Skits and Starving Ethiopians

So I've been thinking lately. I've been doing the missions thing for a while, and the stories that most people seem impressed by are the ones where I am in a developing nation feeding street kids. And I have to admit, sometimes they are the most fun to tell.

They act really impressed that I would go out of my way to bandage lepers and feed starving children, when now-a-days it's more sexy to do that, than preach on a street corner.

I remember when I was doing training with YWAM; the lecture period where we all learned gospel skits was (at least for me) the most painful. We would be going to a foreign country where non of us would be able to speak the language, and this was probably the closest thing any of us could get to personally communicating the gospel message. Even though they feel excruciatingly corny.

Thinking back; those skits were probably the closest thing to pure missions work we got. What you see in the first great missionary push ever were three things (mainly):

1. Gospel preaching

2. Church planting

3. Miracles and stuff

Now I'm not saying that mercy ministry is bad, but I think I might be able to make the case that it's just a function of the established church. It might not even be true missions in the purest sense of the word. 

What I mean is that unless giving food to a starving Ethiopian is accompanied with proclamation of the gospel, it's not. I mean, what is more important?

What does it profit a starving Ethiopian if he gains education and clean drinking water but his soul is forfeit?