Posts Tagged ‘christian mission trips’

Monday, January 9th, 2012

Raising Funds for a Mission Trip

The excitement of an upcoming mission trip is often dampened by the realization that the funds aren’t readily available to pay for it. That’s when we have to get creative!

With a good plan and the determination to make it happen, you can raise the amount you need.

Start by writing a letter to your family and friends describing the mission you are undertaking and ask them to consider supporting you. Hand-written letters will come across as more sincere and heartfelt than emails, so bear that in mind. Include a pre-addressed return envelope for their donation.

Reach out to friends for their ideas on ways to raise funds. They might be willing to help with car washes, bake sales and other events, and they might have contacts at restaurants and other businesses that could hold fund-raisers  on your behalf.

A great idea for a fund-raiser is to sell hand-crafted items from the country you are planning to visit, with a portion of the proceeds going to your trip. Use your social media pages to promote sales and let friends know about your upcoming trip.

Finally, take a close look at your budget for luxuries you can do without for a while. Deferring monies normally spent on those daily lattes, nice restaurants and premium cable channels to your trip fund will reap rewards in no time.

So, if you’re excited about serving abroad but are apprehensive that you won’t be able to come up with the money, pray about it and create a plan. Don’t let fear keep you from doing what you feel led to do. Use the suggestions above and you will raise the money — and grow a lot in the process!

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Thursday, December 8th, 2011

Use Timeline, Checklist to Plan 2012 Trips

Next summer’s mission trip abroad will be much more successful and enjoyable if you start planning right now, and follow a careful timeline. Travelers who plan ahead and allow sufficient time for paperwork to be processed find fewer inconveniences and unwelcome surprises along the way.

For best preparation, follow this timeline to get ready for your trip.

Six to nine months ahead

Book air travel: This is the time to confirm your travel details with your destination office. Contact Ministry Travel so we can obtain the best airfare and other rates for your group. Discuss your needs for travel insurance with your agent.

Pay deposits: Your agent will provide specific details for your group, but deposits will be required not long after reservations are made. Refund terms vary depending on whether payment was made by check or credit card.

Review visa requirements: Your Ministry Travel agent will advise you how to determine the visa requirements for the country or countries you plan to visit, and assist you in obtaining any necessary documents.

Determine immunization requirements: Check with the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention to find out the most current immunization requirements for the country or countries you plan to visit. Then, receive the required immunizations. Check with your physician about whether you should update your tetanus, polio and other standard vaccines as well. Obtain proof of all immunizations for the visa process.

The CDC provides information and printable forms for recording what vaccines were received and when.

Four to six months ahead

Apply for visas. Complete visa applications and gather signed passports and photos for submission. The U.S. State Department’s website provides detailed visa information, searchable by country.

Two to three months ahead

Submit final list of travel group. The airline will want a final list of the members of your group several months before departure. This will vary depending on the destination and the airline. Also, remember that the names on the list must be identical to the names on their passports.

Update group members. This is the time to remind fellow travelers of the due date for the balance of the trip expense and the final amount due. Double check the names on tickets and itineraries for accuracy, and contact us at Ministry Travel if there are any discrepancies. Also, if you have not bought travel insurance for this trip, you may still do so. Your agent can explain the various options available to you.

Consider baggage regulations. Check with your airline or agent about current baggage rules and regulations. You need to know what is allowed for free and what additional baggage charges will be. In addition, it’s good to know about restrictions on imports, so you don’t bring anything with you that is not allowed into the country you are visiting.

Two weeks ahead

Check in with field office. This is the time to check with those at your destination about who is meeting your group at the airport, and obtain phone numbers for your contacts there, in case of emergency. In a safe place, record the addresses and phone numbers of the American embassies or consulates in the nations you are visiting. You can find a list here.

Double check credentials. It’s important to make sure everyone in your group has passport and visas, plane tickets, immunization records, a copy of the passport in case of loss or theft, and any applicable missionary credentials.

One week ahead

Secure transportation to the airport. Make sure your plans allow adequate time for traffic delays and airline check-in — note that international flight check-in takes longer than domestic check-in — and adequate space in the vehicles for everyone’s luggage.

Three days ahead

Confirm flight plans. Call the airlines to confirm flights for departure and return.

