Eighteen students and guides from Grand Canyon University (GCU) traveled to the Cabécar village in Costa Rica for a mission trip. The group hiked five miles into the mountains with backpacks of gear, food and other resources for the Cabécar people. Full of anticipation, the team entered the village, ready to share the Gospel and serve others.

Mission work is well-intentioned and praised; however, short-term missions fail to have lasting impact on communities. Teams dedicate their time and money to travel to and serve communities but tend to focus most on how this affects their own faith and perspective.

According to Third World Quarterly, mission trip groups traveling to foreign countries rarely meet the goals they set. Teams may hope an individual will be miraculously healed, people will give their lives to God or new structures will be built from the ground up. Instead, the team may be asked to serve in small, simple ways, like playing with kids and cleaning classrooms. Short-term missions can provide incredible perspective for those on the team, which can be invaluable. Unfortunately, unless mission teams plan on returning to serve the same community and grow relationships with the people living there, impact is limited and the lack of understanding the team has of the community might cause more harm than good.

Zoe Griffiths, one of the guides on the Costa Rica mission, had to shift her expectations during the experience. Student guides were expected to lead the team, but given little information about logistics of each day, like what activities would be happening and how the team could serve the village.

“I think it put a lot of stress on our leadership and caused conflict between us because we didn’t know what was going on, so we couldn’t lead to the best of our ability. That was the most challenging thing,” Griffiths said.

Because the structure of the trip was short and disorganized, the team was unable to complete tasks with significant impact.

Another student on the trip, Caleb Wolin, expressed how his expectations shifted as the trip progressed. His reflection after the trip helped him realize how his mindset during the trip came from a place of selfishness, rather than service.

“At the end of the trip, I was really convicted that I wasn’t doing any of this for the right motives,” Wolin said. “I think the Lord really opened up my eyes at the end, like ‘Why are you really serving me and doing all these things?’”

While it can be easy to want to serve others and receive recognition for it, Wolin realized this is not why God calls people to mission work.

When entering a new country and culture, short-term mission teams can only do so much to help a community, and often what they do accomplish feels small and insignificant. There were many tasks for the team to complete to help the Cabécar people, but since they only spent four days in the village, the group’s main accomplishments were playing with the kids in the village, cleaning the school and evangelizing.

Another student on the trip, Tori Kramer, shared how these experiences challenged her and shifted her perspective from her original expectations.

“Even though we can’t do the big things, God can make the tiny things add up,” Kramer said.

This trip showed her how little the team was able to help the village, but she acknowledged her trust in God for the impact to continue growing. According to Public Health Nursing, a study conducted on community development work by a long-term mission group found the group was most successful when they were given clear goals to work toward and had a significant amount of time to help the community.

The lack of impact from short-term mission work can be disheartening and difficult to admit for those hoping to serve others. The Outdoor Recreation organization at GCU committed to returning to this village each year, with some of the same individuals joining the trip. After establishing a contact at the village’s school, members of the team donated money and started a fund for improvements at the school. Breaking down the barrier of short-term mission work that can discard impact and relationships after the trip, this team continues to work with the village after returning home. Due to the partnership between the team and contact in the village, along with donations made, the school made improvements to their bathrooms and is working toward installing TVs in classrooms.

Short-term mission work can lack substance if the team neglects to continue pursuing relationship and service to those they encounter. By committing to long-term work and continually building relationships with people, mission work extends more than a group of foreigners who shows up for a few days and fails to help the community.

Done right, short-term mission work can be the beginning of relationship, service and dedication to helping others, instead of abandoning the work that is just getting started.