How can mission trips leave a long-term imprint in the lives of our students? How can we prevent the trip becoming just another spiritual high.
Making the most of the experience begins before the trip starts and goes long after after the trip concludes. This is what we try to do in my youth ministry
Before:
Prior to each trip we try to focus on the culture of the place that we are going. So for example, in our youth group, when we are doing a trip to Kenya we spend a lot of time before the trip focusing on the culture. We also try to invite someone from Kenya come and speak to our group. We even call the local pastors we will be working with during our training meetings so we can all get to know each other before we arrive in Kenya. We also set up prayer partners with our students and the children of the orphanage in Kenya and start e-mailing them on a regular basis, so that when we arrive we have a connection.
After:
At the end of every mission trip, like Kenya we have students fill out debrief forms, which covers everything from “Favorite Experiences, How you saw God work, How God transformed you,” etc. This is done on the last day of our mission trip, so students can express themselves in writing while things are still fresh. We also take every student aside on the last day and do a 1-2 minute video interview where they share how God impacted their lives. We then have students write a letter to their parents sharing their experience, because most students have a difficult time verbalizing everything that happened on the trip with their parents, but feel more comfortable sharing it through writing. Then two weeks after we have arrived back home I make a memory book with pictures and the testimonies from the “Favorite experiences and how God worked, etc.” We also make a memory DVD that includes video footage from the trip along with all the video testimonies. When all this is done, I send this out to the students as a reminder of what God has done in their lives. Around this same time I also send a letter to the parents along with the letter their son/daughter wrote to them.
Then about 6 months later, I like to send them their original debrief sheets and a personal note from me to remind them of what God did on our trip.
I strongly believe in creating long lasting memories that students can look back on years later. As I hear testimonies from students that went on a trip 8-10 years ago and have shared about how they took out the DVD or the memory book and it was a reminder that God works in their lives. Unfortunately we are all like the Isrealites, we quickly forget what God has done and need reminders that God is alive and with us. That is why my students need these reminders.
What do you do? How do you prepare? How do you debrief?
