Short-Term Mission by Howell Brian M.;

Author:Howell, Brian M.; [Howell, Brian M.]
Language: eng
Format: epub
Publisher: InterVarsity Press
Published: 2012-08-02T00:00:00+00:00

Entering the Field

Emerging from customs with our own luggage and the dozen large duffels of supplies, we stepped into the warm tropical air and put our bags into a pile near the curb. Within a few minutes, Phil Van Sant, the long-term missionary working with Help for the Children (Ayuda para Niños, or AN), strode up and greeted us warmly. He pointed out the bus that would carry us to the “team house” where we would stay in Linda Vista for the next two weeks. An easygoing man with a ready smile, Phil would be our main contact over the thirteen days. He would join us on many of our excursions and visit the worksite regularly.

Phil and his wife, Sarah, had been in Linda Vista for more than ten years. They had four children and had recently moved into a lovely home just south of the city. It was actually a bit smaller than the homes immediately around it, but with a good-sized living room, three bedrooms, a nicely appointed kitchen and a large gazebo in the back. It provided a nice space for our team to meet with the family for meals and, when the water to the city was cut off in the last four days of our trip, a place for members of the team to get a shower and wash clothes.

The other long-term missionaries with whom we would have some contact were Samantha and Steve Adelstein. They were an unusual missionary couple, having become Christians while in college at the Ivy League school where they met. Steve had earned an MBA at another prestigious university while Sam had finished medical school, specializing in pediatrics at yet another Ivy League institution. He had worked for a Fortune 500 company and she in medical practice until, when faced with a long-distance move or his accepting a severance package from his executive position, they opted to take the money and move to the mission field.

They had been with AN for a shorter time than the Van Sants, but they were both proficient in Spanish and had many strong contacts among Dominican religious and civic leaders. They also had four children and had recently moved into a large home on a sizable lot near where our team would stay. As with the Van Sants, we would have one official visit to their home—for dinner and a presentation about AN’s work—as well as several other visits to use water during the last four days.

The house where our group would stay was purchased by AN specifically as a site for visiting groups such as ours. Unlike some long-term mission groups, for whom STM groups would be an unwelcome burden and a distraction from the larger goals of the ministry (see A. Smith 2008, 42-43), AN had developed a program for short-term teams, utilizing them in institutionalized and regularized ways for building and maintaining infrastructure, supporting outreach programs for Dominican congregations who had joined a Protestant church network and financially supporting the ministry.

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