Strange food. Foreign languages. Backbreaking work. Summer sun and no air conditioning. Sleeping on a church basement floor.

It’s kind of a wonder anyone signs up for a mission trip! What is it about a week of hard work in a foreign place—whether another city or another country—that entices us so much that we’ll actually pay a lot of money to participate?

Maybe we like the idea of getting away from home, visiting a faraway place, and hanging out with our best friends for a week. But if those were our only reasons, we could probably find somewhere nicer than the slums of Mexico or inner-city Birmingham to visit. And we could probably find something more fun to do than construction projects and tutoring kids.

I believe something deeper draws us to the idea of a mission trip. Maybe, whether we fully realize it or not, we want an experience that lets us get to know Jesus in a deeper way because we are becoming more like Him—by giving up some of our own comforts to serve those who are underprivileged and forgotten. Maybe we know, deep down, that our lives can’t help but be changed when we take a step of faith and rely on God to help us survive in a strange and unfamiliar environment.

Mission trips can be invaluable experiences. If your church is offering one and it’s not too late to sign up, go. You have the rest of your life to work over the summer. Now is an ideal time to engage in a life-shaping experience like a mission trip. It has the potential to change your life dramatically.

But, if you’ve gone on a mission trip before, you know that it also has the potential to be simply one great week out of the year, after which you pretty much return to life as normal. You promised to change; you thought you would come back to a totally different life, but instead you found the same family, the same school, the same work and deadlines and video games and sports that filled your life before. Nothing much changed.

Maybe you’ve begun to question whether mission trips really are worth it.

But perhaps that’s the wrong question. Perhaps our experience of a mission trip—and the extent to which it changes us—is something we choose. Maybe, if it fails to impact us in the long run, it’s more our fault than the trip’s.

If you’re going on a mission trip this summer, here are a few ways to make sure you get the most out of it:

1. •Search your heart. Why do you want to go on the trip? What are you hoping to get out of it? Spend some time in prayer and ask God what he might want for you from this trip. Ask him to change any attitudes or motives that aren’t in line with his heart.
   

1. •Prepare. You wouldn’t run a marathon without a lot of physical preparation. So is it reasonable to expect you can have a great spiritual experience if you’re not spiritually preparing? Most likely, if you’re not praying now, you won’t pray then. If you don’t begin to watch for the ways that God is working around you at home, you’re likely to miss it there. Whatever you want to do on your mission trip, start doing now.
   

1. •Participate, don’t anticipate. Mission trips require a lot of flexibility. Rarely (perhaps never) does everything go as planned. Go with the flow, and watch for how God might be at work in the agenda changes. His plans tend to be better than ours.
   

1. •Engage your community. You’re going with a team of great people—make the most of it! Pray together and for each other. Share what God is teaching you through the experience and ask how he is working in their lives. Start now—before the trip—and don’t stop once the trip is over. Continue to remind each other of what you experienced and challenge each other to be obedient to what God put on your hearts.
   

1. •Include your family. One of the biggest reasons mission trips don’t create a lasting impact is that students often fail to include their families. You might be the only one from your family going, but that doesn’t mean you’re in it alone. Talk with your parents about why you want to go on the trip and make sure you have their support. Share with them your concerns and fears and let them pray for you. And then be sure to tell them how God worked in your life once you get back, and give them permission to hold you accountable to the things you say you want to change!
   

1. •Pray. In case you haven’t already noticed, prayer is vital to every step of your trip—before, during, and after. Nothing of eternal significance happens apart from God. Pray for his hand in everything you do, and when you get home, pray for His help in putting into practice what he’s put on your heart.
   

God loves to use experiences like mission trips to instill his heart in ours. So if you go willing and prepared, get ready to come back a little more like Jesus.

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a deeper study on missions, Jesus-style