MISSION TRIPS ARE SPIRITUAL JOURNEYS

A mission trip is a spiritual journey that can take you to undiscovered realms of self-fulfillment and happiness. As a result, an ever-increasing number of Christians take mission trips throughout the nation and the globe. In serving the less fortunate, they are fulfilling the Biblical injunction to feed the hungry, give drink to the thirsty and clothe the naked.

I happened to go on a two-week Global Volunteers mission trip with 20 other volunteers of all ages and faiths. We helped refurbish a number of ramshackle homes and other buildings in an impoverished African American community, deep in the Mississippi delta region. (The highlight for me was clearing the ground for a basketball court for the neighborhood boys, then watching them play.) But other volunteers have gone to places like Mexico, Jamaica, Costa Rica, Ecuador, Ghana, India, Romania, India and many other Third World destinations.

The primary goal of missionary organizations is to match your individual skills and interests with the needs of the people. While there is a great need for manual labor, there are also plenty of opportunities to tutor, work with children and the elderly and provide health care assistance.

If the church or fraternal group organizing the trip can afford the cost, it may pay for volunteers' transportation, food and lodging; otherwise, the volunteers bear the expenses. Fortunately, missionaries are often eligible for discounted travel rates, and in most cases, they stay with a host family so their costs of food and lodging are minimal. Volunteer's out-of-pocket expenses are generally tax deductible.

Anyone heading to the missions must be healthy enough to withstand the rigors of hard manual labor, extreme weather and spartan living conditions that may entail nights in sleeping bags and tents, cold showers and exotic, local foods.

Volunteers must be vaccinated for all types of diseases, such as yellow fever, typhoid, hepatitis, malaria and other similar illness because of the real possibility of being exposed to at these remote locales.

Volunteers from every walk of life are needed, but especially people with medical training.