The Most Important Thing On Your Mission Trip To-Do List

Recruit Adult Leaders – check!

Raise money – check!

Compile paperwork – check!

Buy road trip snacks – check!

 

You’ve got plenty of things to do to prepare for your mission trip – but have you made time for the most important thing? Have you spent time praying for your students?

 

It’s so easy to get consumed by logistics, distracted by details, and even caught up in the fun and challenge of building relationships with your students that you forget to slow down and bring them to God in prayer. But for all the work you’ll put into your mission trip, the time and care you’ll invest in the work of prayer will make the biggest difference for your students.

 

 

The apostle Paul made it a habit to pray for the people he led, served, and loved, and the words of prayer he recorded in his letters offer help and inspiration both in knowing how to pray and remembering why we pray:

 

Because a mission trip is about more than travel adventures or community service, and prayer helps us to keep students’ hearts, minds, and relationship with God in focus.

 

“…we have not stopped praying for [our students]. We continually ask God to fill [them] with the knowledge of his will through all the wisdom and understanding that the Spirit gives, so that [they] may live a life worthy of the Lord and please him in every way: bearing fruit in every good work, growing in the knowledge of God” (Colossians 1:9-10).

 

Because our dependence on God has a way of being exposed on a mission trip (for students and adult leaders alike), and prayer is the way we both ask for and receive his help.

 

“… [May we be] strengthened with all power according to his glorious might, so that you might have great endurance and patience with joy, giving thanks to the Father” (Colossians 1:11-12).

 

Because things will go wrong, conflicts and challenges will arise, your students will share problems you can’t solve and wounds you can’t heal, and prayer will be the best thing you can do for them and for yourself.

 

“… do not be anxious about anything, but in every situation, by prayer and petition, with thanksgiving, present your requests [and those of your students] to God. And the peace of God, which transcends all understanding, will guard [y’all’s] hearts and your minds in Christ Jesus” (Philippians 4:6-7).

 

Because prayer reminds us that God is up to something much bigger than us, much bigger than a week-long mission trip, much bigger than we could dream.

 

“Now to him who is able to do immeasurably more than all that we ask or imagine, according to his power that is at work within us, to him be glory in the church and in Christ Jesus throughout all generations, forever and ever” (Ephesians 3:20-21).

 

When you pray, you acknowledge that God is the true leader of this mission trip, and the one who is ultimately responsible for the care, well-being, and growth of your students. So bring your joys, bring your worries, bring your hopes, bring your needs, and “bow [your] knees before the Father… that out of his glorious riches he may strengthen [y’all] with power through his Spirit in your inner being, so that Christ may dwell in your hearts through faith” (Ephesians 3:14-17).

 

Amen!

 

Jenilyn Swett spent five years and a total of nine summers serving with YouthWorks in various capacities. God used YouthWorks to shape and influence her in countless ways — she credits her time on staff with introducing her to Chick-Fil-A, all things Southern, the beauty of places like New Orleans and Savannah, and many of her dearest friends. Beyond that, she developed a deep love for the Church. After graduating from seminary,she now serves as the Director of Women’s Ministry at a church in St. Louis, Missouri (where she spent her second YW summer in 2003) and follows #yw2014 incessantly!