Posts Tagged ‘short-term missions’

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Sunday, November 20th, 2011

The Mission Trip Countdown

It’s the moment of truth: What originally seemed so far away has finally arrived. The calendar says you’re just days away from leaving on your short-term mission trip.

Those final few days can either be filled with stress, or they can be enjoyable as you anticipate the experience. The difference is often determined by how you tackle that final week. Here are some practical tips to help you make the most of the days leading up to your international mission trip.

Create a preparation list. Start working through it the final two weeks before your trip. This is a list of everything that needs to be done before you go. It includes actions such as scheduling lawn care, arranging pet boarding, paying bills, withdrawing cash from the bank, stopping the mail and, of course, packing. Try to get as many of these tasks done early, so you have time to handle any unplanned issues that might arise.

us passportBegin preliminary packing. Start early, at least a week before departure. For me, this begins with laundry. I find it easier to plan the trip wardrobe if I can see all of my clothes either hanging up in the closet or folded in dresser drawers. I then create a mission trip staging area — usually a corner of the bedroom — where I can assemble the clothes and other articles I will take. My passport is always one of the first items that go into the staging area.

Work from a packing list. Check the items off the list once when you put them in your staging area, and then again when you actually place them into your luggage. Inevitably there are things on the list that you realize you don’t have. Starting your packing early allows time to purchase those items without feeling rushed.

Finish packing several days before departure. Remember that packing often takes longer than we expect. Completely pack your suitcase and have it ready to go. Also, be sure to luggageweigh your suitcase to make sure it fits within airline requirements.

Overweight and extra bag fees can run into the hundreds of dollars on international flights. Your carry-on bag should be mostly packed by this time, with the exception of any medicines or last-minute items.

Schedule extra family time. This may mean lunch with your spouse or a special activity with your children. Your family will appreciate this, and it will ease the burden of you leaving.

What often happens before a mission trip is that the traveler is preoccupied, rushing to tie up loose ends, and thus spends even less time with family. Emotionally, this is the equivalent of being gone an extra week. By preparing ahead, you can reduce the stress on your family and make the time before your trip more meaningful.

praying handsPrepare spiritually as well as physically. Carve out some personal prayer time, enlist a prayer team and don’t neglect daily Bible reading. These activities also help reduce stress and enable you to keep the trip in perspective.

Review travel details carefully. In the final few days before departure, review all the information for your trip, paying close attention to departure times, airport instructions, meeting locations and so on. Make sure that you have your team leader’s cell phone number, in case there are any problems the day you leave. If you are the team leader, be sure you have each team member’s phone number and that everyone knows when and where to meet that day.

Information review also means checking the conditions at your destination as well as any places through which you will be traveling. Are there any weather concerns that could impact your travel? Are there any new security or safety issues?

Assess current situation at your destination. It is always good to check the travel section of the U.S. State Department’s website right before a trip. At the site, find your destination country and look for the link to recent embassy notices. Next, click on the link for warden messages. These will be the latest updates from embassy officials about any travel concerns.

airport check-inPrint out your boarding pass. You can reduce stress by printing out your boarding pass 24 hours before departure. This saves time at the airport and can make your check-in process much smoother. International flights typically are larger planes carrying a significant number of passengers, so the check-in lines for these flights can get quite long.

Will the week before your next mission trip be enjoyable or stressful? Much of that depends on how well you plan and how early you begin your preparations. By incorporating these tips into the final days before your trip, you will experience less stress and be better prepared for the incredible adventure of international ministry.

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Frank Banfill is president of MaxPoint Ministries and regularly leads mission teams. His work has taken him across six continents. He writes on behalf of Ministry Travel, the world’s source for missionary travel.

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Wednesday, October 26th, 2011

Christian Mission Volunteers – Building Bridges

We continue to be amazed at the diverse ways Ministry Travel clients impact the world. Each year we help thousands of short-term missionaries serve in places across the globe–some in major urban centers while others trek off to remote villages. Once there these Christian missions volunteers do everything from starting churches and caring for orphans to providing medical care and feeding the hungry.

They also build bridges—literally as well as figuratively.

Yonathan shared on our Facebook page his mission trip story of helping build a bridge for the Bribri people of Costa Rica. He wrote, “In the last few years, many mission teams have assisted with various significant work projects, but perhaps the most crucial was a suspension bridge in the remote village of Alto Coen, deep in the Costa Rican rainforest. An isolated community of about 130 people, Alto Coen is only accessible by an hour boat ride, a half hour bus ride, and a four hour hike.”

