Archive for July, 2011

Wednesday, July 27th, 2011

Saving Lives Physically and Spiritually

We love hearing the stories of the changed lives that come through the work that our clients do all over the world. Christian mission trips are great reminders that there are those across the street as well as around the world who need a special touch. Often those touches result in spiritual changes. Sometimes they result in saving lives—physically as well as spiritually.

One of those stories comes from Kimberly, a Ministry Travel client, who shares about her favorite mission trip.

One summer in 1998, we were at the black sea with 90 US youth, outreaching at the black sea coast in Romania. It was hot and humid…My husband and myself saw a young lady smoking and crying watching the drama [we were performing] unfold on the stage. We introduced ourselves to her, sharing why we were there, what we were doing. She told us that she was planning on killing herself that night, but something drew her to the beach, and she decided to go. That’s when she met us. God used us to minister to her brokenness. She told us that she wanted to find a church in the area so she could start a relationship with the Lord. God taught us, that we are all missionaries wherever we are. During our 9-5 job, we are missionaries. If we are traveling overseas and working with non-profits, we are missionaries. If we are business men and women, we are missionaries. We are all missionaries while we grocery shop, while we wait to fill our tanks with gas, while we wait to see our doctors, in our churches, our homes, our workplace, our families and our schools. God wants to meet all his children wherever they are. This was just one of the most important things I have learned while working missions.

That was a great lesson that Kimberly and countless others like her have learned through short term mission trips. Do you have a story from a mission trip that you would like to share? Tell us about it on out Facebook page at www.Facebook.com/ministrytravel.

Do you have a mission trip in the planning stages? We’d love to help you
with discounted missionary airfares. There really are special prices on flights for missionaries. Contact one of our missionary travel
consultants at 1-877-541-5726 or on the web at www.ministrytravel.com.

Tags: ,
Posted in Missions | Comments Off

Monday, July 25th, 2011

Debunking Travel Booking Myths: What Missionary Travelers Don’t Know Can Really Cost Them

The other night my wife and I hosted a get-together for missionary friends who are home on furlough. This family was passing through town and wanted to visit with their contacts in the area, so we invited them to our home. One of the friends who came was a retired missionary who still actively represents his mission through short term trips.

We got to discussing flights for missionaries, and I asked him who handles his missionary airfare arrangements. “Oh, I just find an Internet site and book it myself,” he replied.

“Are you aware that there are discounts available for international missionary and humanitarian travel,” I asked. You should have seen the look on his face when he realized that for years now he had needlessly been paying full airfare for his international mission trips.

“I had no idea,” he replied.

Before leaving, he thanked my several times for giving him the tip. This veteran global traveler is like many others who have bought into myths about booking missionary airfare. Their assumptions and lack of information are costing them not only money but also time and other resources. Here are three myths that I hear frequently as I interact with missionaries and mission trip leaders.

Myth #1: It doesn’t matter where you buy your airline ticket; the prices are all the same.

Between the proliferation of Internet travel sites and aggressive airline advertising campaigns aimed at driving you to their websites, it would seem that the simplest thing is to just book missionary travel online yourself. Or if you know a guy who has a friend who works at a travel agency across town, why not just call there? Does it really make a difference?

Early in my 20+ years of international ministry travel I discovered that airfare can vary greatly and that who you buy from really does make a difference. I discovered that the “secret” to getting discounted fares is knowing the difference between published fares—what you get from airlines and the Internet sites—and contract fares offered by select travel agencies.

I learned this as a young pastor taking a group from my church to serve for a week in Germany. I called the local office of a travel agency “chain” and was given one price on a particular airline, which was the same as what the airline gave me. I contacted another travel agency that I had heard about and got the same flights on the same airline for a couple hundred dollars less per person. The difference was that the second travel agency had contract fares, which are special arrangements with the airlines to sell a certain number of seats at a discounted price.

Today, most major airlines offer missionary or humanitarian contract rates for sale through a select few travel agencies. By utilizing these rates, it is not uncommon to save several hundred dollars off from each ticket. Africa is especially discounted, but savings are available to other continents as well. So it pays to know who to contact, because you can’t get these discounts from just any travel agent or even from the airlines.

Myth #2: You get the same service (or lack of it) regardless of where you book.

Although we live in a business culture that talks much about customer service, most of us who fly regularly don’t see a lot of that when dealing with airlines. Sometimes it feels like you have been dropped onto a deserted island and left to fend for yourself. When you call an airline, their job is to get your issue resolved as fast as possible so that they can tackle the 10 calls queued up behind you.

