A dream was birthed for us years before having children of our own. We were in Haiti on our first mission trip as a couple. It was an amazing week of seeing the Lord work in transforming lives. God was using us to share the Gospel and lead people to Christ. Our translator was a new believer who later became a pastor we still are in contact with today. However, more than any of these things, the most impactful part of the trip for us was a fellow teammate, a Dad, who brought his 10-year-old son with him on this trip. Some might say it was radical or risky, but to us it was beautiful!
We began to dream of making family mission trips a rhythm of our future children’s lives. And here we are, about 20 years later, having brought our children with us to Cambodia, South Sudan and Guatemala. We are on our way to Berlin, Germany for Spring Break to serve refugees. Maybe dreams do come true… with a little planning, sacrifice and intentionality.
Mission trips provide opportunities for discipleship, for expanded worldview, for gained perspective, and a priceless shared experience. While we have been a part of some fabulous youth mission trips, we wouldn’t advocate for a youth trip in lieu of experiencing missions as a family. There are just some things that we are “jealous” to experience alongside our children.
We assign significance to the things that we choose to do together as a family. There are so many activities competing for a family’s time and attention. School, sports, music, church activities, summer plans, vacations, service opportunities, etc. We cannot do them all together – especially as a family of six. We do a lot of “dividing and conquering” in order to keep up with our busy schedule. However, the things that we choose to do all together – the things that go on the calendar first before everyone’s individual schedules are made – these are the things we are communicating to our children are the most valuable.
One of the biggest barriers to a family taking a mission trip together can be the expense. It is expensive for one person to travel overseas, much less a family! We knew that mission trips would not be a feasible possibility for us if we didn’t plan in advance. We were encouraged to set up a “mission trip” bank account and any time there was a little extra money we would put as much as possible into this account. Most of the time there wasn’t a specific trip on the calendar. We were saving for an unknown opportunity, but the Lord has always opened doors and we have been able to walk through them when we had the funds set aside.
Another component of a family mission trip is being in relationships with missionaries to go visit! We have been on multiple trips coordinated by our church or an organization, but we also have friends who are missionaries overseas that we have been able to visit on our own. What a gift to be able to expose our children to their lives and ministry. It has involved nurturing relationships with missionaries – having them stay with us when they are in town, having meals together, and praying for them as a family.
I remember feeling anxious before bringing our 8 year old with us to Africa – I felt like I needed to squeeze every moment and “make it count” in order to be a good steward of the opportunity. But thankfully the Lord released me from that pressure during the trip and showed me that it would be an impression on his life even if he didn’t remember the specifics of his seven days in Africa. It became a touch-point to return to again and again, and our prayer is that the impact will be life–long. A simple way I try to preserve the memories is to make a photo memory book and strategically place it on the coffee table so the children remember and talk about their trips.
Some of our trips have been father/son trips, some mother/daughter trips, and some have been all six of us. There have been different opportunities for different seasons of our family’s life.
Our prayer is that our children will catch the “missions bug,” whether that looks like serving overseas long-term one day, faithfully supporting and praying for missionaries, or simply being more aware of the nations. We want them to see with their own eyes the great big world God has made, and the Gospel implications for all the nations.. and we want the joy of experiencing that with them whenever possible!
Our family of 6 – kids age 8, 10, 12, 14 – just completed 30 days of “clean eating” through a program called