I have been on three mission/service trips to the Philippines, one to the South China and one that I actually led to Nicaragua. These experiences have shaped who I am. They have provided me with a vision of a world that is in dire need. A world that is unjust. A world that is nevertheless, full of beauty, diversity and joy. I’m a strong proponent of these trips because I believe they are catalysts for personal growth, opportunities to serve, and above all, the first step on a much bigger mission.

But if we are to be honest with ourselves, we have to ask then, what are the underlying goals and reasons for mission/service trips? At this point let’s try to define what is a service or a mission trip. While there is no universal definition for it, I like to think of a service trip as a group of people going to another location for a short or long period of time to engage with another community—usually in a poor area—giving up of their own time and abilities to help in some way. A mission trip on the other hand, has the some goals but goes the extra step of sharing the Gospel and trying to connect on a spiritual level with the community the group hopes to serve. Some common ways of helping the host community in both service and mission trips are: construction of buildings/schools/churches, feedings (taking food to some of the poorest areas), tutoring at schools, teaching English, and helping with other projects that involve manual labor, among other things. For the scope of this article, I’m just going to focus on short-term trips, so trips between one and three weeks.

Now let’s dig deeper. Why would one go on one of these trips? I would hope that most people go on these trips with the hope of making a difference in the host community, but that’s not always the case. Perhaps some people just want to see another country, or perhaps they just want to travel, or they’re going because their friends are going. For a lot of people there’s a religious reason to it. There is the desire to share the Gospel, to reach out to communities and tell them about God’s love for them.

Now that we’ve got the reasons let’s first explore some of the common critiques of short-term trips. “Why don’t you, instead of trying to help somebody in another country, help people here where you live.” “You’re spending so much money to go on this trip, why don’t you just send them the money you’re spending?” “Short-term groups are more of a burden to accommodate than they are useful, and sometimes they even take employment opportunities away from locals.” “You just want to feel good about yourself (a.k.a. white savior complex).”

While I believe that some of these critiques are completely valid, I still think short term mission/service trips are extremely valuable. Here’s why. First of all, the fact that somebody at least takes that first step and tries to do something is already more than what most people do. Most people who criticize short-term trips don’t even do anything as way of service themselves. Also, what a lot of people don’t see is that those of us who go on short-term trips are also involved in many things locally. Sometimes the trip is even the reason why people start doing things locally, something they wouldn’t have done before going on the trip. Even more than that, a lot of people stay involved with their host communities in other countries and help them in many ways even while being back home. I am the Project Coordinator of Journey for Hope Children’s Ministry, an outreach I got to know from going to the Philippines on a short-term trip. I also sponsor some of the kids from this ministry. I wouldn’t have done any of this had I not gone to the Philippines in the first place. And this is only because seeing what the conditions a lot of people live in throughout the world are like is a powerful experience that changes people’s hearts, specially if you have lived your whole life in suburban Ohio. That is a key reason why service/mission trips are really important; to see that we are quite wealthy, even if we think we aren’t, and to see we can do something about the unfairness of that, even if we think we can’t.

It’s almost laudable to think that somebody would fundraise $2000 for an organization they don’t know in a place they’ve never seen for people they’ve never met, specially in the culture we live in. But, what is awesome about short-term trips is that after the trip, a lot of people do fundraise thousands of dollars for their buddies back in the place they visited because now they know them, they care about them and they wanna help. While for some people and some trips, the “white savior complex” might be an issue, I can also see how it is far from being the case in all the trips. I know at least it’s not an issue for me because well, I’m not white, I’m from Mexico. I think that beyond the external façade, a lot of people genuinely want to help. And even if they don’t, they usually do help in a lot of ways. For Journey for Hope for example, groups that come in are an extremely valuable resource for our staff in the Philippines, which consists of only 2 people at the moment. Groups that come in teach the kids music, English, science, and other subjects. They play with the kids and show them a kind of love that a lot of them don’t usually get. And groups stay in contact. Nowadays with Facebook, it’s so easy to say hi to the kids you met over the summer over in the Philippines or in Nicaragua. I am personally still a friend, I would even say a brother, of many of the kids I know in the Philippines. Furthermore, one of the most important reasons why short-term trips are not a waste is the spiritual connection that can be made in a short time. Sharing the love of God is something that can be seen even in the smallest action or gesture. And sometimes, what this people in under-developed areas need is a loving gesture, a promise of hope, or a friendship with the One who never goes away.

