Youth Mission Trips abroad, useful links, and info by Becky Lawrence, Youth and Children’s Worker St Mark’s Milton Keynes, Buckinghamshire and Olly Shaw, Youth Worker, St Leonards Eynsham, Oxfordshire.

Introduction:

Our latest podcast episode (if you haven’t listened yet – links at the bottom!) is all about taking youth on global mission trips and us sharing some of our experience, plus recommendations and tips for others wanting to or thinking about taking youth on mission trips abroad in the future.  We thought it would be useful to share some book recommendations, links and more info on some of the agencies and charities we mentioned in the podcast who we served or helped us plan our trips as the info may help you catch a vision for organising your own youth mission trips or inspire you to get your youth group involved in global ministry from the UK (especially while travel is still uncertain during the pandemic).

Although they are hard work, time consuming, require money to be raised and a lot of logistics to plan, prep and build a team and trip – we totally recommend youth mission trips – we think they are worth the effort.  Both we ourselves and the young people we’ve taken have found mission trips to be game changing, faith stretching, skill developing, team building, God adventures where strong relationships and friendships are built with each other and with our creator God who invites and calls us on mission!

Maybe you’ve taken youth on mission before and are looking forward to the day you can take your next team.  Maybe you’ve never been on mission or taken youth on mission trips.  Maybe it’s something you’ve struggled with theologically or you’ve always wondered if it was worth it.  Maybe mission trips with youth is something you’ve always wanted to do but never done.  Wherever you are on your mission journey if we can help you process your thoughts in any way by buying you a coffee and having a chat (or having a Zoom chat) with you, we’d love to! Please get in touch.

 

Becky’s experience of going on and leading mission:

Olly and I start off the podcast sharing some of our experiences as young people or young adults going on mission trips.  In the podcast I mention my first ever mission trip as a 20 year old, I was a new Christian and signed up to go on a short term trip with a team of girls who were all strangers to me – which was a big leap out of my comfort zone.  We went to serve The Living Room Christian Centre which is in the heart of the infamous strip of bars and clubs called Veronica’s in Playa Las Americas, Tenerife.  The ministry of The Living Room is to provide a drop in centre to support and befriend the many bar and club workers and offer them community and a safe space, they also do evening detached work to engage and chat to people on the streets in the midst of the nightlife.

Here’s a bit from their website about the vision of the work, “The Living Room has a heart to see Christ transform the broken area of Las Americas nightlife strip. We exist in an environment in which every night is a Saturday night, young people come here with the sole purpose of letting their hair down and letting down their inhibitions and boundaries. We see open drug-taking, binge-drinking, vomiting, people collapsing in the street, fighting, nudity, and people having sex in public places. Hundreds of young adults move here every year thinking it will be the answer to all their problems but find themselves even worse off than before and sometimes facing very dark and difficult situations.  We recognise that this is a broken place, full of our young people, who are desperately searching for answers. We recognise that Jesus can do powerful things here. We recognise that the church needs to be the people who will step into these types of communities and not be afraid. We recognise that through relationship and friendship with people we can bridge the gap.  So we step into the messy nightlife culture of Las Americas in order to have an active involvement and voice in the lives of the young people here and to bring them closer to Christ.”

You can find out more about the work of The Living Room which is still going strong and Tenerife Family Church that the ministry is a part of here.  When I went our trip was organised and faciliated by 24-7 Prayer Mission Teams who still do short term 2 week mission trips to other similar places and cultures, like Ibiza, find out more by clicking on the link.

There’s also a great book i forgot to recommend in the podcast that i’ll use my chance here to recommend, it’s by Pete Greig, (founder of 24-7 Prayer) called ‘Dirty Glory’.  In the book Pete writes how prayer, mission and justice are deeply connected and shares transformational stories of prayer & mission from around the world, from a walled city of prostitution in Mexico to the nightclubs of Ibiza, and invites people to experience the presence of God through prayer. The stories weave together to show how the Holy Spirit works and moves across nations.  If you fancy an encouraging read to fuel your faith this one is a good read.

 

In the podcast I also mention going to Albania on a mission trip, not long into my first youth work job.  I went with an all women adult team from my church and we partnered with a church in Shkodra, to help them to put on a womens conference with the aim of making stronger connections with more women in their community.  We went to visit many women whom the church had a loose connection with, at their homes, to personally invite them to a womens conference at the end of the week.  We then helped host and faciliate the womens conference and one of our team was the speaker.  The women who attended were invited to continue attending a womens group and the church.  The photo on the left shows me (centre) with two of the Albanian women I befriended who I had visited who then attended the womens conference.

