Making Missions Stick (More than a Trip)

So, you’re taking your kids on a mission trip or perhaps you’ve already been on one and you’re scratching your head about how to make this “pay off” for the long run. I know some churches run in cycles with the group taking a trip every 2, 3 or 4 years. Others, like mine, offer a mission trip every year. Other churches go to evangelize, others use trips as discipleship events for their students. Whatever the reason or philosophy, here are a few things I’ve implemented to make the trip “stick”.

I’ve been going with AIM for over 7 years and I won’t use any other agency. I believe in their objectives, have seen the fruit of their training materials manifest even before a trip begins, and trust the leadership of AIM to have the heart of the LORD. Since I’ve bought into AIM objectives for trips, I’ve also made them part of my ministry throughout the year. By the time a student decides to go on a trip, they’ve already been on a Prayer Walk, done some Listening Prayer training and know what an “ATL” is, before they ever open an AIM Missions 101 manual. I do this because all of these items have helped to prepare my students for everyday life, not just a 7-day away mission. I figured, if these are important enough for a ministry trip, why not implement them as the structure of weekly ministry? So, the trips simply reinforce what we’ve been doing throughout the year.

With that said, when a student goes on a trip and sees how simple it is to implement a VBS or Community Barbecue, or serve at a nursing home, their hesitancy to do it at home is much less. On the practical side, I’m also constantly trying to give my students opportunities to do the the things they did in the field at home. So, we have regular service project days, hold community cookouts, etc. But, we don’t do these as massive, major events. Rather, as the LORD leads us while we listen in prayer, we’ll decide to have a cookout. It might be just a few days away, but we gather the resources and we go, even it there’s just 5 of us! As the saying goes, “Adapt, improvise, overcome!”

For instance, we decided to do a community leaf raking day this past Fall. The first Saturday we tried it rained terribly, so we postponed it a week. I just told the kids who wanted to come to show up, no need to sign up. Well, the next Saturday a bunch of kids showed up and I had to run out and buy 20 rakes from the local hardware store. The store actually gave us a discount after hearing what we were doing. We broke into teams and went house to house raking leaves. Very simple. Low stress and high fun! We got to interact with members of the community like never before – very cool.

Here’s a breakdown of what I suggest:

1. Believe that what you’re doing on a trip is just as important to do at home.
2. Make your mission training part of your weekly ministry – not in prep for the trip, but because you believe that what you’ll do, “over there”, is even more important to do “over here”. So, even if you don’t go on a trip, the training will pay off from week to week.
3. Provide opportunities for your students to practice their faith. Low-key is best. But you have to intentionally do this, it won’t just happen.
4. Try to avoid over-planning and high maintenance ministry events. Simple also allows for interaction with people. Remember, it’s about people!
5. Don’t make the mission trip the goal. Rather, make an obedient heart the goal, for both you and your kids. An obedient heart is a beautiful thing whether it’s in your home town or Africa.