Middle East (MNN) — Why should pastors consider going on short-term mission trips?

Pastor Breck Ladd, who recently traveled to the Middle East with e3 Partners, says, “I love the e3 Partners trips. There are thousands of reasons to love them, but one of the key benefits for me as a pastor was I got to go not be the leader for a little while; I got to be a participant and get to learn and soak it in.”

Persecution

In the U.S., Ladd leads a large Mississippi church. But in the Middle East, he met Christians who suffer regular persecution for their faith.

He says the experience humbled him. “I was asked to go teach them something. You talk about feeling underprepared! I felt unworthy to even be in their presence in many ways. And the Lord had to work through that. I told them the first night we met, ‘I don’t have anything I can tell you, but I believe the Word of God does, and He speaks to us.’”

“We studied in from Ephesians. And then we studied the Great Commission.”

Ladd witnessed such joy from these believers, even those who suffered extreme violence. He met one 17-year-old boy thrown in prison for telling a classmate about the risen Jesus. “He was lashed down to a chair, had electrodes hooked to his body, and was repeatedly shocked. The Lord gave him a vision that he would be released in three days. Now the whole time he’s telling me this story, he’s telling it with a smile.”

Want to join an e3 Partners mission trip? Check out the upcoming journeys here.

 

(Header photo courtesy of Tima Miroshnichenko: https://www.pexels.com/photo/decorations-on-an-arch-6010335/)