What Happens After Your Mission Trip Matters Most

As our mission trip to Slovenia came to an end and our flight home began its descent into Raleigh-Durham, a message appeared on my phone from a young Slovenian believer I’ll call Nika. It tugged on my heart and reminded me that what happens after your mission trip matters most.

Nika shared that she had just talked with her grandmother about Jesus Christ, and the two of them are going to begin reading the Gospel of John together. She ended her message with a prayer request, “Please pray that she will have an open heart and will receive what she heard.”

Nika is one of several youth from across Slovenia who joined our team from Southeastern and the IMB missionaries on the field for evangelism and discipleship training. In a country of 2.2 million people with only 30 Christian churches and 1,500 believers1, the missionaries’ approach is to train local believers to become leaders, sharing the gospel and planting churches.

Reading Nika’s message reminded me that the most important gospel conversations aren’t the ones we have while we’re on mission. They’re the ones that continue long after we’ve returned home.

At the beginning of our mission trip, I thought I understood why we were going. We would build relationships with the missionaries, encourage the youth, and faithfully share the gospel.

While those things did occur, the strategy I learned from the IMB missionaries on the field changed both how I understand missions and how I approach them today.

In keeping with the Great Commission, the field team reminded us that our ultimate goal is to make disciples who make disciples. With less than one percent of the population knowing the name of Jesus, they taught us that the most effective long-term approach to reaching the nation is twofold. First, identify those whom God has prepared to respond to the gospel and faithfully share Christ with them. Second, equip local believers to share the gospel and make disciples who make disciples.

Share the Gospel with Those God Has Prepared to Respond

One afternoon I was sitting alone in the dining room at the hotel where our team was staying. A young woman who works there—I’ll call her Maja—offered me a cup of coffee. I noticed the words “One Love” on her shirt and asked her about it.

As we talked, she said something that caught my attention. Whenever the missionaries and mission teams stayed at the hotel, she felt different. She couldn’t fully explain it, but there was a peace and a joy she noticed whenever believers gathered there. She walked away after that comment, giving time for the Spirit to prepare how I “should answer” (Col. 4:6).

Then she came back and God opened the door. I told her that what she had been observing was a small taste of Heaven—believers gathered with a genuine love for Jesus Christ and one another. After reminding her that their hope was available to her, I asked whether she wanted that for herself.

She said yes, and that afternoon she placed her faith in Jesus Christ.

Maja had heard the gospel shared for ten years. In God’s perfect timing, she just needed to be reminded that the love and hope she observed in others could be hers too.

Maja’s journey to faith is not unique in a post-Christian world. Early in the week, one of the missionaries told us that, on average, it can take 7.5 years and around 100 meaningful touchpoints before someone in Slovenia comes to faith in Jesus Christ. That one observation changed how I saw the rest of the trip and how I approached Maja.

Pray that Maja would share the gospel with those staying at the hotel, with her family, and with the people in her village, bringing more to saving faith and making disciples who make disciples.

A short-term team on mission can sow seeds, water what others have planted, and occasionally witness God bringing someone to faith. But lasting gospel work depends on people who will still be there long after mission teams have returned home.

Equip Local Believers to Make Disciples

While we looked for opportunities to share Jesus Christ with those God was drawing to Himself, we also spent much of the week encouraging and training young Slovenian believers—many of them first-generation believers with a heart to share the gospel across their country, plant churches in every village, and make disciples who make disciples.

While the IMB missionaries and short-term mission teams play an important role, the long-term advance of the gospel depends on local believers faithfully sharing Jesus Christ with their own families, neighbors, coworkers, and people God places in their lives. For this reason, equipping local believers to become leaders and church planters who boldly proclaim the gospel with confidence is the most effective approach.

If you’ve ever served on a short-term mission trip, you have probably wondered whether anything you did while on mission will have kingdom impact—who will come to faith, who will share the good news, and when and where new churches will be planted.

Nika’s message about sharing with her grandmother was the answer to those questions for me.

Before we had even arrived back home in North Carolina, Nika had already shared the gospel with someone she loves. The ongoing work of making disciples who make disciples was already underway!

That approach isn’t unique to Slovenia. It is how God has always advanced His kingdom. Missionaries go, churches send, and short-term teams have the privilege of serving for a season. But the enduring work of the gospel moves forward through faithful local believers who love their neighbors, speak the language, understand the culture, and make disciples right where God has placed them.

As I think back on that week, I’m grateful for every conversation God allowed me to have. I’ll never forget Maja or the joy of watching God change her life.

But what gives me the most hope isn’t behind me. It’s what lies ahead.

A granddaughter opening the Gospel of John with her grandmother. Friends talking over coffee. Coworkers asking questions during lunch. Neighbors picking up conversations that began long before we arrived and will continue long after we’ve gone.

Those quiet moments may never show up in anyone’s mission report. Yet they are the conversations through which God is building His church in Slovenia.

So, if God is leading you to serve on a mission trip, share the gospel at every opportunity He gives you. But don’t overlook the believers He has already raised up around you. Encourage them. Pray with them. Learn from them. Walk beside them.

Because what happens after your mission trip matters most.