A good missionary travel consultant will explore a variety of options that not only help the bottom line, but actually make travel easier. There has been many times where my travel counselor came up with better schedules, found innovative ways to save money or suggested ways to avoid a “forced” overnight stay in a city.

Internet sites, of course, don’t provide personal interactions and there are no experts to review the travel arrangements with you. There’s no one to help catch mistakes that you might make. I know a short term mission team leader who typed in the wrong travel dates while booking online an entire team’s international flights. He didn’t realize it until hours after he had hit the “submit” button and purchased the tickets. His mistake was difficult to fix and cost him many hours and a lot of money!

Myth #3: If there is a problem, the airline will take care of me.

Who would have ever imagined that a volcano with an unpronounceable name way up in Iceland would spew ash all over Europe and shut down air travel for days on end? Yet that is exactly what we saw last year. This year, a volcano in Chile is wreaking havoc in the skies over Australia. You never think about flight attendants, pilots, air traffic controllers or even passport control officers walking off the job and airline schedules being sent into disarray, but we have seen all of this in recent days. Then there are the frequent problems like mechanical malfunctions and weather delays that can leave you grounded. You need someone on your side who will look out for your and explore all options, and you just don’t get that from the airlines.

Having traveled to 26 countries across six continents myself, and managed teams working in dozens of additional countries, I have seen international travel counselors come to our rescue on many occasions. If you are stuck in the middle of Timbuktu, it is nice to know there is someone you can call on who can get you out!

With airfare accounting for half or more of most short term mission trip expenses, and knowing that a bad travel experience can really dampen an otherwise great trip, I’ve found that it is best to leave air arrangements to people who know what they are doing. While missionary travel specialists can’t control volcanoes or airline strikes, they sure can come to the rescue when those or a hundred other things happen. That’s good news for all of us who travel abroad to serve.

_______________________________________________

Frank Banfill is president of MaxPoint Ministries (www.maxpoint.org). He regularly leads short term mission teams and assists other ministries with their international outreaches. He writes on behalf of Ministry Travel (www.ministrytravel.com).

Tags: , ,
Posted in Humanitarian | 2 Comments »

Wednesday, July 20th, 2011

Missions Round-up: New Tools for Missionaries

Those preparing for international mission trips will be especially interested in some new tools, training and resources that are being used to impact needy people around the world.

e3 Resources has just introduced the MalariaCube, which is the size and shape of a Rubik’s Cube, but has panels that open with pictures on it. The tool is used to educate people about the prevention and causes of malaria, which affects millions of people each year, especially in Africa. Although the tool focuses on the mosquito-borne disease, there is another use. “Our goal at the end of the day is to share the gospel. And in the area of malaria, it’s such a problem that we can tell this story and grab people’s attention—where their heart beats. And then we share the gospel as well,” said Casey See, Executive Director of e3 Resources in a recent interview with Mission Network News. e3’s other “cube” resources include the Evangecube, which has been used by tens of thousands of people world-wide to share the gospel, and the HopeCube, which teaches about HIV/AIDS.

White buckets by the thousands are heading to Africa to help those ministering to people with AIDS. The In-Home Care Kit program of Baptist Global Response (BGR), an international relief and development organization, has provided medical and hygiene supplies to help Christian caregivers and ease the suffering of people affected by terminal illnesses. According to a recent Baptist Press report, more than 4,700 of the five-gallon plastic buckets have been sent over the past two years to South Africa, Zambia, Kenya, Uganda, Botswana, Lesotho, Mozambique, Guinea and Niger. BGR is hoping to send 6,000 this year. The buckets are filled by U.S. churches and then BGR distributes them through their African network.

With a large percentage of the world that cannot or does not learn from reading, the importance of using stories to share the gospel is taking on more prominence. Many short term teams are getting training in oral communications strategies, and more and more mission agencies are dedicating staff and resources to it. Several of these organizations sponsor workshops to equip people to use stories to tell Bible events and biblical truths. One organization, Mission Aviation Fellowship, is sponsoring a training next month in Boise, Idaho. You can get more information at http://www.maflt.org.

Just a reminder that whether you are taking a mission trip to Africa, tackling a humanitarian project in South America, or flying anywhere for missionary or humanitarian purposes, Ministry Travel can help you save money on missionary airfares. You can request a no-obligation quote from one of our travel consultants at www.ministrytravel.com.