I could keep talking about why short-term trips are still relevant and important, but rather, now I’m going to talk about why most trips are not being exploited to their full potential and what I’m doing to reinvent the trips I organize and participate in. Like I said, some of the critiques raised against short-term trips are completely valid. I think the most important critique I personally have would be that a lot of people still have the mentality that there is a group of people somewhere that are completely defenseless and only through our help they will get out from where they are. So like the “white savior complex” but without white being a condition for it. This is never explicit, but you can see it in how people talk about what they will do or did on a service trip. Rather, I call for creating partnerships with the people we hope to serve. It’s still important to give food to those who don’t have food, but it’s even more important to see ways in which we can lift up those people who have no food so that they can get their own food. Dignity is something that we need to keep in mind. After all, I know I wouldn’t like somebody just giving me everything and looking down on me as if I was completely defenseless and useless. Here it’s important to not impose our conceptions of what would beneficial for them to become self sustainable, but rather to go to the organizations working on site and work with them to find the best ways to further progress.

I think another important aspect of short-term trips that can change is how we employ our skills and abilities. Most groups have a really standard array of activities they engage on, like I mentioned above. But what if, instead of building a wall that could be built by a local person, we use what we’re really good at to serve? Doctors and medical students are good at this, often providing their skills in places where it’s hard to have access to medical attention. In fact, this was one of the goals of the trip I designed and led to Nicaragua this past summer. We had a sizable group of musicians, so we decided we really wanted to exploit that. Once we got there, we got hooked up with a group of Nicaraguan musicians who recently started a music institute in a low income neighborhood. Only one of them is conservatory trained, so we saw in that an opportunity to share what we have learned in the conservatory here with them so that they can pass on the knowledge to the kids. We also recorded some of their songs and wrote a collective song. They were so inspired that now they are constantly writing their own songs! Whatever it is, it’s possible to use your skills to help in a meaningful way.

Now, the problem with that is that you’re in and you’re out. One or two weeks is enough to get to a certain point but it’s not enough to really be part of the change. That's where I’m introducing new concepts for a trip I’m leading to Guatemala next year. Here is where it’s important to think of trips as partnerships. The trip to Guatemala is actually part of a bigger project our parish wants to take on. It’s really simple in concept but not so easy practically. Basically, how it works is that the trip is not the end goal of our efforts. It’s a big milestone, but it’s just a step along the way. What we will do before and after the trip is as important or more important than the trip itself. Our vision is to work with Friends of San Lucas, an organization in Guatemala, and support their projects continually on our church. The trip then can be seen as a delegation of people from our church going to meet our brothers in Guatemala, get to know them, get to know their struggles, and find out what’s the best way for us to help. That will probably be a powerful enough experience that, as we share it with the rest of the Parish when coming back, will hopefully catalyze the support given to the organization. It’s easy to think about it but it’s hard because a lot more is demanded from us. We are talking about a long term commitment to keep investing time and resources into a cause. There’s plenty of people who individually do this. I have done this ever since the second time I went to the Philippines. But I have yet to see a group that uses this approach to a short-term mission/service trip. This is also really important if we hope to engage with them on a deeper level. To realize that people in the richest neighborhood in Ohio and people in the poorest community in Guatemala can laugh, play, cry, and pray together is powerful. To realize that we are all brothers in Christ is eye-opening.

Whether you are going on a service trip or a mission trip, do know that you’re taking a step on the right direction. You want to help and that is worth of praise. But take it one step further. Start helping locally before you go on your trip and keep working locally once you come back. Figure out ways to help your host community from back home. Think about how you can use your skills to provide a service that is really hard to find in the place you’re going to. Change your mentality about the trip and the people you meet, thinking of them as being on the same level as you, and then think about ways to raise them up and allow them to raise themselves up. Think of the trip not as a once-in-a-lifetime opportunity but as a continual commitment to create a fairer world. If you’re sharing the Word of God, realize that you meet Jesus in everybody you come in contact with and treat them that way. Let’s reinvent short term mission/service trips so that we can create a fairer world for us all. We need it. The world needs it.