How to Prepare and Plan a Youth Missions Trip
note: this month on the blog we’ll be focusing on different components of leading a short-term missions trip for youth that bears lasting fruit. Make sure to check back in for more.
I still remember it vividly: waiting in the security line at the local airport, realizing that I couldn’t find my passport. This was kind of a big deal, since I was leading our group of 19 people to Spain for a missions trip! Panic came over me. And then…I woke up. Although this nightmare felt very real, I am grateful that when I officially walked into the airport last summer, I had my passport in hand!
Leading a group of students on a missions trip is an amazing privilege, but it is also a weighty responsibility. Because of this, we need to plan wisely. Here are a couple of things to keep in mind as you prepare students for their next missions trip.
Partners: Know Who You’re Working With
Preparation starts with the actual people on the field. Does your church know this missionary enough to trust them to host and interact with your group? Are they already connected to your local church? Do your students know anything about their ministry? Before you arrive on site, introducing the missionaries, their strategy, and their context can be a great way to help your team embrace the on-site workers as an extension of your local church’s mission. Praying for them specifically and by name helps to reinforce this as well.
Missions trips can be a great opportunity for students to see how important the local church is in every context. A great question to ask in planning is this: how your group can help the local church on the mission field? Successful missions trips are not attempting to travel to another country for evangelism, divorced from any local church connection point. You are not spiritual paratroopers. The vehicle God has ordained for disciple-making is the local church, so striving to assist the local church is primary.
Does that mean we shouldn’t partner with parachurch ministers? Certainly not! Indeed, parachurch ministries are often a valuable bridge between one local church “at home” and another local church “abroad.” But, in your planning, it is wise to ask how your team can partner with local churches on the field to support what God is already doing there.
Transportation: Know the Logistics Well
Missions works involves the crossing of cultural and sometimes linguistic barriers. Before you can deal with those cultural barriers, you must get there. And that’s not always easy (or cheap). How you get to your destination and how you will navigate once you get there are questions you need to answer early in preparation, often before finalizing where your group will be going.
If your plan is to drive, make sure you have reliable vehicles and dependable drivers. If your church owns vehicles, make sure they have been inspected and tested before the departure dates. If someone is known for breaking the speed limit or making decisions they think will make them look cool to students, they probably should not be a driver. In some contexts, maybe trains are a better option. If your group can afford it, flights may be the best (or necessary) option, but then you have the added layer of getting to and from airports and dealing with the potential for lost luggage, forgotten passports, etc. No matter your means of arrival, nail them down well before your team needs to leave. Whatever you choose, it’s important to keep an open line of communication with your team. If you are not a highly detailed person, ask someone who is to help you coordinate and communicate details with students and their families.
However, sometimes plans change, and you have to adapt. This just happened to our church: while preparing to take a group to New York City several months from now, we had to get creative, using a combination of driving our church-owned vans and utilizing New Jersey transit. But these situations should be the exception, not the rule.
Another expensive hurdle is lodging. This is where good communication with the missionary on the field can come in handy. Can you stay in a local church building, or do you have to purchase lodging? Can the church provide sleeping accommodations, bathrooms, and showers for both guys and girls? Can you cook and eat there? Will students need to bring bedding or air mattresses? These may seem basic, but they are essential to avoid unnecessary issues on your trip. Shoddy logistics can derail a trip before it even gets started.
Personnel: Who Are You Taking?
Building a team that is capable and spiritually mature enough to fulfill the trip responsibilities is will significantly determine whether or not your trip is successful. Start with nailing down the number of team members you need. Then, as you gauge interest, it is wise to include a mixture of genders, backgrounds, and age ranges, so your team has varying degrees of ability, maturity, and responsibility. There’s something beautiful about how enthusiastic students can energize the adult leaders, as well as how the maturity and wisdom of adults can strengthen younger team members.
Additionally, it is important for all team members to be spiritually prepared for missions trips. A couple of years ago, I reluctantly invited a couple of people onto the team whom I normally would not have, and it proved to be a mistake. Even though God did some amazing things on that trip, the spiritual immaturity of a few immature students really hindered our team’s unity and ability to accomplish of our assignments. Be gracious and pastoral, but choose your team members wisely. Remember that you are not just representing your own church on the mission field, but also the ministry with whom you are partnering.
Training: What Are You Doing?
It’s important to give your team the adequate information, tools, and training they need. If you are going to run a children’s ministry outreach, make sure each person knows what they are doing weeks in advance. Host multiple training meetings where students can practice some of their ministry tasks. For example, you could let them practice teaching a VBS lesson to your team before they do it on the trip. For evangelism efforts, make sure your team has familiarity with the resources you are using and can build confidence by rehearsing the gospel in small groups together. And if there’s hard labor or construction, prep your team to be physically ready for a tiring (but rewarding) trip by teaching them how to swing a hammer or operate a drill before arriving on-site. And then bathe your team in prayer. Rally your whole local church to get behind the team that is being sent out.
Fellowship: Pour Into Your Team
Don’t forget: ministry should be joyful. The primary focus of your missions trips will be to support and extend the work of your ministry host. This means you will probably be running on little sleep, working on new and difficult tasks, and enduring long days (often, in weather you aren’t accustomed to). But don’t let your team fixate on those challenges; celebrate the successes. Keep a positive spirit, without being fake or overlooking the challenges. And beyond that, take the time each day to decompress together as a group, share a meal, and laugh together. You want these trips to be personally beneficial and spiritually nourishing. Don’t give the impression that in order to advance the kingdom, you must drain yourself with no enjoyment.
I know it is possible that some people might want to go on a missions trip because of the sheer fun of travel or to be with their friends. That being said, small recreational excursions can lead to great opportunities for additional teambuilding and fellowship. Additionally, most missionaries I’ve partnered with love getting to see teams experience the culture and places of the people they minister to every day. It’s okay for Christians to experience joy (and even FUN *gasp*) in the places they visit!
As you prepare your students for a missions trip, do remember that God is sovereign. No matter how many trips you’ve led, there will still be unforeseen blips in plans. But what a blessing it is to know that God is using everything (logistics, personnel decisions, and recreation) for His glory and our good.