Have you ever considered short term mission trips as fasting for the Lord? Consider this:
The concept of a fast is to remove something from your everyday routine to focus on God. When you are serving on mission, you usually give up something whether it is a hot shower or flushing toilet or a simple as a favorite food or comfortable routine.
Isaiah 58:6-7 tells us the type of fast the Lord finds acceptable.
““Is not this the kind of fasting I have chosen: to loose the chains of injustice and untie the cords of the yoke, to set the oppressed free and break every yoke? Is it not to share your food with the hungry and to provide the poor wanderer with shelter— when you see the naked, to clothe them, and not to turn away from your own flesh and blood?”
Isaiah 58:6-7 NIV
https://bible.com/bible/111/isa.58.6-7.NIV
Is this not the type of work usually done on a mission trip?
I know for me, each trip I am called out of my comfort zone. The Lord asks me to stretch and I am relying on Him. In 2 Corinthians 12:9, Paul reminds us the the Lord’s power is made perfect through our weakness. He goes on to say “Therefore I will boast all the more gladly of my weaknesses, so that the power of Christ may rest upon me. For the sake of Christ, then, I am content with weaknesses, insults, hardships, persecutions, and calamities. For when I am weak, then I am strong.”
“If anyone speaks, they should do so as one who speaks the very words of God. If anyone serves, they should do so with the strength God provides, so that in all things God may be praised through Jesus Christ. To him be the glory and the power for ever and ever. Amen.”
1 Peter 4:11 NIV
https://bible.com/bible/111/1pe.4.11.NIV
Isaiah 58 goes on the tell us what God promises when we do an acceptable fast:
“Then your light will break forth like the dawn, and your healing will quickly appear; then your righteousness will go before you, and the glory of the Lord will be your rear guard. Then you will call, and the Lord will answer; you will cry for help, and he will say: Here am I. “If you do away with the yoke of oppression, with the pointing finger and malicious talk, The Lord will guide you always; he will satisfy your needs in a sun-scorched land and will strengthen your frame. You will be like a well-watered garden, like a spring whose waters never fail.”
Isaiah 58:8-9, 11 NIV
https://bible.com/bible/111/isa.58.8-11.NIV
Rainbows and Otter Pelt 