It was an eye opening trip for me visiting homes of people who did not have very much and experience their lavish generousity to offer us food and drink while guests in their home.  The culture in Albania is very different to the UK, with their food and everyday customs, it was very eye opening for me.  I wasn’t sure what I was going to add to the team – all of whom were women older than me, but it turned out most of the women and mothers we were inviting to the womens conference were the same or very similar age to me in their early 20’s – and they found it novel to meet an English speaking girl in her 20’s from the UK.  The church I went on this trip with (Stopsley Baptist Church) in Luton still has connections in Berat, Albania, and neighbouring countries including Gostivar, Macedonia and Kosovo.

 

I went on a trip to The Philippines when I was around 22 years old, and co led a youth team, about a year into my first youth work job.  I’d never led a youth mission before and i’d never been on a flight that long, thankfully Mark my co-leader was experienced and had been before!  The photo on the right shows me (on the right) with my co leader Mark (centre) and our youth team.  It was so long ago these youth are all grown up and some have their own kids now!  Following that trip all of the connections our church had with The Philippines were passed to me and it became part of my role to plan and lead youth teams to Manila, Philippines.  It was my role to build a team, prepare them, properly inform parents, build a budget, book the flights, arrange mission travel insurance, liaise with contacts in country to plan our itinerary & book accomodation, and help the team fundraise the money to cover the cost of the whole trip.

I led 5 teams to The Philippines over the 8 years I was in that role, including a trip to take & drop two 18 year olds off on a mid-term trip, where they stayed a few months and I helped them settle in for the first week or so, before leaving them there.   I took 15 young people and 8 adults over all the trips, our biggest team was 12 people.  Some of the young people and adults came back on subsequent short term trips, or went back for mid term trips.  We also ended up sending a long term missionary there for a couple of years and it was part of my role to line manage her from the UK and visit to check on her and support her vision for the role, I also led a small adult team to visit our missionary and the ministries she was involved in.

On my several trips to Manila, Philippines we used International Teams UK to help oversee our trips, prep and debrief our teams, they are now operating under a new name One Collective but they are still faciliating short, mid term and long term mission trips in many countries around the world.  As part of their service they provided a speaker to come and deliver training for a full day pre trip and sent someone to help debrief the team and discuss the trip for a full day on our return too.  All of the planning and fundraising was done over a period of 6 months before each trip.  Most of our trips were in July or August during the summer holidays, the cost of each place was between £1300 to £1600 (flights were the bulk of that), each team member was responsible for raising their own money to cover that cost through sponsorship, saving pocket money, part time jobs, fundraisers etc.

In the Philippines on our trips we served International Teams Philippines, including Jesus King of Kings Community Church in Makati and their work in their community, as well as I.T Tender Ministry and their education programs and work with at risk kids and youth and on our later trips we also visited a childrens home run by Extreme Response that takes in age 6-18 boys that have been neglected or were living on the streets.

While on our trips the activities included visiting ‘slum’ communities with small homes made of scavenged wood, tin and cardboard.  With our hosts we visited and chatted to residents, offered to pray with them, provided games and fun activities for the kids/youth living there including sharing Bible stories, our own faith stories and teaching Christian songs.  We also provided craft activities for youth groups, shared our testimonies and got to hang out with, encourage and be encouraged by the staff.  On one trip we provided a pop up basic medical care stall offering plasters, antiseptic cream and basic hygiene supplies, we also had a trained midwife on our team who provided a quick check up & advice to pregnant women who could not afford the luxury of seeing a doctor during their pregnancy.  We also helped serve on feeding projects – giving a free meal to kids, and helping with the charities education and school ministries.

We were also able to encourage and be encouraged by the staff and volunteers who led the projects – and we would often take with us items or specifically fundraise for items they requested for their ministries; kids clothes, basic hygiene & medical supplies or school supplies.  It was as much a blessing to our teams as it was those we went to bless, to see God in action in another part of the world.  It was faith stretching and challenging to see the faith of people many of whom were living in poverty, who really had to rely on God to protect them and provide food, their hope and happiness was infectious.  Our trips raised awareness of the work amongst our team, our church, our friends & family in the UK too, and many prayed for the work, sponsored children living in the Philippines, or caught a long term passion to support the ministry in Manila.  Several members of our own teams went back for a longer period – medium term for a few months, and one went for 2 years to serve with our links out there.  While Visa’s were permitted for Filipino’s to come to the UK we also had several gap year students come and join us in the UK to serve at our church and stay with host families.

