With our oldest now eighteen years old and graduating, my school year has been filled with lots of reflection. What have we done well? What would I have changed in my parenting? Did I do enough in homeschooling her? As I think back over her life and consider what were some of the most influential things we did (to be able to share with other homeschool moms), one thing that I would strongly encourage anyone to do is to have your teen serve in a third world country on a mission trip before graduation. I think it is vital for their spiritual growth to have that perspective, and the benefits of serving on mission trips before graduation are numerous.
What are the benefits of serving on a mission trip before graduation?
1. Shows your teen how the rest of the world lives.
When you live in America, you really live in a bubble — a flourishing, safe, comfortable, secure, easy, and prosperous bubble. But that is not how much of the world lives. Serving in a third world country before graduation opens teens’ eyes to the poverty, danger, harsh, difficult, and severe conditions that many people manage through. Teens come face to face with not just statistics, but real people who earn just one dollar a day to buy food for dinner that night or children who riffle through trash each day to find bits of food to eat. The prosperity of the United States or another first world country is not the norm, and your teen will see that firsthand.
2. Makes your teen grateful for blessing and comforts
A few years ago, a teenage girl came to Zambia to serve with us (www.familylegacy.com). Apparently before leaving the US, she and her parents discussed getting her the new iPhone when they go back to the US. She was thrilled, and she spent some of her travel time researching exactly which color she wanted to get. Just a day after landing in Lusaka, though, her perspective changed. When she saw the humble conditions and provisions the people had, she became grateful for the phone that she already had — one that worked, took good pictures, and connected to her friends. She didn’t need the new updated version and felt guilty for wanting to spend hundreds of dollars on something so trivial. She was thankful for the blessing and comfort that she already had.
The things that we take for granted everyday are the very things that would be a blessing to people in other countries… a steady income, three meals per day (and snacks too), a comfortable couch, a warm blanket, a secure home, electricity and running water, attending school, and more. Being in a third world country makes you grateful for the blessings and comforts that you already have. It changes your perspective on what is really important.
3. Strengthens his/her faith
Serving in a third-world context certainly gives you lots of opportunities to be out of your comfort zone. From flying over oceans to going through customs and immigration to eating unfamiliar foods to sharing your testimony with a group of people to taking cold showers to navigating street signs in another language, these trips give teens an abundance of chances to put their faith into action. Will they rely on God and ask Him for help or will they succumb to their anxieties and be paralyzed?
In our experiences leading international trips and serving overseas, we have seen time and time again teens who take God at His Word, trusting Him for the details. They see their faith in action and become energized by their renewed assurance in who God is. We have seen teens crying because they were so afraid to share their testimony in a street meeting, but later on in the night after they did it, they were crying because they lived out their faith in a way they had never done before.
4. Expands his/her view of God
We can often put God “in a box”. Our limited view of God only expands to the doors of the church building. When we break away from our comfortable routines, though, we will see God working in ways that we never thought possible. It starts raising the provisions needed to go on the trip. We have never had a team member unable to go because of lack of funding — even though the amount needed was several thousand dollars. The funding that seemed impossible was nothing for God who created everything from nothing.
Next, seeing His provision on the field can be incredible. When God provides for a local church’s roof in an impoverished village or meeting a small girl finally receiving the medicine that her family couldn’t afford, teens get a personal tutorial on how our generous God works in the lives of His beloved children. Often in the US we don’t need to rely on God for everything. We can become brazenly self-sufficient, but international service brings us back to reality that God is the Provider of everything. We need Him more than we know.
Also, when you get outside of the American church, your view of God expands. You begin to see that Heaven will be filled with like-minded believers of all races, languages, and countries. Even though you can’t understand the worship of these Christ-followers in this new country, you praise the same God. The songs are beautiful, and the praise brings you to tears as you really worship.
5. Deepens relationships with family and friends
One of the benefits of international mission trips before graduation that some people think of right away is the time to deepen relationships with their family and friends as they adventure together. It’s true! These trips create bonds and memories that are not soon forgotten. These trips are perfect for mothers and daughters, fathers and sons, or for the whole family. Many churches offer short term mission trips, many Christian high schools offer cross-cultural experiences for their students, and if neither of those apply for you, you can seek out other short-term mission opportunities with organizations like Cru, ABWE (Asso. of Baptists for World Evangelism), Ethnos360, Pioneers, and our organization, Family Legacy Missions International. Is your teen passionate about a specific cause like orphan-care, human trafficking, sports ministry, medical trips, Bible translation, etc.? Look for a trip that allows them to live out that passion!
6. Changes your teens’ view of life and what really matters.
Before your teen goes off to college and charts the course that they want to take for their career, it is important for them to travel internationally to get a good perspective of what really matters in life. I have heard it said, “You will never see a hearse towing a U-Haul.” You can’t take your things with you. Even millionaires will die and leave behind the life that they worked hard to build for themselves and their family. Life is more important than things. Life is all about people and the Kingdom of God. An international missions trip gives teens that perspective. Maybe this trip will change their perspective of striving to build wealth to one of ministry and service. Or this trip might secure in their hearts and minds the calling of God to be a doctor.
International mission trips will help him or her to see what really matters in life and even hear God a little more clearly about their future. When you step away from the normal rhythms of your life to serve internationally, that step triggers situation after situation where you must put your faith into action. It is a beautiful thing and one that I believer EVERY teen should be required to make before high school graduation.
Are you thinking of other benefits of serving on mission trips before graduation? Share them with me in the comments below.
For more information on mission trips with us, visit www.familylegacy.com.
To find out more about becoming a Biblically Minded Family, click here.
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