Zambia Hunt

Around 2008 I began following the writing of a blogging brother-missionary, and nearly every post I found instructive, or myself in agreement with. He has since scrubbed his blog, so I will respect his anonymity. Here is my slightly edited version of a helpful blog he posted July 29, 2008 on Hosting Missions Teams.

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I’m not going to beat around the bush. I shouldn’t say what I’m going to say. If you have ever visited me on the field, or if you are thinking about visiting me, please stop reading. No missionary would ever want his guests to hear what I’m going to say now from his own lips (but he might want them to read it in some other missionary’s blog).

So here goes: Hosting mission teams is a pain. Foreign guests require a lot of time, work, stress, and, often, significant trouble-shooting and “cleanup” in the team’s aftermath. It doesn’t matter how wonderful a team you send, the above statement is true. That doesn’t mean we don’t want teams or have bad attitudes about them. In fact, if the team is indeed wonderful–submissive and effective–then it is well-worth our time, work, and stress. I am not trying to air a grievance here; I’m trying to educate. Many things we want and need are accompanied by pain and trouble, like children, automobiles, love … they are all wonderful, but come with a cost.

So when you are enquiring about your summer plans, do not tell a host missionary, “We don’t want to be an inconvenience to you.” Sorry (and my missionary readers are reading my mind now, and chuckling), but you simply will be–please don’t take it personally! A better thing to say is something like, “We understand and respect the effort required to host a team and, if you receive us, it is our goal to serve and work and submit in such a way that it will be worth the inevitable inconvenience.”

We’ve have had some awful teams, teams which made us say, “We will never agree to this again!”. And then we’ve hosted some phenomenal teams: teams which actually sought and obeyed our counsel, didn’t offend, decided that they could indeed refrain from being boisterous, and stayed on task. American travelers, even Christian ones, have a knack for being loud, critical, annoying, whiny, and demanding, especially when they come in hordes.

Some missionaries have personalities and ministries which thrive on teams and have the infrastructure to support them: camp ministries, children’s ministries, English-speaking populations, etc. But many others, like us, as a rule, say no to those who ask to visit. And we hate that, because we sincerely appreciate their interest. But everyone knows the enemy of the best is the good, and sometimes missionaries must say no to guard their time and ministries. We usually say YES to smaller teams, to people we know and trust, to people who have expertise we need, and to people who are committed to any kind of selfess service. I think someone may have written a book on this, but here are a few quick suggestions off the top of my head for those being hosted by a missionary over the short-term: 

1. Ask for the counsel of the missionaries: what are the dos and don’ts?
2. Obey the counsel of the missionaries.
3. Don’t flirt with the locals (not even when they’re irresistably cute, not even when they started it).
4. Don’t say, “In America, we do this or that” (unless you have been invited to come teach a class on American culture).
5. Never criticize.
6. Pay your bills. Pay generously more than you calculate to be “your bills.” The missionary, to arrange your visit, has probably incurred and will incur many expenses you’ve never thought about, long before you came and long after you go: multiple cell phone calls (he probably doesn’t have flat-rate, unlimited service), road trips here and there, incidentals unending, not to mention so much stress and time away from his (ab)normal family life that he will probably need a short vacation (that he can’t afford).
7. When the missionary insists emphatically that you don’t pay, because your church supports him so generously already, or because your team was such an incredible blessing to him, believe his sincerity–he is not grandstanding; he seriously feels that your very presence has blessed him. Pay him anyway.
8. Serve.
9. Serve.
10. Serve.

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Vision Trip or Mission Trip?

I am grateful for the transparency of my missionary brother in putting these thoughts in writing. One thing I have emphasized to those who come is the importance of visiting teams being prepared to view their visit as a “Vision Trip” rather than a “mission trip.” The difference is more than just semantics!

Often, our friends in the West view a “mission trip” as going in order to do something. Their primary concern is what they will accomplish on the trip to contribute to the work. While it is without question that you will “do” and God will likely allow you to “contribute,” your primary goal should be to catch a vision for missions in general, and for that particular field specifically. Spend time thoughtfully observing and asking questions about the country and culture, but also about the challenges to the advancement of the gospel. Long after the effects of what you do have been forgotten, what you learn and how you are shaped by your visit can have eternal results.