I'm headed home from Florida, will meet my board at the airport in Atlanta for our semi-annual meeting. It's going to be a low-key, quick meeting. The AIM board is great - the members give selflessly of themselves to further our vision of discipleship through missions.

In an earlier blog, I commented on the worst short-term mission trip idea I'd heard of - a missions cruise.

But as you look at the world of short-term missions, there are so many different teams and ministries to choose from.

Last month, our team in Mississippi ran into a mission team from Chicago. They were a group of transvestites. Here's a picture of them to the right.

I haven't figured out who they were with or what they were doing, or even what to say about such a group. Hey, at least they're not watching the Rocky Horror Picture Show.

An easier mission team to comment on was a friend's church group that does a mission trip in Nicaragua. They stay in a nice hotel in Managua, won't allow their people to touch orphans for fear of getting a disease, and hire armed guards to go with them. I mean, this in the safest country in Central America - why even bother going?!

Although there is an organization whose purpose is to advance excellence in short-term missions (called SOE), I'd like to see it have the teeth to help police the multitude of teams that are taking shortcuts in the way they do mission projects.