Canaan Fellowship

Hi all,

I've been thinking about short-term missions lately and think I may write a short article on them.   But before I do that I want to sound you guys out to try to understand your thoughts on them.   I think I'll be better able to write what I want if I first understand my audience's thoughts on the subject.

I have a bunch of questions which I'd love to get your gut level responses to (don't take too much time and only respond to the ones you have opinions on):

1. What should your aim be when you go on a short-term mission?
2. What kind of stuff could/should you do on a short-term mission - what stuff is most important?
3. How long is a short-term mission?  When does it become medium/long-term?
4. Who benefits from short-term missions?
5. What kind of places whould you want to go to on a short-term mission?
6. What's the difference between a vacation and a short-term mission?
7. How should it affect you?
8. How should it affect the people you minister to?
9. How should it affect the missionary you stay with?
10. Do you have any other thoughts on short-term missions?

Thanks!
Evan

I thought it would be good to do an update on the retreat so that everyone is aware of the plans.  The topic of the retreat will be the book of Galations.  We will go through this book in a way similar to what we have done in the past.  Each morning we are planning to have 2 talks and a time for small group discussion and poster making.  We encourage everyone to spend time before the retreat reading and becoming familiar with the book.  In the evenings there will be meetings focused on praise and worship and testimonies.

The retreat will be held Thursday December 29th through Sunday January 1st.  Try to arrive on Thursday (we will possibly have a meeting that night).  We currently have about 60 people planning to attend:  44 or so from NY, 12 or so from Ohio, 5 or so from PA.  We are setting up homes for out of state people to stay in and eat with durring the retreat and we'll also have lunches together.

The winter youth retreat is tentatively planned for Thursday December 29th through Sunday January 1st.  Arrive Thursday (meeting at night), all day Friday and Saturday, then leave after Church on Sunday.

We would love to hear what is on your heart for this time, any topics that you feel would be good to cover, things that you think worked well last retreat, what could be improved for this retreat, and anything else you would like to share.  All ideas are welcome - please leave a comment below.

Please leave a comment if you notice anything wrong, or if you have any suggestions how the site could be improved, etc and we'll (Carl and Evan  right now) will look into it.