a mission trip. For this latter training I think we need to look at some opportunities to perform missions here in St. Louis. I'd arrange them into 3 categories: a service mission to the church itself, a service mission to some of our members and a service mission to our community... I do believe that we lose something with our mission groups by not reinforcing the experience regularly when we get back or building up to it enough."

This is the natural next step to short-term missions, turning them into a lifestyle by serving the community where we missioners live rather than only the ones we travel to. For a lot of people, this is even harder than committing to a mission trip far away. But it's what we're called to: serving "Jerusalem, Samaria and the ends of the earth;" not just one of those places!

It also makes me do the "I love my job" dance because I love having so many people around me who get it, and who are willing to work to help our youth develop the full service life that defines being a Christian.