Short-term missions can have an incredible impact on the participants, if they are truly broken of their western ethnocentrism and exposed to the extreme poverty of the Third World. The whole process can have a rather cleansing effect on our heart-sick attitudes that all too often revolve around self.

Linnea Molgard,

a married World Racer,

journals this about her time in Africa:

May 20, 2007

The joy of Africa is written all over the smiles of the starving and the fatherless. Jesus is stirring this nation into revival, and His mark has been left... the praising, the dancing, the laughter. The joy of the Lord is in Mozambique.

After playing with countless orphans at the Iris base (OK, so most of the children who are drawn to me are usually the quiet, overlooked ones who just want to sit in your lap, hold your hand, or play with your hair), going to a food outreach at a refugee camp (there was a flood in Mozambique a few months back and this is disaster relief work), praying for the sick and hearing or even seeing they've been healed, and being a part of a new church that meets under a tree in the bush, I can honestly say that God has covered this place in His garment of praise.

America has it all wrong. Our joy seems to hinge upon how much money we have, or our success, or status and title, or even our religion. It will never bring us happiness. Joy comes form the Holy Spirit... it's one of His fruit! (love, JOY, peace, patience, etc...) It pours out from a heart that longs to follow Jesus, no matter the cost, no matter the circumstance.

If I could end world hunger right now, I would. If every child had parents, that would bless my soul. If AIDS and other epidemics could be eradicated today I would be ecstatic. But Mozambique praises the Lord in the midst of these abominations.

And I complain about eating rice every day.