Tags: ,
Posted in Missions, Travel Tools | Comments Off

Wednesday, July 13th, 2011

Airline bans babies; Airplane Shuteye Secrets; and Flying with Lizards

If you’re a Ministry Travel client, then you know about our great discounted flights for missionaries and humanitarian travelers, as well as our commitment to outstanding service. You may not, however, know about our ongoing efforts to keep you informed on issues that relate to travel and missions.

Each weekday through our Facebook page (facebook.com/ministrytravel) and Twitter feed (twitter.com/ministrytravel) we provide late breaking news, stories, tips and suggestions beneficial for those who travel, especially those engaged in international mission trips. Here are three stories that we recently referenced in our social media sites.

The first is what may become an airline industry trend. Malaysia Airlines recently placed a ban on infants from flying in the first-class cabin (see http://bit.ly/lNnvQKfor details). There has been significant talk within the industry and frequent flyers about expanding this to more airlines and to business as well as first class. Some have even suggested “children-free flights” (obviously by people who don’t have young children!). While we don’t see that happening, there could be moves to limit where children sit in airplanes. We’ll keep an eye on this and let you know if this expands beyond Malaysia Airlines and first class.

Another article caught our attention, this one by MSNBC (http://on.msnbc.com/j5hnDD) about how to sleep on airplanes, even if you are in coach. There are some people who can sleep anywhere, even airplanes. If you are one of those lucky few, then you can skip this paragraph. But for the rest of us—the majority that find airline noise and commotion as definite sleep inhibitors—then you will appreciate the article’s nine tips.

They are:

1. Choose your seat wisely (most important factor of whether or not you
sleep)
2. Cut down on carry-ons
3. Avoid caffeine
4. Grab pillows and blankets (if there are any)
5. Bring a neck pillow
6. Free your feet (with caution!)
7. Try a sleep aid
8. Use headphones with discretion
9. Recline your seat—but be courteous

Check out the full article for more details on each of these tips.

Finally, there was a bizarre story from USA Today that we couldn’t help but notice (see http://usat.ly/nkSkmp). This one was of a guy who decided to smuggle 15 lizards from Australia to Los Angeles by fastening them to his body. Apparently he didn’t make it through customs…and now is facing 20 years in prison and a $250,000 fine!

Check us out on Facebook and Twitter as well as LinkedIn (search groups) and we will keep you informed on what’s happening in the world of travel and missions. Thankfully, most of our stories have nothing to do with lizards!

Tags:
Posted in Missions, Travel Tips | Comments Off

Wednesday, July 6th, 2011

Help for Travelers with State Department’s New iPhone App

We’ve always recommended the travel section of the U.S. Department of State website (http://travel.state.gov) as must-view in preparation for any mission or humanitarian short term trip. Now the information from that site is as close as your iPhone thanks to the Smart Traveler iPhone app which the State Department recently released. The current version works with iPhone, iPod touch and the iPad and requires iOS 4.0 or later to run.

With one tap on the screen, you can get all of the latest travel warnings and alerts as well as details on all the countries in the world that the State Department follows (which is pretty much all of them). The country specific section is divided into three parts: Know Before You Go, Country Background, and US Embassies/Consulates. Know Before You Go includes alerts/warnings specific to that country, maps, entry/exit requirements, safety and security tips and much more. Country background provides the State Department’s briefings on a country including history, government, economy, etc. The embassies/consulates section provides addresses, hours of operations, emails, websites and maps for the American embassy and consulate(s) in the selected country.

The app also gives you access to the Smart Traveler Enrollment program where you can register your trips and travel contact information with the State Department in case of an emergency. The app will keep track of your itineraries and includes a place to keep notes.

You can view the State Department’s Twitter and Facebook feeds on your phone, which is great for late-breaking news and issues.

While the look, feel and functionality of the app is great, there is one big drawback—most of the information is not native to the software on the phone. That means that you have to have an Internet connection (either Wi-Fi or through a cellular data network) for it to work. Not a problem if you’re sitting at home, but if you are in the middle of the Serengeti and need the information, you may have trouble (although the Serengeti actually has good cell phone coverage—it just will cost you a lot to access it!).

The app is free and even with that one big drawback, it is a must-have for any iPhone user who travels internationally or who just wants to learn about different countries. It is definitely easier to navigate than the State Department’s full version website. The app is available for download through Apple’s iTunes store.

Posted in Humanitarian, Missions, Travel Tools | Comments Off