Final Prep for the Youth Mission Trip

If you're going on a youth mission trip this summer, you're likely working on your final preparations before you go. It's an exciting time, and I hope you enjoy it.

To help your youth and adults prepare for the trip, to get the most out of it and to provide the best possible service when you get there, here are a few tips of what to cover with your group before you go. And the pastor in me has even managed to make each category start with the letter "S"!

Skills Preparation

Whatever work you'll be doing, make sure your group knows how to do it. That might mean showing kids how to hold a hammer, how to stir a can of paint, how to sing the VBS songs, or how to transfer a patient from their bed to a chair.

Recruit some experts from your church to lead the youth in their training time.

You can make this fun and have contests or different stations they rotate to.

Safety Preparation

It's not fun spending the mission trip in the hospital, or having to go home because you got hurt. So make sure you talk with your youth about safety issues like basic first-aid, ladder safety, electricity and power tools, and travel safety. Most accidents at our mission camps are from youth goofing off at our lodging facility, so talk to them about safety after the work, too.

The parents of your youth are extremely concerned about safety, so when you spend time making sure everyone has their forms filled out and getting emergency contact numbers and covering safety issues, you're building parents' confidence in your leadership. Let parents know exactly where you'll be and how to get ahold of you at all times.

Sensitivity Preparation

The wrong thing said or a misunderstanding while you're on the mission trip can undo all the good you're doing through your service. Young people, like adults, come to unfamiliar locations with ignorance and prejudice. Even a postcard home with the words, "This place really needs our help, because it's in pretty bad shape," can send the wrong message to local people.

Spend time helping your young people understand the culture of the place you're going. What language do they speak? What values do they have? What are the economic conditions of the area?

And encourage your young people to put themselves in the other people's place. How would they feel if outsiders came to their town to do service—and then talked down to them in a patronizing way?

The service you do isn't just the work…it's the attitude and love and care that comes through your group at all times.

That being said, your youth represent a different culture, too. Help your adults (and other adults at the place you're serving or from other groups) appreciate the values and culture of teenagers. What some adults interpret as rude or selfish behavior in teenagers is sometimes a misunderstanding of youth and developmental issues they're working through.

Servanthood Preparation

You're going on a church mission trip. That's different than community service programs your young people might do through their school or scout groups. THIS trip has a particular spiritual emphasis to it.

To help them get what this trip is all about, do a Bible study on Jesus washing his disciples' feet, the Great Commission, the Good Samaritan, or any of Jesus' teachings on serving others. Help young people learn why they're going on this trip. And teach them the attitude of constantly looking for ways to serve others. Talk about humility and love.

Here's a tip. Pray for the people you're going to serve every time your group meets to discuss the mission trip. And pray for them every time you gather during the trip, too.

Sundry Stuff Preparation

OK, OK…I couldn't find a word that begins with S for the final, miscellaneous category. But there's other stuff you'll need to cover, too. (If you can think of a good word for this category that starts with S, please e-mail me.)

I always had a big meeting with parents and youth in the spring to go over all the little details like signing the forms, collecting the final payments, and discussing things like when they're supposed to be at the church the day of the trip and things like that. We discussed the last minute collection of supplies and last-minute fund raising plans.

I also made the Code of Conduct clear, and explained what we'd do if someone broke the rules. Before everyone got on the bus the Saturday of the trip, I gathered everyone around—including parents who were there—and gave them my last "pastor talk" about complying with the rules. At one church I was able to remind them how every year I'd get comments on how great our group was, and I told them I expected to hear that again. (And I always did!) But I also told them the nearest Greyhound Bus station of where we'd be and the nearest one to our home town and how long the ride was if I had to send them home on it.

And fortunately, I never had any serious discipline issues.

So have fun as you get ready to leave for your mission trip this summer. I pray all your participants are prepared and have a great experience serving others.