In case you haven’t realized it yet, mission trips are messy. Despite all our planning, screening, and noble intentions, every trip involves some really flawed people (including us) who tend to swing from one bit of drama to the next. Even when we’re being leader-like, such as ensuring that people serve for the “right reasons,” we’re pushing values that recipients may struggle with.…
As we walked by, we didn’t hear the woman’s name. All we knew was that the other prostitutes were wishing her a happy birthday. “Hope it’s a good night to make some money!” one said. “Maybe you’ll get lucky like in that Pretty Woman movie,” another added.…
The young man had given his life to Jesus, but for some reason we didn’t see him after that—until I went to get some pizza. It wasn’t on purpose, either. I was eating out with my family and happened to see him behind the counter.…
Call me crazy, but I think it’s important to change up your mission trip itinerary every year. I sense I’m in the minority on this topic. Plenty of student ministries regularly travel to the same place to serve the same people in the same way every year.…
Apparently you’re not supposed to put tabs in your Bible to mark the location of books. The first senior pastor I worked with told me that myth, arguing that being an effective youth worker means knowing the books from memory. I countered with a seemingly better-sounding myth that “the only names really worth knowing” (beyond the name of Jesus, of course) are the names of teenagers in our church.…
“Should I turn left or right?” Eventually I asked that simple question of each teenager who sat in our van’s passenger seat during the mission trip. We had no idea where we were going; instead, we believed that Jesus would use us in accordance with his will anywhere we ended up.…
The introverts are feeling a lack of personal space. The extroverts are tired of being judged as annoying. The “highly spiritual” people are tired of the “not-so-spiritual” people (and vice versa). About halfway into the trip, you’d like to turn around and head back home.…
Being a teenager is tough these days. You feel so new to life and yet so seasoned. Adults say you aren’t grown up enough to know anything, yet they toss you the keys to a vehicle that can take you anywhere and pay for a phone that can show you anything.…
While traveling on a mission trip, students probably aren’t all that eager to call “shotgun.” After all, sitting up front makes you absolutely visible at all times to an adult leader. I can’t imagine a more rigorous test of any teenager’s attention span than being stuck next to a grown-up when everyone else is goofing off in the back of the van.…
What if you think a teenager might be possessed? I had to wrestle with that real-life issue recently. By request, I was teaching about spiritual warfare. My students had a growing interest in exploring who the devil is, how he works, and what he’s capable of doing—and not capable of doing—in our lives.…
