Travel is a major part of our culture, and most of us occasionally, if not regularly, go on trips. We take trips for a variety of reasons. We go on business trips, vacations, trips to obtain medical services or to meet family obligations. One unique kind of trip that one may not have taken is a mission trip.
What is a mission trip? A mission trip can be defined as a trip with specific plans to benefit specific people or groups outside one’s culture.
A trip is generally presumed as the involvement in traveling to a place away from one’s home, and in this case, it means staying away for a designated time and thus eventually returning. Taking a trip removes one from your regular, everyday activities and temporarily forces one’s attention on other matters. The fact that a mission trip takes place elsewhere is significant, because the distractions and comforts one normally lives with are temporarily replaced with new experiences. Confronting new surroundings and situations can be quite a challenge, both physically and mentally. A mission trip is not merely a visit to another culture. Rather, a mission trip has a mission, a definite goal: The need to assist people in processing what they’ve learned so that they may be able to grow in Christ and thus become of greater value to “his” work in the world.
For the specific trip to Belize, Central America, biblical-related group discussions, managed time, and organized age-appropriate games would all be worked out ahead of time. Plans for the Belize trip ultimately depended on weather, access to tools, and availability of supplies. Whether detailed or general, every mission trip has a specific plan.
Although the trip to Belize was rewarding to the individuals participating, the mission itself was to benefit others. All human beings have needs, but those needs are not met equally across the globe. To have involved oneself in the mission trip meant to extend one’s abundance in order to meet the needs of another. The needs that this mission trip hoped to seek were many. Diversely, the mission trip to Belize focused on medical needs, educational needs, and inevitably spiritual needs. The trip specifically focused on spiritual conversion or growth within the hearts and minds of the Belizean children and their families.
A mission trip is directed toward those of another culture. Working among another culture (as in this case, the remote area of Belize), usually indicates traveling to another country—where the majority of mission trips take place overseas. However, though a mission trip may focus on another culture, it is fully capable of taking place within one’s own geographical area. Regardless of the total distance traveled, the Belize mission trip involved individuals with one purpose by associating themselves in specially prepared specific plans in order to accommodate the needs and benefits of the Belizean children and their families within the culture.