Published at Youthworker Online (A part of Youthworker Journal)

Read the online article here

Making Mission Trips Meaningful for Parents and Families

The impact of a mission trip in the life of a student never ceases to amaze me. If I am honest, every mission trip I lead also has an impact on my own life. There is something so powerful in serving others that I often feel guilty for getting more out of serving than I feel like I give. Over the years I have learned a lot from leading mission trips, more often from mistakes I make and stealing the good ideas of others rather than my own creative insights or brilliant revelations. In fact, I am not sure I could name one. I have found that one of the great gifts I can give a student, their family and the church I serve is to do things that make the mission trip experience meaningful for parents (and families) as they send their students off on this adventure with me. Here are some things that I have done over the years that have enhanced the mission trip experience for parents and families.

Practice #1: Communicate, Communicate, Communicate

I tend to be an over communicator and while that can be annoying to some, many parents are appreciative of this aspect of my personality, especially when it comes to mission trips. Our mission trip process starts with information meetings, which anyone who would like to go on the trip must attend with a parent. This expectation alone has not only enhanced my relationship with parents and made the mission trip more meaningful for all, but it also has prevented a lot of stress and headaches. In addition to our informational sessions, I make sure to send regular email communication about the mission trip to parents. This includes giving parents a copy of the itinerary and the packing list at the very least two weeks ahead of the trip, but in most cases three to six weeks before the trip. After the trip, I make sure to send out a follow up email so everyone knows about the expectations, events and other follow up that happens after the trip.

Practice #2: The Follow-up Breakfast

Teenagers are notorious for the lack of information they share with parents. I had one student refuse to tell their parents anything about the mission trips for months after the trip. In fact, I had to tell the student that I would ban them from any future trips if they did not talk about the mission trip with their parents. Every summer I have a breakfast where we invite parents (and depending on the church, the whole congregation) to come and hear about the mission trip. I usually prepare a simple slide show and have some youth (and occasionally adult leaders) share about the mission trips from that summer while also sharing a few words myself. Parents are always thankful to see and hear about the mission trip experience from the perspective of their youth as well as others. The great thing about doing this is it is very little work for a lot of return.

Practice #3: The Prayer & Packing Meeting

One practice I stumbled upon due to my own need to plan is what we call the prayer and packing meeting. For every mission trip, the youth and adults going gather the night before we leave. During this time, parents come with their youth and the youth bring their luggage (except maybe for their pillow and personal bag for the ride/flight) to the church. After checking all the bags (for size or weight depending on whether we are flying, driving or both), we load the bags up in the vehicles we will be using the next morning. Then we share a time of meeting and worship. We cover final details, answer questions, and hand out emergency numbers. Then we spend some time in prayer and pray for those going on the trip by inviting parents and family members to come and lay hands on the youth going on the trip. It is a very meaningful send off. We then share communion before disbursing. It is not only a meaningful experience; it’s a gift to parents in another way. It prevents the late evening (or 1:00am) argument between parents and their youth when the procrastinator packing has not started and the parent is running to Wal-Mart to get deodorant. I remember one parent thanking me for this evening when I first came to the church stating, “this is the least stressful day before the mission trip we have ever had.” Sometimes it is the small stuff that has the greatest impact on parents.

Practice #4: Letters

A meaningful tradition for youth, families and friends is to have families and friends of youth going on the trip write secret letters of encouragement to them. Every year I ask parents to help provide 2-4 letters (without their youth knowing) to give them just past the halfway point of the trip. This is always an emotional and powerful experience as I give the letters to students and give them some time and space to read the letters from home. Parents have very little opportunity to tell their children how they fell, especially when they are teenagers. Most of our students have no idea how their parents really feel about them, so reading a heartfelt letter from home is always meaningful and has a great impact on students, parents and families. I have seen siblings moved in powerful ways just by being able to write a letter to their brother or sister. One of the most powerful experiences with this tradition came on one mission trip where I got word that a student’s grandfather had died. I shared the news with the student who was heartbroken. The next evening I passed out the letters as usual, knowing that one of the letters this student was going to receive was from his grandfather who had passed away. Word cannot express the power of that moment for the student and his family.