Day of departure

Final credential check: Before heading to the airport, make sure every passenger has his or her airline tickets, passport, visas, medical documentation and other necessary credentials for foreign travel. Check to see that all luggage is properly identified.

 

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Wednesday, October 5th, 2011

Our Favorite App for Mission Trips

With hundreds of thousands of apps available for cell phones, including thousands that are travel related, how can you find the best ones for short term mission trips? Well, over the past couple years we have reviewed a number of apps as well as put several to extensive use on the mission field. Hands down our favorite is Trip Journal which is available on the iPhone, Android and Symbian (Nokia) platforms. Here’s an overview:

App:

Trip Journal

What it does:

Let’s you journal your trip through video (on video equipped phones), pictures and writing; track your travel; and share everything through Facebook. It also exports to YouTube, Flickr, Google Earth and Picasa.

Why we like it:

The app has a beautiful interface and neatly organizes trips around waypoints. Once you have identified a waypoint you can shoot video, take pictures, make notes, or locate yourself on a map. Trip Journal tags these with the waypoint name which makes it easy to view your trip. You can jump back and forth between waypoints, media and your notes. When you later review your photos you know right where they were taken—no need to tag the photo as Trip Journal does that for you.

The app includes an interactive map and uses both GPS and cell tower triangulation to locate your position. It even provides your elevation. Trip Journal’s statistics feature shows the total distance traveled, elapsed time, high and low elevations, and average speed. The Facebook connectivity is excellent. With one tap of the screen it not only uploads all of your pictures and videos, but it also organize them with your notes and maps before placing the entire trip into a complete online journal.

How we use it on mission trips:

One of the biggest challenges on mission trips is keeping a journal. Every day is filled with interesting and exciting experiences and you want to capture as many of those experiences as you can. With the fast-paced nature of these trips, however, there is little time to sit down and write. Plus if you wait until the end of the day to journal, chances are you will forget a lot. With Travel Journal you can make notes on the fly quickly and easily with just a few taps on your cell phone.

We’ve used the app to find our coordinates at remote locations in Africa that are not on any maps. Once we got home we plugged those coordinates into Google Earth and had a nice visual for our post-trip presentations.

Cost:

Trip Journal is currently on sale for $0.99.

At Ministry Travel we are always looking for ways to not only help missionary travelers and humanitarians save on their international airfare, but also provide tips and resources to help them have more productive trips. When you need help with missionary travel arrangements we are just a phone call (1-877-541-5726) or mouse click away.

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Wednesday, June 22nd, 2011

Missions Round-Up: Peak Season for Short Term Missions

With summer officially here, it means a multitude of volunteers are embarking on international mission trips. While we provide mission trip airfare throughout the year, summers are definitely the time when the majority of Christian mission trips occur. Our travel consultants have been busy helping groups finalize their plans and get their teams onto flights to every corner of the world. This month’s Missions Round-Up blog post focuses on short term missions.

The Presbyterian Church (USA) recently applauded short-term mission on its website when it wrote, “Short term mission trips have critics but can foster advocacy, sharing and education.” The article reminds us what mission trip participants all learn—they they receive as much or more than they give. “We go to learn from and about the people and projects we are visiting and to share our gifts — ours with them and theirs with us — whatever they may be, and then to educate the people in the churches back home, which is also sharing,” said Michael Hyatt, a church official from Tucson.

Some mission teams heading to Haiti this summer are refocusing their ministry in light of a cholera outbreak. Mission Network News reports that 1,300 people in Port-au-Prince have the disease and it is pushing hospitals to full capacity. Recent heavy rains have caused the sanitation to again deteriorate. Short term teams as well as ministries and NGOs working long-term on the island have incorporated cholera prevention, education and treatment into their services.

There will be a lot more short-term teams working among unreached and unengaged people groups if the Southern Baptist International Mission Board (IMB) has its way. The IMB recently launched an “embrace the ends of the earth” campaign to mobilize prayer and direct church participation with 3,800 people groups that have little or no Christian witness. In September the IMB kicks-off Embrace Equipping Conferences around the country to help churches get started in ministry to unreached people groups.

Ministry Travel would like to remind you that it is not too early to begin planning your 2012 international mission trips. With airfare usually the largest single mission trip expense, it is good to have a realistic idea of cost as you begin budgeting and planning your outreaches. Our international missions travel consultants are here to help you.

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