Why Send Your Teen on a Mission Trip?

My two teenage sons recently returned from a week in Nicaragua, where they and about 50 others from their youth group split up into small teams to engage in door-to-door evangelism. These teams of five each stayed in homes of local families belonging to the tiny churches that had invited the group to come. With temps in the high 90s, they spent their mornings and evenings walking the streets, sharing their testimonies, and explaining the gospel of Jesus to whomever would listen.

This trip cost over $1,000 for each teenager. They slept on cots, thin mattresses, or sometimes inch-thick foam pads. They ate the local foods, sweated through the high temperatures, endured the language barrier, and talked about Jesus a lot. They sang in groups in front of classrooms, performed skits, led worship, and preached the gospel. Each of these activities qualified as a challenge for someone. From a fear of flying to a fear of public speaking, from shyness with strangers to uncomfortable surroundings … each teenager, simply by participating, successfully faced down a fear or hardship they could have avoided by staying home.

So why go? Why ask friends and family for the money to support you? Why spend weeks of preparation (meetings, Bible studies, personal reflections, praying, writing your testimony, and such) and your one week of spring break on a mission trip?

I asked my boys what worth they saw in the experience: