Service-focused travel during short-term missions trips can have the potential for great harm if not wisely led or prepared. These risks can be especially high when visitors seek to serve children, particularly those lacking the protection and connectedness of family.
The potential for good that short-term trips have calls for continued refining, correction, and improvement. To do this well, trip organizers and participants must have a clear sense of how to plan, prepare for, and carry out their service in ways that ensure safety and lasting wellbeing of children, families, and their communities.
In this guide are 8 principles of better practice that provide a framework for preparing, leading, and planning a short-term missions trip. Along with these 8 principles, we point to a more in-depth document providing 10 alternative models and 6 case studies for wiser, more fruitful short-term mission trips.