Yonathan shared that for years the isolated village dreamed of having a 100 meter suspension bridge. “The project had been a prolonged, complex process for the Bribri as they fought to find aid and funds to build this much-needed bridge. With the addition of a bridge, families would no longer be constrained by the powerful river that divided their village. The children from the far side of the river would be able to attend school regularly, and doctors would be able to reach the entire village to provide medical attention for the ill,” wrote Yonathan.

Their dream became a reality thanks in part to the efforts of American short term mission volunteers who labored for many days in hot summer heat. But the praise, said Yonathan, goes to the village’s people. “By far the ones who labored the longest and the hardest were the people of Alto Coen. It has been nearly nine years since they first began planning for the apparently impossible endeavor, yet they never gave up. They accomplished tasks by hand that most people would only consider undertaking with heavy equipment.”

How does Yonathan feel as he reflects on that mission trip?

“It is an uplifting feeling every time I return and see them eager to work and accomplish a new project that will empower their community. Continue to pray for the people of Alto Coen,” he said.

Helping those who empower others—that’s what we do each day here at Ministry Travel. We’re glad that we can play a part in helping people like Yonathan make such a difference in people’s lives. If you are planning a mission trip, we would love to provide you with discounted international airfare and excellent service from travel agents who really know missionary and humanitarian travel. Contact us at www.ministrytravel.com or by phone at 1-877-541-5726.

 

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Wednesday, October 19th, 2011

Storms Impact Mission Teams–What to Do If It Happens to You

Heavy rains and flooding in Central America over the past few days have short-term mission teams there scrambling to adjust. Mission Network News (MNN) is reporting on one short-term mission team in Guatemala that was stuck in the storm and unable to continue the medical clinics it was conducting. The rains were so bad that people could not get to their clinics, and washed out roads made team travel difficult.

On Monday, the U.S. Embassy in Guatemala City issued an emergency message to U.S. citizens advising against all in-country travel until the weather improves and landslides are cleared. “The recent heavy rains mean that water saturation in the mountains is high and more landslides could occur,” said the advisory.

Honduras has issued a “state of red alert” according to the British Foreign Office. The situation there is similar to Guatemala with travel also disrupted by landslides and flooding. Reuters is reporting 81 people dead and thousands of people have abandoned their homes across Central America. In El Salvador, more than 13,000 people were forced to flee the rising waters. Humanitarian groups there are concerned about long-term food supplies as the floods have wiped out much of this season’s harvest.

What should you do if you are on a short term mission trip and your ministry team faces natural or other disasters? First, make sure that you get good information. That starts before you go by registering your team with the U.S. State Department’s Smart Traveler Enrollment Program at http://bit.ly/ptDdL9. This will enable the local U.S. embassy to get in touch with you in case of an emergency or advisory condition. Also, monitor local news and stay in touch with local authorities for information about road closings.

Second, don’t take chances. Roads in developing countries can be treacherous under normal conditions let alone during severe storms. Also, many of these nations do not have the resources to quickly respond to multiple emergencies and road closures. It often is better to extend your trip a couple days and allow for the situation to stabilize. If you do that, however, be sure to contact your Ministry Travel agent so that we can notify the airlines and work on re-booking you. Failure to do so may result in losing the entire value of your ticket.

Finally, look for ways to serve in the midst of the crisis. In the case of the Guatemalan medical team, a hospital near where they were stranded asked for their assistance. Flexibility is always important for these trips, especially when hit by unforeseen events such as severe weather.

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Wednesday, October 12th, 2011

Preparing Mission Teams for 2012 Airfare Increases

The continued soft global economy has airlines cutting flights and raising prices, and that could have a major impact on missions teams and their 2012 budgets. In addition, with the Olympics coming to London next year (a major transfer airport for missionary teams) airline prices are being driven up even more.

USAToday reported that airfares rose in the U.S. nearly 10% for the 12 months ending in August compared to the previous 12 months, and the major U.S. airlines will cut capacity 2%-4% next year. This means 2012 airfares could go up even more. Baggage and miscellaneous airline fees are also on the rise.

In addition to fare increases, travelers can expect tax increases in 2012, especially on international trips. The White House has proposed travel tax increases, the UK is threatening increases, and various individual countries have already raised their taxes. Bulgaria, for example, just raised one of their travel taxes by 8%.

What does all of this mean to the mission traveler? Here are four things to keep in mind:

You can’t use last year’s mission trip budget. If you base your 2012 trips on what you paid for your 2011 trips you can expect to be greatly disappointed. Instead of guessing, call us and let us give you a no-obligation quote so that you can work with realistic numbers.

