What A Family Mission Trip Did For Us

This past July, my wife Patty and I drove out to Madison, WI with our children Mary (12) and Joe (10) to participate in our first ever family mission trip together. Even though our time was cut short because of a stomach virus (Mary), we had enough time to see the positive impact that the experience had on our family and on the people we served.

My biggest highlight as a parent was watching my children interact with the other kids and adults in our group. Whether it was playing soccer, eating a meal, working together in a garden, or talking about their serving experiences, I was struck by how easy it was for our kids to step into those kinds of situations and feel comfortable. I especially loved working with the kids at our work site. This was a refreshing change of pace for me. Typically I spend most of my time with adults, but I had a blast getting to know these kids better during our time together. I learned more about their lives, I enjoyed hearing their perspectives on what we were doing in Madison, and we had some good conversations about our families and our church.

As lead pastor of our church, it was also great to spend some concentrated time with other parents. Living, working, eating and cleaning together gave us time to find out more about each other beyond the 2-minute conversations we have on Sundays before or after worship.

The YouthWorks staff did an amazing job preparing us for each day and helping us process what we experienced during the day. They led us with a mix of fun, humor and creativity, all centered on the life of Jesus and the scriptures. The Bible passages we discussed in the morning gave us a solid foundation for loving and serving others directly from the life of Jesus.

We also engaged with our kids in a different way than we have before. The time we spent as a family in devotions was a wonderful reminder that our kids, given the opportunity, are able to teach us a lot about how to love the way Jesus loved.

I’ve experienced many service-learning trips throughout my life, but engaging in this trip as a family was special. Loving and serving other people with the family God has blessed me with a memorable experience. My hope is that family mission trips help us to see what living on mission with Jesus can look like – and help us discover how to live differently in our everyday lives as individuals and as a family. I highly encourage families to go on a mission trip together. It can be a life-giving – and a life-changing – experience.

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Joe is the lead paster at Upper Room in Minneapolis, MN. Joe grew up in Philadelphia but considers Minneapolis and Upper Room to be his home. Joe’s favorite part of his job these days is hearing people’s stories and pointing out where he sees God working in their lives. He likes going to movies, reading, Friday “date days” with his wife Patty, Starbucks, time with his couples group, trying new restaurants and San Diego.