While none of these practices are complicated or deeply profound, they can have a powerful impact on your youth, parents and families. Thinking carefully about how to involve parents and families in the mission trip experience will not only enhance the mission trip experience, but it will also serve parents in a way that will benefit your ministry more than you might ever realize.

Rev. Marcus J Carlson has worked with children and youth for over 14 years and is a spiritual director. He current serves as Associate Pastor at Bethel Lutheran Church in Colorado Springs, CO. (marcusjcarlson.com).

Published at Youthworker Online (A part of Youthworker Journal)

Read the online article here

Mission Trip Rules that Transform

When we think about mission trips, rules are not one of the first things that come to mind. Rules in youth ministry are often treated as a necessary evil instead of an opportunity. Believe it or not, in the case of mission trips, rules not only create physical and emotional safety, they can add to the transforming power of mission trips. There are a few rules that I have carried with me throughout my whole career and to every church I have served. They are always met with some resistance, but they have served as a great tool for transformation. Too often, we youth worker types are not intentional about many things, particularly our rules and expectations of students.

Rule #1: Cell Phones

I have never allowed students to bring cell phones on mission trips for any reason. We communicate this with students and parents early and often. We do allow our adults to bring them for communication and safety reasons, but also ask them not to use them in front of students unless it is an emergency or an important trip communication. Leaving cell phones home makes a huge difference on mission trips. It’s one more thing that could get lost or stolen as well as one more thing to keep track of. Additionally, cell phones are a huge distraction. Most of our rules for mission trips are focused on either safety or removing distractions. Forcing our students to disconnect during the mission trip avoids a wide variety of problems and leads to a lot of transformation. Our students (as well as adults) are surrounded by noise and distraction and are constantly connected. This prevents so many of us from hearing the voice of God. Removing cell phones from our trips has helped students hear the still, small voice of God with more clarity.

Rule #2: Other Electronic Devices

We also have rules regarding other electronic devices. We do allow music players (ipod etc) on our trips unless we are going on an international trip and are concerned about customs (Yes, we have several students who tell us their music is on their phone but we do not allow them to bring their phones for any reason). We only allow these music devices to be used while on the drive or flight to and from the location of the trip. Once we arrive we take them away and lock them up (this prevents them from getting used, lost or stolen) and even though we have students who insist they need them to sleep, we ask them to suffer for Jesus. We of course allow cameras (unless it’s a phone) on our mission trips, but do not allow any other electronic devices (video game players etc) on our trips. As with the cell phones, these devices are not only a risk (theft etc), but they are also a distraction. Thankfully we have not had any students go into shock after a week without their electronic devices.

Rule #3: Pampering

This rule has created the most debate and controversy in recent years. For our mission trips we tell all participants that it is not a time to pamper, spend time on our appearance and parade the many resources we have in front of others. We ask our students and adults to avoid really nice clothing and jewelry and tell them not to bring a bunch of makeup and other pampering products including hair dryers, curling irons etc. More times than not, our leaders (and usually the ones in their twenties) have the hardest time with this rule.

Rule #4: The Obvious Stuff

There are those rules that are (or at least should be) obvious that I also hold fast to on mission trips. In addition to honoring and respecting the rules of the organizations and people you are working with, the most obvious of these rules relates to romantic physical contact between students. I have never permitted this and while I have rarely had a problem in this area (I am sure there are some I do not know about) it is a rule that we must take seriously on mission trips. Allowing students to wander alone in unsafe situations or riding on the roof of the church van along with other issues are the simple and obvious things that hopefully we do not forget.

The Covenant

Each year I ask our mission teams to create and sign a covenant. I ask them to think about the things that they should expect from each other and we have a dialogue about what should go into our covenant. This agreement between all of the members of our team and God is something that enhances the trip and creates great dialogue between our students as they prepare for our mission trips. It also helps us all to focus on why we are serving while perhaps even reducing some the drama that is a natural part of any mission trip.

Rev. Marcus J Carlson has worked with children and youth for over 14 years and is a spiritual director. He current serves as Associate Pastor at Bethel Lutheran Church in Colorado Springs, CO. (marcusjcarlson.com).