Olly’s experience of going on and leading mission trips:

Olly’s first experience of mission was when he was 17 or 18 to Krotoszyn, Poland, they drove there in a minibus and helped a church there to teach english language lessons, games and the Bible as part of a holiday club.  As a youth  worker he also took two young people who were over 18 to Moldova on a mission trip with Worldshare, to serve with Beginning of Life Moldova.  It was his first taste of leading a mission trip for youth and it was really formational for the youth and fruitful as one of the youth ended up doing an internship with him at church.  Olly also went to Sweden to help lead confirmation camps using connections with the Diocese of Oxford, and then took small teams of young people with him to the same camps twice.  The confirmation camps were a missional opportunity for the local church who invited young people who both had a faith and who didn’t.  More recently just before the pandemic in 2020 he went back to Moldova with Reign Ministries who planned the whole trip and he took a group of 5 young people.

 

When thinking through mission and the theology of it.  Olly also recommended this very good book called ‘Unlocking Mission and Eschatology in Youth Ministry’ by Andrew Root, which he recommended for use to help inform theology and mission.   He found it really useful and formational in his own journey of taking youth on mission.  He even offered to give away his copy if you can’t get hold of it!  Don’t let the wordy title scare you off, this book is a much easier and quick read than it seems when you judge it by it’s cover!  Amazon’s blurb about the book says, ‘In Unlocking Mission and Eschatology in Youth Ministry Root argues that youth ministers should teach teens to recognize that as Jesus’ disciples they are participating in the very action of God to bring forth the future of God. He argues that our service to him on this earth (mission) is a sign of the new reality that Jesus will bring when he returns (eschatology).’
The book features, Nadia a fictional character who takes her youth group on a mission trip to Mexico for the umpteenth time and no longer feels comfortable with it all being about either personal development for the team or an unrealistic “save the world in ten days” mentality.  The challenging question, “Does this make any difference?” is answered by wrestling with the question and developing a view that sees our actions of hope pointing to the coming Kingdom that is both here already, still breaking through and on the way.

 

There is also a great book by Tim Dearborn called ‘Short-Term Missions Workbook – from Mission Tourists to Global Citizens’ that i’ve used myself to prepare teams as well as my own activities, team building and specific trip prep for activities/songs/puppet shows/crafts we planned to lead when we got there.  The book features some great advice, and activities to properly think through, discuss and do to prepare a team for a mission trip.  Olly & I mention in the podcast that prep is key – without it you face having people feel overwhelmed, depressed, anxious, and experience culture shock while away – and preparing for the return too is also key to avoid people feeling guilty, overwhelmed and experiencing reverse culture shock when they come back to their normal lives.

Mission Organisation Recommendations and links:

• 24-7 Prayer Mission offer 2 week mission trips you can sign up for as an adult or young adult if you fancy a taste of prayer, justice and mission.
• International Teams Phiippines and International Teams UK now called One Collective who Becky used for her Philippines trips.  She also used mission trip insurance from Salt Insurance.
• Reign Ministries is who Olly used for his latest Moldova trip last year have decided to focus on their other ministries to support and train youth leaders and will not be running their Moveolution trips again.
• Worldshare can help you plan a group trip to visit their ministry partners in many countries including Moldova, Indonesia, Brazil, Macedonia, Albania, Guatamala and more.
• Urban Saints we mentioned these guys who also faciliate youth mission trips and adventures, including practical house building trips in Mexico.
• There is also YWAM (Youth With A Mission) who run a Discipleship Training School that involves mission and they also help churches plan and organise trips for youth groups and adults.
• and Mission Direct who run trips you can sign up for as an individual or help plan a trip for a team using their global connections.
• This list doesn’t cover absolutely every christian charity helping churches to engage in mission either, there are lots more, it’s worth a google.
• Also totally recommend Open Doors Youth if you are seeking to connect your youth globally without leaving the UK, they have lots of info about persecuted christians around the world and ways to get involved.
• Compassion and World Vision are two big charities that also have child sponsor programs if your youth were willing to club together and adopt a child in another country and help contribute towards their school provision.  Or if you want to support a small charity that doesn’t get much publicity
• I.T Tender who I served with in the Philippines also have a holistic child sponsorship program and they personally know each child and help them from nursery to college and with many other things in between including providing daily transportation, annual school supplies, uniforms, medical check-ups, emergency hospital coverage, computer and internet access for assignments, access to clean water, nutrition monitoring and feeding programs, disaster responsiveness and leadership training opportunities plus more.

 

Podcast links:

To listen to the full Youthwork+ Podcast and the episode featuring Olly & Becky talking about youth mission trips use

the links below. They help support persecuted christians globally and have many resources to help youth groups pray for, support and get involved globally from the UK.

• Amazon Music/ Audible Youthwork+ podcast
• Tune In/ Alexa Youthwork+ podcast
• Google Youthwork+ podcast
• Spotify Youthwork+ podcast
• Podbean Youthwork+ podcast
• Apple Youthwork+ podcast – coming soon!
• Youtube youthwork+ podcast video