As the About section states, I’m just an 18 year old who is still trying to understand numerous things in the world around me. I realize that this blog may be helpful in bringing light to some of these things that I don’t think I’m understanding very well. Even if no one reads this, I think it still serves a useful purpose in allowing me to gather my thoughts on a subject and perhaps discover something new about it that I didn’t know initially. Anyways, I digress…
Recently on Facebook, I noticed multiple friends of mine were posting pictures of a mission trip that they had gone on. From what I can tell, they went to a impoverished area and built a house (or multiple houses, I couldn’t tell) for the local people while spreading the word of God (hence mission trip). This got me thinking, what exactly is the purpose of a mission trip? As the name implies, mission trips are a way for missionaries to spread the word of God. From what I can tell, this is done though showing people God’s love by helping people who otherwise can’t help themselves.
There seem to be two objectives at work: Spread the word of God and help out people in need. The utilitarian in me has issues with how mission trips accomplish this. Mission trips are costly and they affect a small number of people. Depending on where the trip is and how many people are going, trips can be very expensive to sponsor (we’re talking about thousands of dollars). Is all that money worth spending to build a house for a community of people when the same amount of money can be donated to organization that will build multiple houses and help out in more ways than a group of wealthy suburban teenagers can? Can spreading the word of god be done through other, less costly means?
I feel like my utilitarian views don’t take into account the intangibles such as the rewarding feeling of handing the keys for a house to a family who have never experienced anything beyond their cardboard shack or the comfort in knowing that a community of people have been exposed to the word of God and His love. For the people that go on these mission trips, they get exposed to things that they would normally never see in their otherwise sheltered lives.
It seems as if there are two things one has to consider when deciding if mission trips are worth it. Number one being that it is more beneficial for everyone involved if a group of people help out on a smaller scale but in a much more personalized way that establishes meaningful connections both with the missionaries and people they’re interacting with and with God. The other one is that by not spending large amounts of money on a trip to help a few people, the money is better served going to international organizations that are in better position to help out more people with the money, basically stretching the power of the money to change. The weight one places on either of these ideas seems to be the determining factor for many people. When deciding for myself if mission trips are truly worth going on, I felt as if faith was a deciding factor for me and that is something I’m currently on the fence about (more on that in a future post) so I haven’t really made a decision on where I stand yet.
Another thing that I’ve been trying to figure out is when looking at mission trips from the perspective of those being helped, isn’t it a little awkward knowing that though these people just built a house for you, at the end of the day when all is said and done, they’re going to be the ones returning to a life of comfort while you’ll be in marginally better living conditions than before? Sure, it’s better than receiving no help at all, but if they were truly committed to establishing an equality of living conditions, is there nothing more they could do? It just seems a little unfair…
As you can see, I’m still trying to decide where I stand on this. If you have any input that would bring my attention to something I may have not considered (and I most likely am not considering something) that would be greatly appreciated.
Poon.
The Daily Poon 
I can be offensive and say that it makes people feel good about themselves, prove that they are “benevolent” to the community and thus improve their standing and reputation in said community, and justify periodic sinning so that they can appease themselves that their chosen deity will not smite them at the end of their life…
Or I can say that people simply enjoy going on a trip and genuinely like helping underprivileged people. It’s kind of like hitting two birds with one stone: They satisfy their cravings for traveling and humanitarianism.
Yeah I would say that it is really easy to accuse people who are going on mission trips of only doing them out of fear of their respective deity and to justisfy whatever sins they have made in the past or the future, but what I find from talking to these people is that this is not the case. The aformentioned reasons are very superficial and while it may apply to some, it doesn’t take into account the fact that most people’s faith is deeper and thus don’t justify mission trips with such selfish causes. Also, in all likelihood, everyone that goes on a mission trip genuinely likes to help people, the question here is if there attempt to help is misguided by mission trips.
I will think on this and return when I develop the most responsible response to your respectable question. Until then…
benknotts.wordpress.com
I look forward to your reply!
I think it’s very brave of you to write about this topic, and I’m happy that you’re evaluating it with neutrality. It’s refreshing to see someone analyze different perspectives of a complicated subject without seeing it in just black and white.
I wish I could help you evaluate this subject more, but I myself am “on the fence” about it as well and don’t feel as if I could write with a strong opinion. I think it would be interesting to hear responses from people that have gone on mission trips themselves to hear what they have to say.
Thanks! I’m not really trying to state my opinion one way or the other, this post is meant to be an exploration of varying viewpoints on a very interesting question that ultimately isn’t black and white at all.
Having been on several mission trips, I would say that in several ways they are flawed. Generally the trip is very expensive because it has a lot of travel fees (food, shelter, airfare etc.). The smartest way to volunteer would be to find a cause closer to home to donate your time to as opposed to paying all that money to volunteer for a short period of time. However, sometimes the causes that require attention are far away and they rely on volunteers from around the world in order to make a significant impact, so although you may not make that much of an impact yourself, you are contributing to something that needs volunteers to be operable (as long as volunteers like you keep coming an impact will be made over time). I think that you have to realize that its difficult to make that much of a difference in a short period of time, the best thing to do would be to volunteer somewhere longterm (anywhere over a month). The most significant flaw in my opinion is the religious aspect. I am not religious, and mission trips are awkward because the group you go with may have a lot of church services etc. which might make you feel weird. However, in my experience you never really go around and preach the word of god, service trips are generally focused on volunteering, not preaching. If you are uncomfortable with the religious aspect their are plenty of service trips that are not religious at all, you definitely don’t need to be religious to help those in need. The only other aspect that bothers me are the people who go on mission trips to make themselves feel good, and then go back to their comfortable lives. However I choose to ignore them because for every person like that there are probably two people who are genuinely passionate about changing ongoing inequality and helping those in need. I think that mission trips are expensive, but I think that in my experience I’ve noticed that volunteers from around the world are what keep a lot of charitable organizations on their feet, and doing good work. So although it might cost a lot (it’s much easier to donate money) what these organizations need are people to volunteer, not just pitch in money because money can’t build a house, or work with children, or teach in impoverished schools, it can only buy things, the truth is people need to volunteer to get these things done.