You may need to alter your trip dates. It is always true that flexible travel dates often lead to substantial savings; this is especially the case for 2012.

Consider alternate airlines. Some frequent missionary travelers have their favorite airlines and will stick with them even if they have to pay a little more. In 2012, however, you could be paying a lot more. Be open to considering other airlines. Your Ministry Travel agent can give you all the details and let you make apples to apples comparison of airlines.

Watch the luggage weight. It is reported that some airlines are charging as much as $450 for overweight bags on international flights. Pay attention to the airline weight rules and know that if your trip involves different airlines, there may be different weight restrictions. This is especially true if you are transferring to smaller regional or national airlines. For example, with certain tickets a team traveling to Tanzania from the U.S. can have three 50-pound bags, but if they take an in-country flight the national airline limits them to one 44-pound bag. Again, contact us for details on luggage rules and for information on our special tickets that allow for free extra bags.

As always, the earlier you can plan your trips and purchase your tickets the better off you will be, especially going into a volatile 2012. Contact Ministry Travel today at 1-877-541-5726 or www.ministrytravel.com and find out about our airfare discounts for your 2012 international mission trips.

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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, September 28th, 2011

A Shout-Out from a Missions Newbie

It is easy when you do something all the time to assume that everyone else knows how to do the same thing, when they really don’t.

Take travel, for example.

For those of us in the business, navigating complex itineraries, adjusting to airline changes and enduring airport security screenings are old hat. It is easy to forget that most people travel very little, and many have never traveled internationally. At Ministry Travel, however, we strive to treat every client with care remembering that many of our clients come to us as travel novices.

So it is exciting when we hear back from “newbies” about their first ever mission trip and we enjoyed reading on our Facebook page Ric’s story about his first trip:

A big shout-out to Ministry Travel for their help in making our first foreign mission trip a breeze…Arriving in Nairobi late in the evening and looking at this lively metropolitan city of a few million people, I said to myself, ‘this is not going to be too bad’. This was, of course, before the 10 hour bus ride across the Kenya countryside getting to our final destination of Mumias, Kenya. What a ride. We started our pastor and leaders conference…then were able to travel to six village churches and share God’s precious word. We were able to hand out over 300 Bibles and make a large donation to help with several orphanages…TO GOD BE THE GLORY!

We appreciate Ric’s compliments, but most of all, we appreciate the fact that another person had the opportunity to experience international missions first-hand. Ric is already preparing for his next trip. He wrote, “The Story doesn’t end there, it’s only beginning. That was the first mission trip; we now are gearing up for a trip this year into India.”

Whether you are like Ric and preparing for your first-ever mission trip, or you are a seasoned pro, Ministry Travel looks forward to helping you! We not only provide discounted flights for missionaries, but we help you sort through the maze of international travel. Contact us today on the web at www.ministrytravel.com or by phone at 1-877-541-5726.

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Wednesday, September 21st, 2011

New International Religious Freedom Report Released

The U.S. Department of State recently released its report on international religious freedom. Many organizations and churches engaged in international missions, including those doing short-term missions trips, will find the report especially useful.

The report is divided into individual country reports that provide great detail on the religious conditions in every nation of the world. Included in the country reports are religious demographics, overview of the country’s religious laws, restrictions on freedom, and summaries of religious abuses.

The report documents what many mission groups and global Christian leaders already knew: violence and discrimination against Christians continues to grow in many parts of the world. What’s not in the report, however, is what has many religious liberty watchers upset.

By law the State Department must designate as “countries of particular concern” (CPCs) nations that engage in or tolerate severe violations of religious freedom. This report included the same list of CPCs as the last report released in early 2009. “Repeating the current list continues glaring omissions, such as Pakistan and Vietnam,” said the U.S. Commission on International Religious Freedom  (USCIRF) in a written statement. USCIRF is a bipartisan federal government commission appointed by congress and the president to review international violations against religious freedom and make policy recommendations.

The eight countries keeping their CPC designation are Burma, North Korea, China, Eritrea, Iran, Saudi Arabia, Sudan and Uzbekistan. The USCIRF earlier had recommended adding to the list Egypt, Iraq, Nigeria and Turkmenistan.

The report highlighted religious liberty issues in Afghanistan, Egypt, Iraq, Nigeria, Pakistan, Russia, Tajikistan, Turkmenistan, Venezuela, and Vietnam in addition to the eight CPC nations.

