4 Ways to Maximize Your Summer Missions Experience into the School Year
By Youth Specialties on September 12 2012
Summer is over and many of you lead students on life-changing mission trips during the last few months. The trick is to make these experiences continue to last into the school year. Sam Townsend over at YouthWorks had some great ideas on how to keep it going:
"...by definition, life-change can't only begin. It has to continue! So, while it may be easy to simply put this trip in the books and move on to what's next, we hope you will join us in believing that the most important part of the mission trip is still ahead.
As you continue to love and serve your teenagers this coming school year, consider these four practical applications to help your youth maximize their mission trip after it's over.
1.Process it
Imagine buying a book and only looking at the pictures. It's a lot easier than reading, but you don't really get what the plot is all about. The same is true with your teenagers' mission trip. If they don't take time to "read into it" - or think through it - they'll miss a lot. Help them process by writing, praying or talking about the experiences they had. A month or two - or three! - after the trip, take them out for coffee and ask them how the trip looks in hindsight. Help them see the bigger story of what God is doing in their lives.
2. Share it
Sharing the good things God has done is one great way to worship. It's why we love sharing Yea God's at YouthWorks! Plus, people want to hear what students did on their mission trip.
You can help students continue to process their trip by giving them opportunities to share meaningful moments. Help your students find creative outlets for their stories. Spend time sharing as a group, get some students in front of the congregation on Sunday morning or have students write a couple paragraphs about what was most meaningful on their trip. As a new school year approaches, consider with students how they can share their story with this new audience - perhaps through something as simple as thinking through how to share a meaningful 30-second story about their mission trip.
Sharing the good news of what Jesus is doing is a powerful expression that you can invite your teenagers into.
(One way we love to help students share their stories is by posting them on reverbmagazine.com.)
3. Continue it
One of the great dangers of missions is that students will think their service, love and impact is a one-week event that happens somewhere far from home. Don't let your students buy into this misconception. Instead, remind them that those hands that hugged children, swept a paintbrush across the side of a house or sorted clothing were their hands! And (we hope) they brought those hands home with them!
As their youth leader, you can help students realize that their service and love for others can happen in their everyday life. Talk about it with your group. Plan service initiatives in your home community. Draw connections between service in a distant community and service at home.
4. Deepen it
You know what's crazy? The God of the entire universe - the one who rules every hurricane and every housefly - has a purpose and plan for each of your students' lives. During their mission trip, students were challenged with the ideas that "You Are Here" to love, worship, invest, unite, serve and go. Your teenagers had time each day to spend alone with God, to sing together, to recognize some "Yea God" moments and to think deeply about Jesus.
As you plan this upcoming year, consider how a holistic message of faith connected with action can be encouraged in your students' lives. Connect the messages and practices from the mission trip with their lives at home. Help students deepen their service with a strong, ongoing relationship with Jesus.
One Last Thing
As you consider how to follow up with students, don't overlook what you need after a mission trip. It's likely that you experienced the trip a little differently than your students, but these same steps might be helpful for your post-mission trip experience as well. As you keep serving and loving your students, don't miss the opportunity to process, share, continue and deepen the incredible things God is doing in your own life."
Sam Townsend works on the Training and Programming Team at YouthWorks, where one of his favorite jobs is helping create Reverb Magazine, YouthWorks' post-mission trip processing tool for teenagers. After the workday, Sam is a youth group leader, a seminary student and a conversationalist over half-price appetizers. Read Sam's original post.
And if you are looking for a great missions trip opportunity, YouthWorks provides life-changing Christ-centered mission trips for teenagers, families and church groups at over 70 locations across the continent. To learn more and get registered for a 2013 mission trip visit www.youthworks.com or call the Service Center at 800.968.8504.
Comments
From Jeremy Picker on September 18, 2012
Great post Sam! I can definitely relate to the article and share a couple ideas.
Being a Pastor’s kid gave me great opportunities to go on missions trips every summer. I participated in dramas, musics, sports and of course evangelism. We would also help support the local churches there that always needed some refreshing.
I was able to be bold in the different countries and share my faith no problem. But when I returned home and went back to school, fear overcame me and wasn’t able to tap into that fire I had just a few months earlier.
Some ways that might be helpful to keep that fire is to continue to have prayer or “remembering” sessions at your youth group. Having testimonies, showing videos, etc. Not only will that keep the trip in the front of the students mind that went, it will also show the other kids that didn’t participate the passion and the excitement that these trips bring.
One great way I have discovered for the students to take their passion into the school year is through t-shirts. Not just a cheesy missions trip shirt (I received a lot of those in my day), but a t-shirt that the kids will be proud to wear to school and social settings. When that student looks into their closet, they will see their Hurley, American Eagle, and mission’s trip t-shirt. If the missions shirt rivals in design, fit, and color, then I guarantee they will pick that one over the others due to the emotional ties with the trip.
When they put that t-shirt on, it will spark the excitement of the trip and can help them have the confidence to talk about their faith boldly.
Now these t-shirts can be a great way to fundraise for the ministries that you helped throughout the year so that the impact isn’t just a flash in the pan, but a continuous stream of good not to mention keeping that spark in the kids heart.
As Sam said, “Connect the messages and practices from the mission trip with their lives at home.” Help them not be fearful or forgetful of the work God has done in trough that trip.
