Being missional vs. Doing missions

So my friend Alan got my brain churning recently (something he's very good at doing, by the way). He posted an article about short-term missions you can read by clicking here. The basic premise of the article is that many short-term missions projects in the church today have become little more than ethnotourism, where the missionaries get involved in the projects with the wrong motives (adventure, the little "jolt" of happiness from doing something good, etc.) and end up falling short of meeting the needs of the people they are serving. The author doesn't completely condemn short-term missions (in fact, he states that he is heavily involved in supporting them), he just thinks the pendulum has swung to far and that we need to reassess how we approach short-term missions.

To be honest, this article was really difficult for us to read as we are going to be leaving the school, church and people we've been working with in June to come back to the States. Just yesterday I was asked by one of my 10th graders, "Mr. Brad, are you going to be here with us next year?". I had to explain to him that we weren't (as we've both had to do with many of the students) and you can just sense their disappointment. At the same time, it's reassuring to know that they want us to stay - that we haven't been such a burden to them that they are practically packing our bags for us. But we also know that the school definitely has needs for the next year in replacing the teachers that have left. So I guess my question is: Have we served and met the needs of the school and people here to a great enough extent that our work has created a positive impact? Another question: At what point are short-term missions "long enough" that they can be considered productive rather than counter-productive?

On a lighter note, Megan's parents are going to be landing here in Tegucigalpa in only a few hours! We are extremely excited to have them here for a week and can't wait to introduce them to the people and places that we've grown to love here. Pray for safe travel and avoidance of intestinal parasites, if you think of it!