Latest / Missions & Miles | Mission Trips, Group Travel, Missionary Stories, Travel Tips / 3 Pitfalls That Can Derail Your Short-Term Mission Trip
Transcript
- Joy Owens: Welcome to Missions and Miles, the podcast for mission leaders, first-time travelers, and anyone who feels the need to go and serve. In each episode, we'll sit down with people who have said yes to serving, like pastors, group leaders, and missionaries, and we'll hear their stories from the field. But we're not going to stop there. We're going to dig too into the practical side of what to pack, to plan, and what no one tells you about getting there. Because getting there is part of the calling too. I'm your host, Joy, and this is Missions and Miles. So, for this episode, we're going to talk about some of the pitfalls that people who are planning short-term mission trips might experience. The first one is not planning far enough in advance, right? So perhaps you are wanting to throw a mission trip together and it's only two months away and you're struggling to find a location, you're fundraising, Tickets, everything just it makes it very stressful to plan travel last minute. And so for a trip, a mission trip, especially where you're taking your church family, or maybe you're taking the youth group, you want to at least have like an eight-month runway. That way you can get your group tickets reserved, you can know what the budget is, you have your destination picked out, you have your local organization that you're working with, whether you're helping do a VBS, a painting a church, building a church, whatnot, you already have it's people on the ground that you're going to be working with and you you know who they are. And then of course as I said you have your group tickets reserved and you know what those prices are. So you have you know eight months usually or six months at least where you can fundraise. You have a set amount that you're looking for and this doesn't change because pretty much all of the expenses are already set. That's number one. Number two is not learning about the culture where you're going to. So this is a really big piece that I feel like s many mission trips leaders don't do enough of, which is really teaching the people who are going on the trip what the cultural norms are, or you just even learning about them, like what's the food, what are the cultural norms, what are the dress code, what things should they be aware of, how should they interact with the local people? And a lot of this has to do with actually working with a local team on the ground because they're the ones that can really set up your trip to be a success and make sure that everything is done within cultural norms because you don't want to offend, right? Our purpose in doing short term missions is is to bless others and also just to experience a different setting than we are normally in. So here's an example I have of a group that did not prepare well enough for their trip. They were on a trip to Kenya, used to live in Kenya and working with the Masylan out in the Masyland with the Maasai people and these blessed their hearts. It was hot and so they were like, Ooh, let's cool down and so they kind of they put on swimsuits, which I think they might have thought were modest 'cause I think they're a one piece. and they went swimming in like where the cattle usually drink water, so like a cow trot, the little cattle hole and and then you know, they're just playing around, not really thinking of anything of it. Well A little later the some Maasai women came and spoke to the leaders there and say, Are you here to steal our men? Because why are your why were these girls like naked, even though they weren't naked? but to them it was very indecent and it really left a negative impact on the local people that they were trying to help with. So planning in advance And enough time so that you have your budget set, but then also enough time so that you can really research where you're going, you can find about those cultural customs that you don't make mistakes that have a negative impact on what you're doing. And in terms of learning about the culture, like prepare your team to understand the food that they might be eating and the little things that they might do that could be perceived as very rude. you don't want that because again we want to have a positive impact wherever we are going and then then my third tip of how to have a positive impact or how to plan for your trip or a pitfall of of not planning I should say is picking as I said like previously working with a local agency so picking something that actually is going to have something meaningful right so well you could go and paint a building right but they could also hire someone to paint a building. Doing a VBS could be more beneficial beneficial for the community. perhaps you're thinking of doing a medical mission trip but the restrictions on medical work, you know, you need to have a license perhaps. So don't just assume that you can just go into any country and do medical work or assume that going and painting a school is the best use of your time. So that's why working with a local agency, a local mission group, a local church to find out what needs they really would like is the best way to go. So those are my three tips on How to avoid pitfalls when planning a short term mission trip with your students. If you are planning a trip or with your church, if you're planning a trip and you're like, How do I plan this budget wise so that we can fundraise? Like I just don't know where to begin. If you go to butlertravel.com and click on toolkits, we have a really great tool that will help you budget and help give you ideas of what you need to fundraise for and how to plan it out for how many months out you want to plan it. And you can just go to butlertravel.com and click on that toolkit button and you will have a great tool that will help you with any trip that you're planning, So on that tip of travel, just a quick tip if you are planning on a doing a mission trip. Think about getting your group tickets if possible, six months in advance, eight months in advance. That way you know that there'll be enough seats, especially if you're going on a popular destination, like say Dominican Republic at Spring Break. We work with a lot of schools that do a mission trip to Dominican Republic during spring break, and they often can get a little pricey, especially if they have not reserved those seats early. So make sure if you know where your destination is Jump on those groups tickets soon. And you can always reach out to us at butlertravel.com or send us an email at infobutlertravel.com and we'd love to help you with those seats if you need them. Thank you again for listening.