A GUIDE TO SHORT TERM MISSIONS
A comprehensive manual for planning an effective mission trip
By H. Leon Greene. Gabriel Publishing. 275 pages. £6.99
ISBN 1 884543 73 1
Dr. Leon Greene is a heart specialist from Seattle who has taken part in 20 short-term missions to many different destinations since 1987. Though many involved him in medical work, he has also led teams doing a wide range of ministries. So he’s well qualified to advise on all aspects of short-term missions.
As a serial short-termer myself, I was surprised but delighted to read of the significant but calculated risks he takes both for himself and his teams: risks that are generally uncharacteristic of his profession. Although there is a comprehensive A-Z of the worst that could happen to your health in scary diagnostic detail (Appendix E), in the main text Greene advocates for the flexibility, determination, sense of adventure and dependency on God which are the hallmarks of mission trips that radically change lives: both of those ministering and those being ministered to.