Subversive Mobilization: Family Mission Trips

Maybe it doesn’t work for you to bring a refugee family to where you live. No shame. What about flipping it around and taking your family to where refugees are?

I flat out love the thought of family missions trips. And I especially love them when they happen among unreached peoples. Granted, that adds complexity, but also a powerful pay off.

Consider this: You, your spouse, and the kids take five days or a week to sweat and toil, interact with people who are different from you, try new foods whose prices don’t make sense to you, and return home tired but changed. Yes, that could describe a trip to Disneyland. But I’m thinking something further afoot. What would it take for your tribe to participate in a family mission trip?

A Closer Look

Two big red flags snap and crackle in the wind of that question: Safety and cost. A third flag often hangs limp until you decide to go, then it flies: Is there relevant, helpful stuff for us to do? So let’s take a closer look.

Safety

Yes, you’re safer at home. At least in the short run. And yes, it’s easy to mock someone’s desire for safety when it’s not your kids and wife. And yes, I assume we’d all agree in principle that wisdom and faith are often in tension when we think about our family in the kingdom of God. Jesus said both, “Follow me” and “Be shrewd as snakes.”

Cost

If your family mission trip includes getting on a plane and you actually have a family, things get pricey in a hurry. Three things that could help:

  1. Drive to where populations of unreached refugees are gathering. This is getting increasingly easy in the U.S. and many other places.
  2. Just take some of the family. I can already hear echoes of the chaos and fights this might engender, but it could be your solution.
  3. Receive grace from God to spend a chunk of change in a way that will change your family for the rest of its history.

Relevance

Honestly, what can a foreign family do in a short-term time frame?

Be there. You can be there. My simplistic model for any mission trip right now is this: Hear their story, tell your story, share God’s story. Most anyone can do this with a mite of training.

Add to it some praying for sick people, some contributory labor, and some intentional learning, and I’ll argue with anyone on the worth and relevance of a family mission trip.

Finding Opportunities

The cool organization I work for has groups living in some of the coolest (and hottest) places in the world who would gladly welcome a bold, humble, servant-minded family to hang out with them for a week or two. I’d be happy to link you up. Many other groups would say the same.

I’m also pulling together a family trip to Sicily to care for refugees there. Looks like it will happen around March 21-25. If that’s your kids’ spring break, or if you home school and can flex the school calendar a bit, I’d love for you to think about coming along. Shoot me a quick note and we can talk about it.

Editor’s note: See also this article on family mission trips and the links it includes (ShortTermMissions.com).

2 thoughts on “Subversive Mobilization: Family Mission Trips”

  1. YES, people are moving around this globe at an unprecedented pace. Could this be a fulfillment of Daniel 12:4? Let’s leave that to the “end times” folk. YES, what a privilege to be a Light to those who sit in darkness! ERI,s book, “Internationals Who Live Among Us” (www.eri.org), has a chapter on Relocating Refugees, with many ideas of “how to.” Another very valuable site is http://www.tucsonrefugeeministry.com. ~~~~~NEAL

    1. Neal: Thanks for the great ideas. I appreciate you reading Missions Catalyst and weighing in out of your deep experience.

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