Most people can tell you a story about things going wrong on a mission trip. Missing flights, vans breaking down, lost passports, and some form of Montezuma's revenge come to mind pretty quickly. 

We would love to hear your bad mission trip story. For real. 

Send it to us in whatever way is best for you. Comment on our social post, email us, send us a DM, etc.  

The reality is that when you take a group of students out of their comfort zone, possibly into a foreign country and culture, all kinds of things can go wrong. 

We showed up ready to paint that fence, but they were still scraping the paint off of it from last weeks' group. That one kid didn't get off the train when the rest of the team did, and we will never forget the look on her face as that train sped away. We got detained at the airport when a couple kids tried to bring Samurai swords home on the plane. Our missionary thought climbing a semi-active volcano on our free day was a great idea. That boy and girl keep trying to sneak away from our group to practice "speaking in tongues," if you know what I mean. 

Maybe these are just wild examples, or maybe this is more like those Farmer's Insurance commercials. 

"We know a thing or two because we've seen a thing or two." 

For the most part, the stories from mission trips (even the bad ones) are just challenges that come as part of the journey. They make great stories around campfires for years and years to come. 

But there is one mission trip challenge that is much more serious and all too common. 

The worst kind of mission trip is the kind that doesn't last. 

It doesn't seem like we really did any significant work on the field. In fact, it felt a lot like we were a distraction to the missionary. 

Our team was emotionally affected in some ways, but that feeling didn't last as long as the drive back home. 

Our students went and served, but they haven't changed at all. 

This is the mission trip gone bad that we set out to eliminate 20+ years ago. This is why we are a training organization before anything else. Our goal, our passion, and our focus is on short-term mission trips with a long-term impact. 

Training is the key to all of that. The right training makes all the difference. 

We've been training student teams all these years by bringing them to our Base Camps and hosting training events at churches. We also train daily throughout our trips. 

This year, we are making our training more accessible than ever before. Our Mission Trip Training course is going online. It will be ready and on sale by the end of the month, Lord willing. 

We hope it helps many, many groups this summer and beyond. We hope it produces a long-term impact in countless students. We pray that it makes your next mission trip your best one ever. 

Shoot us an email if you are interested in our online course.