This 26 page Mission Trip Milestones Module recognizes that helping others in need is truly a joy to one’s life and central to the Christian life. A mission trip to another place, whether it is across town or across the ocean, has a valuable element of service.  However, if serving others is the only goal of a mission trip, much of the value of the journey is lost.

All people, including servants, are people with deep needs. One of the great benefits of mission trips is to be placed in a fresh, new setting—often very different from one’s typical experience. Such a new environment creates opportunities to rely upon one’s faith, learn about one’s faith in new contexts, and gain from the lives and faith of other people in different cultural contexts. This is all part of gaining wisdom and understanding—a theme often repeated in the Bible.

Therefore, to embrace fully the gifts of a mission trip is to open one’s life to a new kind of dependence on God, to receive new insight into and wisdom about the God of the Bible, and to renew one’s own life of faith—even as mission trip servants seek to be of help to others. The very act of service offers a rich opportunity to be served by the work of the Holy Spirit through fellow travelers as well as through the people who are met along the way. This Milestone Ministry event will help mission trip travelers receive the blessings of those with whom they travel and those they will serve.