Things To Think About Before Your Mission Trip

Short term mission trips are a wonderful way to help your church members experience what God is doing around the world. While the trips are a blessing, they are also a lot of work. For church staff who are planning the trip, it’s a hectic time juggling camps, vacation Bible schools, and other church and personal events. Because we see the benefit in these trips, we want to help!

Here, you will find PART 1 , PART 2, and PART 3 in this series. This month we’ll look at practical helps for both the trip leader and team members.

To the trip leader, communicate, communicate, and communicate! Both with your team and with your host missionary. Your team members have questions about all kinds of things, like, what will the lodging and food be like, to what do I need to wear? Even if it’s your twentieth trip to this location, you probably have new team members that need to know all the information. Don’t forget how unfamiliar and even overwhelming this experience can feel for first-time team members and their families.

Also, communicate with your missionary host as clearly and as often as possible. Yes, your missionaries are busy, but you will both benefit from a well-planned trip, where expectations are understood and communicated clearly. Try organizing your questions in a single document and allowing time for responses. Seventeen separate emails with one question each are far more difficult to manage than one well-organized message.

With travel being more unpredictable than ever, build extra margin into your schedule. It’s far better to be early and bored waiting at your gate than rushing through security or dealing with delays at an understaffed ticket counter.

To the trip member, prepare well for your trip. Take time to learn about your host country and their culture, history, and customs. If another language is spoken, learn a few basic phrases to be able to interact with people. Most importantly, spend time daily praying for your host missionaries and the trip. Ask God to show you things on the trip that grow your understanding of who He is and how He is working around the world.

Also, remember to bring “AAA” with you:

ATTITUDE – Make sure your attitude is correct each day. Be respectful, avoid negative comments, follow the leading of the trip leader and missionary.

AVAILABILITY – Be available. This trip is an opportunity for you to serve others. This isn’t just done at the ministry site, you can serve on the bus, at the hotel or with the other team members. Be flexible when things don’t go as planned and be ready to help wherever needed.

ADVENTUROUS SPIRIT – A cross-cultural trip is exciting and full of new opportunities, embrace it! Eat new foods and try challenging things. Most importantly, follow God’s leading and leave your comfort zone to show the love of Christ with anyone you meet. This trip only happens once, make the most of the opportunity you have.

As a former missionary and youth pastor, I absolutely love mission trips and the impact they can have when people see what God is doing around the world. We here at the Mission Office want to help you make the most of these trips. We offer our GO Pack Mission Trip Planning resource for free to help you as you plan and prepare for trips. We also have our 30-day Mission Journal, designed to encourage your team before, during and after the trip. These can both be found under resources at gobbfimissions.com.

-by Chad Braymer, BBFI Associate Mission Director