Sharing about your missions trip is a wonderful way to ignite a flame of inspiration that burns year-round
Whether you are a seasoned medical missions trip volunteer or about to go on your very first medical missions trip, one of the things you might be looking forward to doing once you are home is sharing about your missions trip.
There may be people in your church, workplace, family, peer group, or general community who are unaware of the different ways medical missions teams help or where we go. Some might be people who would be inspired to do more in their communities, homes or even overseas, when they hear about your story of how God moved through what you and your team did together with the people who were served. There are different things you can do to make it easier to share your story once you return home. We hope these three things will inspire you now, during the trip, and afterward.
Keep a journal
Keeping a journal is a brilliant way to have a record of the situations you encountered and how you worked through anything particularly challenging, how God was with you or someone else, and various other things like time spent with new friends or insightful moments and prayers.
The act of writing before, during, and after the trip may serve to collect your thoughts, memories, and ideas into one central place where you can return to again to read and reflect or be inspired. It can serve as a note for future family members to read one day and get a glimpse of what it was like to serve as a medical missions volunteer. What you write in your journal can become a sort of “first draft” of what you will share with people in your church or community.
Some good “before” trip journal posts could be questions or things you would like to notice or learn about while on the trip. During the trip, since you will be focused on serving more, you could jot down more of what you experience. Then after the trip, you could write about what you experienced and possibly also what you learned or what you would like to share with others.
Take lots of good pictures
While you are on your medical missions trip, you may want to take lots of good pictures. If that sounds like you who enjoys having photographs to remember where you have been and who you have met, consider bringing a camera, batteries, charger, or battery pack with travel adapter (if needed).
Though you will be working quite a bit of the time, there will be moments to snap photos of buildings, landscape, animals and plants, and you with your new friends and team members. This is a really fun part of it–all the people! Make sure you’re in some of the photos too. When you take photos, you will want to be mindful of privacy and how the photos will represent everyone involved in a respectful way. Your group leader is able to help you know if there are any other guidelines to observe.
When you have lots of pictures, you will be able to remember the faces of the people you may write back to, the places you have been, and refer to it even years later when you want to pray for them or remember. Sometimes teams or individuals put all the photos together for use in sharing about your missions trip to churches and other groups.
Stay updated on the news of your team and new friends
Another great way to share about your missions trip is to stay updated on news of any changes or breakthroughs for your new friends overseas. When it is not unwise to do so, you can share the updates with loved ones, friends, or other members of your community–particularly those who already have expressed interest. People may hear the updates and praise God or go into prayer for them. They might also be inspired to one day go on a medical missions trip or somehow serve in a new way. You will have a friendship with someone who may also enjoy hearing about you.
Would you like to learn more about Mission Partners for Christ? You are welcome to visit and follow our Facebook page, Mission Partners for Christ, where we share encouraging posts and information. You could also head over to the FAQs page of this blog.