The report specifically mentioned the government of Eritrea (located in the Horn of Africa) as it continued to “harass, arrest, and imprison thousands of believers.” It noted that 2,000-3,000 pastors and church members were being detained without trial. The report went on to say that the Eritrea government demands that “adherents renounce their faith, or force them to relocate or flee the country.”

The report also explored countries that allow some religious freedoms but whose governments discriminate against some groups or favored one religion over another, such as Russia and Belarus. It noted that in 2010 the Russian government brought criminal cases for the first time against individuals who possessed banned religious literature, and that the government restricts access to places of worship.

The complete report can be found at http://www.state.gov/g/drl/rls/irf/2010_5/index.htm. Scroll down the page to find the country or countries that interest you. Countries are organized by world regions.

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Wednesday, August 31st, 2011

Coming Off the Mountain: Overcoming the Post Mission Trip Blues

“I could buy that field, build a little house there and do this full time,” said Lori, a 39-year old high school geography teacher as she drove past an African village during the last day of her short term mission trip. Larry and Karen, Lori’s teammates, nodded in agreement. The couple wasn’t considering moving there, but they were planning a return trip. Like Lori, they knew that in a few short hours their mountain top experience would soon be over. Their Christian mission trip to Africa was coming to an end.

Before long, Lori, Larry and Karen, along with the rest of their team members, were back home in the U.S. and back to their “normal” lives. Although they had only been gone two weeks, it seemed like a lifetime of experiences. As they went about their tasks, their minds wandered back to the dusty African roads and the faces of so many people who they had touched while serving abroad. The trip’s excitement had turned to sadness. “Will we ever have that kind of experience again,” they wondered.

Mission trips are a life-changing experience. Usually team leaders do a great job preparing the team to go, but they don’t always do such a good job of getting them ready to come home. It’s not uncommon to have some post-mission trip blues. If that describes you, then here are some ideas to help you transition out of them.

Embrace reality. Very few people actually get to live on top of a mountain! It is great to visit, but the experience doesn’t last forever. We need to celebrate our experiences but not live in the past. We should focus on being thankful that we got to go and be determined to incorporate lessons from that experience into our everyday lives.

Focus on serving those around you. Know that many people find themselves in some kind of a valley right after a mountain top experience. When that happens, the key is to turn our focus off from ourselves and onto others.

When I return home from a mission trip, I often think of the Old Testament prophet Elijah and his literal mountain top experience at Carmel. There he humiliated hundreds of false prophets in dramatic fashion. But where do we find Elijah right after that incident? He’s down in a valley—a desert actually—under a tree asking God to take his life. The story is told in 1 Kings 19, where we see that Elijah had become very self-focused. “I’m the only faithful one left,” he said, “I’m the one who has been zealous for the Lord.”

God told him that he in fact was not the only one. There were 7,000 others who had stayed faithful. Then God gave him a job—mentoring a young prophet by the name of Elisha—and that task changed Elijah’s outlook. In the same way, when you come off a spiritual mountain top, ask yourself how to use your experience to help someone else. Is there someone who you can mentor? Try making ministry a lifestyle not just a two week experience. It’s a lot easier when you go from one ministry abroad right into another ministry at home.

In addition to these ideas, the travel guide Lonely Planet recently had on its website some suggestions for those suffering from post-travel blues: dream big, start a piggy bank, share your passion, and make art. While the article focused on vacation travelers, we can adapt it to missions travel as well.

Dream big! “Turn your post-holiday depression into pre-holiday anticipation,” says Lonely Planet. For our purposes, we would say that it’s okay to begin dreaming about your next mission trip. Just like Larry and Karen were contemplating a return as their Africa trip wound down, you can begin thinking and planning for your next outreach.

Start a piggy bank. Begin saving now for your next trip. Even if you have family and friends who help support your endeavors, you should still try to do everything you can to be ready financially. In doing so, you may find yourself asking the same question that a Lonely Planet blogger asked herself. “I have to ask if getting so caught up in the possessing of stuff distracts us from what’s really important in life?”

The blogger, who only goes by the name “Steph,” felt that she had too many “things” and that the cost of owning all of those things was stifling her ability to do what she really wanted to do. So she started selling her excess stuff to use the proceeds for what she considered important. While her focus was not on mission trips, her thinking certainly does apply to those who have a desire to serve internationally. Maybe eBay, Craigslist or a good old fashioned garage sale is the way to get that piggy bank started and get you on the road to your next mission trip.

Find a community of people who share your passion. You may want to organize on-going fellowships with others who went on your trip, or participate in conferences dealing with the region of the world where you worked. You can also find similar interests groups online through Facebook or by following people on Twitter who minister in your focus country. In addition, you can stay abreast of developments in the area by following humanitarian news feeds from services like www.Alertnet.org.

