{"id":7841,"date":"2006-04-26T17:05:53","date_gmt":"2006-04-26T22:05:53","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/blogs.covchurch.org\/newswire\/?p=7841"},"modified":"2011-07-06T08:31:26","modified_gmt":"2011-07-06T13:31:26","slug":"4870","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"http:\/\/blogs.covchurch.org\/newswire\/2006\/04\/26\/4870\/","title":{"rendered":"Spring Popular Time for Mission Trips"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>MCALLEN, TX (April 26, 2006)  &#8211; Merge Ministries has seen a dramatic shift in  the number of people preferring to travel on mission trips in the spring  rather than the summer, says Executive Director Dale Lusk.<!--more--><\/p>\n<p>This year marks the largest number of participants between January and  May in Merge&#8217;s history, Lusk says. Meanwhile, the fewest number of  workers in a non-CHIC year since 1996 are slated for the rest of 2006.<\/p>\n<p>Merge is part of the Evangelical Covenant Church&#8217;s Department of World  Mission. Since 1993, more than 9,000 people have served across much of  the globe, says Lusk, who founded the ministry in 1993 upon graduating  from North Park Theological Seminary. Merge connects teams with projects  and offers assistance in preparing for the trips.<\/p>\n<p>More than 300 participants on 17 mission teams are serving in three  countries during this year&#8217;s first quarter, Lusk says. The previous  record was 278 people in 2004.<\/p>\n<p>The number of participants so far represents about half the projected  number of 640 workers for the year, Lusk says. That is a far greater  percentage than in past years, when spring participants accounted for a  quarter or less of the workers.<\/p>\n<p>For example, only 213 of the total 1,037 workers for 2005 participated  in the spring, with 12 traveling in the fall, Lusk says. In 2004, 278 of  the total 1,092 participants traveled in the spring, with 18 in the fall.<\/p>\n<p>Lusk says several reasons account for the switch to spring for work  teams: increasing participation during spring break, better weather, and  expense.  &#8220;I think people are finding spring break an easier time to  go,&#8221; he explains. &#8220;Most students have that time off, and there are no  band camps, sports camps, Christian camps, or jobs like they have in the  summer.&#8221;<\/p>\n<p>Most destination countries, other than Spain, have better weather during  our spring, Lusk notes. Flights to Spain and other countries also tend  to be more expensive during the summer, he adds.<\/p>\n<p>Traveling in the spring does limit opportunities to serve in some  countries, Lusk says. &#8220;The problem with spring is teams only have a week  \u2013 nine days max.&#8221; That means trips to South America, Europe and Africa  generally are not possible, he explains.<\/p>\n<p>Years in which the Evangelical Covenant Church&#8217;s national youth event,  CHIC, is held also tend to be lower, says Lusk. He notes, however, that  this CHIC year has the fewest summer workers since 1994, although it is  the largest year for overall participation.<\/p>\n<p>The switch to more spring trips also has led Merge to change its  staffing for the year, Lusk says. The ministry has suspended its  volunteers summer staff program for people wanting to serve one to four  weeks, Lusk says, adding that eight young adults have been asked to wait  until 2007.<\/p>\n<p>Merge is considering two new ways to meet the demand to work with the  spring trips: starting a spring staff program like the one in the  summer, and offering another level of full-time staff other than area  directors that would include translating and site supervisors, or work  project supervisors.<\/p>\n<p>The years following CHIC tend to see a large increase in workers, which  should translate to more summer numbers, Lusk says, but he adds the  ministry faces other challenges as it continues to serve numerous countries.<\/p>\n<p>Lusk says he hopes more churches will view mission trips as being for  more than youth and college students. &#8220;Half our 36 trips this year are  for youth,&#8221; he says. The other half is either adult, family or mixed  (youth group and adults) In 2005, about 70 percent of the trips were  solely for youth.<\/p>\n<p>Lusk also encourages churches that have used the ministry in the past to  continue to do so because Merge is able to better provide logistical  support than if churches try to do so themselves. Mission teams still  can sign up for this summer and fall, says Lusk. To learn more about the  ministry, visit <a href=\"http:\/\/www.covmerge.org\/\">Merge Ministries. <\/a><\/p>\n<p class=\"wp-report-this\"><a href=\"http:\/\/blogs.covchurch.org\/newswire?moderation_action=report_form&#038;object_type=post&#038;object_id=7841&#038;width=250&#038;height=300\" class=\"thickbox\" title=\"Report This Post\">Report This Post<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>MCALLEN, TX (April 26, 2006) &#8211; Merge Ministries has seen a dramatic shift in the number of people preferring to travel on mission trips in the spring rather than the summer, says Executive Director Dale Lusk. Report This Post<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-7841","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-uncategorized"],"yoast_head":"<!-- This site is optimized with the Yoast SEO plugin v28.4 - https:\/\/yoast.com\/product\/yoast-seo-wordpress\/ -->\n<title>Spring Popular Time for Mission Trips - Covenant Newswire Archives<\/title>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/blogs.covchurch.org\/newswire\/2006\/04\/26\/4870\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"Spring Popular Time for Mission Trips - Covenant Newswire Archives\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"MCALLEN, TX (April 26, 2006) &#8211; Merge Ministries has seen a dramatic shift in the number of people preferring to travel on mission trips in the spring rather than the summer, says Executive Director Dale Lusk. 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