The web site for the magazine Christianity Today published a story recently about a study of short-term mission trip participants. That study is somewhat critical of short-term mission trips, calling them poor stewardship. You can spend thousands of dollars to send one American over to a developing country to help build a new church -- or you can just send the money, which would be enough to hire a crew of local people to build the church, not only accomplishing the building project but helping to benefit area laborers and their families.

This study, by Kurt Ver Beek, professor of sociology and third-world development at Calvin College in Grand Rapids, Mich., also downplays the impact that a short-term missions trip has on participants. Many say their attitudes have changed as a result of their mission experience, but Ver Beek's research shows little real change following a trip in areas like giving towards international relief.

Ver Beek makes some good points, but I don't think his study, from what I've read about it, is the last word -- and I think a lot depends on what type of mission trip you take, and who's behind it.

Gail Drake and the Rev. Debra Snellen founded LEAMIS International Ministries in 1998. I've known Gail for a dozen years now; her father founded and is executive director of a domestic missions program with which I'm affiliated. Gail was raised United Methodist in Nashville; Debra is from Missouri and comes from a Charismatic denomination which escapes me at the moment. The two of them had a vision for a non-denominational missions organization which would be concerned with spreading the Gospel while developing and empowering people in developing countries.

The name "LEAMIS" stands for "leadership and missions," and it reflects the organization's bent towards training. In addition to organizing its own trips, LEAMIS is available to help with training other churches and mission organizations in various missions-related and leadership-related topics. If you go on a LEAMIS trip, you have a training weekend here in the states several months before your trip, and then another day or two of training at the beginning of the trip, before you arrive at the location where you will be working. Then there's a day or two of debrief at the end of the trip. This debrief is taken very seriously, but the schedule usually includes a little R&R as well. Last year, and again this year, the debrief for the Kenya trip will be at the Masai Mara Wildlife Refuge, giving us the chance to see an incredible variety of animals in their natural habitat.

Debra and Gail have two other staff missionaries working with them as well. Frank Schroer, one of Debra's former parishioners in Missouri, and Bob Willems, a retired oceanographer who moved to Tennessee last year, are the third and fourth members of the LEAMIS team.

Debra, who once lived among the Inuit (sometimes known as Eskimos) for three years, hates to see food wasted. She's too kind and soft-spoken to raise a stink about it, but anyone who knows her can see her discomfort in a setting where food is being wasted. And one of the things you realize after spending even a few weeks in the Third World is that we waste a lot of food -- and everything else -- here in the U.S.

To me, that's one of the real values of short-term missions. It open's people's eyes to the way that 90 percent of the world lives. Do we have poverty here in Bedford County? Sure we do, and I don't mean to make light of it. But the fact remains that the poorest family in Bedford County can send their children to school, or go to the emergency room, or get food stamps to help feed their children. The poorest family in Bedford County is better off than the vast majority of the world's population.

If short-term mission trips help open people's eyes to that fact, and other hard truths, then it's worth whatever we spend on it.

UPDATE: Dave Schussler, whom I visited in Mississippi a few weeks ago, has had to drop out of the team at the last minute, and he's miserable about it. It's good news in the long run; Dave has taken a new job, but they want him to start Aug. 1. Dave's wife Carolyn will still be making the trip. In fact, as a result of Dave's good fortune, she's going to be quitting her job and so will have more time for mission projects.

John I. Carney is city editor of the Times-Gazette and covers county government and other topics. His home page is lakeneuron.com. "Countdown to Mission" will appear each weekend from now until his Kenya trip in August.