Over the last forty years and more, short-term mission trips (STMs) have become very popular.  The number of people involved in, and the amount of money spent on, STMs have increased at amazing rates and grown to amazing totals.  According to a report by Liberty University in 2009, far more than a million Americans, mostly young people, go on an STM every year. If the average cost of such trips is $2,000, then the annual expense total is over two billion dollars!

As the report says, STMs are here to stay.

My family moved to Chambersburg so my dad could pastor a church. The first year we prayed for 65 people to attend our Christmas program. That night, we got 70. (You have to understand, this is a small church.) While my family looked for a personage, we lived in a double-wide trailer for almost a year. At first it was fun, but then it got boring.

In January of last year, my dad preached a sermon. He called 2017 "The Year of the Impossible." April was outreach month. Our goal was 50 visitors. After two Sundays, we already had 49 visitors. We raised our goal to 100, then 125. Then we stopped setting goals and waited for the final number. We got 140 visitors! 

Around that time, our friends' grandma died. She lived right across the road from our church. On a hot, sticky day in June, we won the auction for her house. After some remodeling, we moved in on August 31.

​I am so thankful to God for doing the impossible.

Almost no one can go through the Christmas season without hearing at least some part of Isaiah 53 being quoted. Did the apostle Paul know what Christmas is?  Not so much. What he did know, as every first century Israelite would, is the promise of the Lord and prophesied testimony of the Jewish people found in Isaiah 52:13–53. Contained here are the seeds of Paul’s impassioned motivation and unashamed boldness in proclaiming Christ. Here we find, what could be called, Our Great Christmas Commission.