Make art. “Instead of boring your friends with your travel stories, do something creative with your memories,” says Lonely Planet. “Make photo books and playlists, turn your journal scribbles into travel writing.” They also suggest spicing up the old fashioned slide show with music and snacks that match the destination.

The mountain top experience of a mission trip is a good thing. Celebrate it! Enjoy the moment, but be ready to re-enter your world. Jump into ministry and look forward to impacting more lives in the future. You mission trip can be the beginning of a lifestyle of service and global focus that will quickly drive away any post-trip blues.

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Frank Banfill is president of MaxPoint Ministries (www.maxpoint.org) and recently launched ManageMyMissionTrip.com to provide administrative support to those who lead short term missions. He writes on behalf of Ministry Travel (www.ministrytravel.com) the leading provider of discounted airfare for missionaries.

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Wednesday, August 31st, 2011

Little Things Make a Big Difference

Our Christian mission clients who traverse the globe to bring hope to the hopeless know what a big difference little things can make in developing countries and remote parts of the world. They know that there are so many things that we take for granted in the West to which others around the world have little or no access.

Deborah shared this story on our Facebook page:

In China, I joined a national/international group that trekked to a remote village bringing school supplies, shoes, and treats. It was amazing to see the conditions in that impoverished community. They still rely on outhouses and only have cold water spigots that came to their yards. The whole village has one phone. Needless to say, the candy was consumed almost immediately! Similarly, the international Christian school I worked at in Bolivia took Christmas presents to street kids living in an orphanage. We were able to link up with Operation Christmas Child. It was incredible how a little box of toys was cherished. It was a joy to bring Christmas to these children in different parts of the world. I thank God for the opportunity to serve and to bless. 

As millions of children return to school in our country, complete with backpacks full of supplies, Deborah’s story is a great reminder of those who struggle every day with limited resources. But as she said, she was blessed because she had the opportunity to go and share things as simple as candy and school supplies. That’s the double blessing of mission trips: needy people are touched and encouraged abroad while touching and impacting the lives of those who go. 

Ministry Travel is proud to arrange thousands of missionary flights every year to just about every place imaginable. We are unique in that we are a mission travel agency—that is our single focus. We’re not trying to sell vacation packages to top holiday destinations. Instead, we help people like Deborah save money on their international airline tickets so that they can buy a lot more of the “little things” that actually make a big difference in the lives of others. We are blessed when we hear stories like Deborah’s. 

Do you have a mission trip story that you would like share? We would love to hear it. Visit the discussion tab on our Facebook page at www.facebook.com/ministrytravel.

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Thursday, August 18th, 2011

Mission Round-Up: Denominations Highlight Global Missions Needs

Several major U.S. Christian denominations recently held their annual meetings, and missions continues to be a major topic of both discussion and action. They are appointing more long term missionaries as well as encouraging short-term volunteers.

The Presbyterian Church U.S.A. recently appointed several missionaries to work in the new African nation of South Sudan. Their focus in the fledgling nation will be on community based development, evangelism discipleship and ethnic conflict resolution.

The United Methodist Church (UMC) is commissioning 26 new missionaries today. Throughout the year, the various conferences that make up the UMC focused heavily on disaster relief, global malaria prevention, and feeding the hungry.

Southern Baptists spent much of their annual convention emphasizing the world’s 3,800 “unengaged” people groups and the need for more churches to take a proactive role in missions. Birmingham, Alabama pastor David Platt challenged the group of church leaders to take seriously the need to engage unreached people groups. “This is a problem for every pastor and every local church to address,” he said during a sermon.

Nearly $1 million was pledged for missions during the Foursquare Church’s annual meeting. This was a historic event, according to Foursquare Missions Committee Chairman Richard Casteel. Writing on the denomination’s website, Casteel thanked the pastors who made the commitment for their “generous act of faith in funding the expansion of the gospel throughout the world… (which) will help fund strategies to reach more people who have not yet been reached with the gospel of Jesus.”

During our nearly 12 years of service, Ministry Travel has worked with every major Christian denomination and missions agency in the U.S. as well as with a number of smaller and independent Christian missions groups. We’ve also served scores of churches taking missions trips to just about every place imaginable. We are glad to facilitate the travels of missionaries and groups engaged in missions work. If your denomination, church or organization is planning a mission trip, be sure to contact us at 1-877-541-5726 and ask about our special airfare discounts for missionaries and non-profit groups.

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