As a mom, former student pastor’s wife, and mission trip leader, I sometimes get asked- why should kids/teens go overseas? Here are 5 reasons I believe it’s beneficial for teens especially to be involved in going.
- It gives them a heart for the gospel and equips them to share it.
Good mission trips exist to share the gospel with people who are lost. As a part of this, team training should include equipping each team member with various ways to share the gospel. The team should spend focused time praying for the lost people they will encounter on the trip. As teens are involved with these efforts, they will naturally become more comfortable with sharing the gospel, and return from their trip with a greater awareness of the lost around them. This will result in them becoming a more evangelistic Christian in their own context.
- It gives them a heart for people who have never heard the gospel.
Especially if students go to places where people have never heard the gospel, they will come home from their trip understanding the grace they’ve been given to hear and accept the gospel. They often also return home as a more engaged global Christian- praying, sending or going to share the gospel with the unreached around the world.
- It lets them experience missions and consider if they’re called to be a missionary.
I don’t know of one missionary who has served the Lord long term who did not first go on a short term trip. Short trips help students experience missions first hand, and often this results in a long term love for the people and place they first visited. There have been several students we have taken on short term trips who have gone on to serve overseas long term. They often talk about their first trip overseas as a catalyst in them considering giving their life for missions.
- It gives parents a chance to trust the Lord with their child.
As a parent of three kids, I understand how hard it is to let your child go on a mission trip. It requires much faith and prayer. Often the parents of the teens we have taken talk about how their faith and heart for the lost has grown because of their child going on a trip. It becomes a joy for the parent to see their child return with a renewed fervor for God and His mission.
- It lets them fellowship with believers from another culture.
Whether the mission trip is to a different part of the city or state or to another country, it allows the student to see another culture. They engage with people who think or speak differently, and maybe dress or eat differently than they’re used to. On every trip I’ve been on, in every different culture, there is an indescribable unity with believers even despite cultural differences. Revelation is much richer reading after traveling to see how different believers in different parts of the world still worship the same God of the Bible. One day we will stand with them all in heaven praising the Lamb who was slain.
It’s sometimes hard to let a student you love go on a mission trip. It requires faith, money, effort, sacrifice and prayer. It’s no light decision. But consider the eternal gain. You and the student will see God move in ways you didn’t before. You will gain a heart for the lost that’s different from before. And maybe, it will be the spark in that student’s life that will cause them to walk with God and be a part of His global mission for the rest of their life.
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