has anyone heard of this--funding raising for a trip (through a church)

[wilkeliza]

Those times you led a day camp for kids--were those not Backyard Bible studies? And the gardens you planted or things you painted, were they not a need? That is a form of missions.

Don't know what trips hand out pamphlets and leave so can't speak on those but anytime you are meeting a need in a communtiy and either you or chrurch leaders are giving a message that is a mission trip. Helping and meeting a need is what it is about.

Usually the fun is the reward or the inticement to get the youth to go.

I really am not sure how you are able to speak on the majority of mission trips. Especially when it's not that way at all.

Maybe it isn't that way every where but I have seen it turn into the toursim over actual missions in the churchs around my old neighborhood. Of course I don't do any of it any more so what do I know.

Yes those things are needs but when you are leading backyard bible studies for kids who are being beat at home, starving, and getting let behind with no love getting to leave at the end of the week doesn't actually help those kids. I had a big wake up call my freshman year of college when I got to go as an adult instead of a youth. It was my last mission trip ever. A kid I knew from the 3 summers I went wasn't his normal perky self. I asked what was up. His exact words were don't act like you guys care about us. You'll go home with stories to tell your church and feeling good in your heart but I'll be here still hustling for food and raising my baby sister and you'll forget about me. Made me wake up and realize maybe there should be a local group that served these kids and also oddly enough maybe it was better it wasn't faith based. Mind you this location got its food from a government funded program and all the kids were free/reduced lunch kids. I feel like they could have been better served by having someone close who they could go to, someone there to help them with homework, teach them a career, show them their own worth, and give them a constant face. A new youth group every week talking to them about Jesus didn't do that.

 

[DisneylandDarling]

Yep! A couple of friends have been fundraising for their family mission trip (one has a few kids, one who's 5 months old). I guess they visit some random place in America... let's say Saint Paul. They go there and work in the food banks and homeless shelters. It kinda frustrates me that they do this, because A.) the shelters and food banks in our area and surrounding are always desperate for volunteers and B.) that fundraising money that is being used to get them there could have just been donated to the organizations instead.


I don't know, maybe I'm just too far out of the loop now, but it seems...odd.

 

[Gumbo4x4]

Maybe it isn't that way every where but I have seen it turn into the toursim over actual missions in the churchs around my old neighborhood. Of course I don't do any of it any more so what do I know.

Yes those things are needs but when you are leading backyard bible studies for kids who are being beat at home, starving, and getting let behind with no love getting to leave at the end of the week doesn't actually help those kids. I had a big wake up call my freshman year of college when I got to go as an adult instead of a youth. It was my last mission trip ever. A kid I knew from the 3 summers I went wasn't his normal perky self. I asked what was up. His exact words were don't act like you guys care about us. You'll go home with stories to tell your church and feeling good in your heart but I'll be here still hustling for food and raising my baby sister and you'll forget about me. Made me wake up and realize maybe there should be a local group that served these kids and also oddly enough maybe it was better it wasn't faith based. Mind you this location got its food from a government funded program and all the kids were free/reduced lunch kids. I feel like they could have been better served by having someone close who they could go to, someone there to help them with homework, teach them a career, show them their own worth, and give them a constant face. A new youth group every week talking to them about Jesus didn't do that.

I get what you're saying about them having full time local help, but is that even an option? Maybe that one week of attention a year is all they're gonna get. Ever.

 

[wilkeliza]

I get what you're saying about them having full time local help, but is that even an option? Maybe that one week of attention a year is all they're gonna get. Ever.

I mean we went to a place in Dallas. I have to imagine if our church in a small town north of Houston was sending kids to Dallas that the Dallas churches were sending their kids somewhere. I of course don't know the inner workings but seems like if your in a state where there is a church on every corner then each community should be able to meet the needs of its own. I hope that makes sense.

It is kind of like when I saw the missionary group at Disney world. I was confused and looked up the group later. They legit go to Disney in matching shirts and hand out water and pamplets to other park goers. I was just taken aback that they weren't even helping the Orlando needy just other people at Disney!

I know not all groups are like this and a lot of well run churches and parishes do continue to support the communities they minister to but I guess I've been burned a few too many times by the not great type.

 

[Westcoastwild]

Yep! A couple of friends have been fundraising for their family mission trip (one has a few kids, one who's 5 months old). I guess they visit some random place in America... let's say Saint Paul. They go there and work in the food banks and homeless shelters. It kinda frustrates me that they do this, because A.) the shelters and food banks in our area and surrounding are always desperate for volunteers and B.) that fundraising money that is being used to get them there could have just been donated to the organizations instead.


I don't know, maybe I'm just too far out of the loop now, but it seems...odd.

Well. For one thing, it's about expanding their kids' horizons about the meaning of poverty and interacting with people of other cultures. The "needy" in, say, Chicago have access to clean water and electricity and four walls. They may not want to go to a shelter or they may be on a really long list waiting for housing, but it's there.

In South America (where a lot of my childhood church's groups go) there's a real need for back breaking work, like filtering water, digging foundations, helping them plant gardens. The group might hit the beach once in 2 weeks but the other 13 days they're essentially unpaid manual labor in less than ideal conditions. And there's a cultural exchange going on- language, food, spiritual.

I haven't done any mission trips. It isn't my thing. But from what I understand the fundraising doesn't make it a free vacation- say the original cost is 2000 and the bake sales or whatever knock off 400 per person. That means those folks are still paying 1600 to basically be manual laborers. What it essentially does is make it possible for the less well off members of the congregation to go. And many of them want to contribute in that way. I respect that. I don't get it, but I respect the families who choose to use their precious vacation time for trips like that. Me, I'd rather spend that 1600 on a trip to Mexico to drink maitais on the beach.

 

[luvsJack]

The group dd went with to Arlington did help meet other needs for families. They took food to homes, they gathered furniture for one family, gathered clothes for those who needed it. The kids couldn't do anything for kids who were abused or who had parents on drugs but the the adults did what they could. But a church group can only do so much. Not sure what you expected. They report abuse but if they interfere too much the parents won't let the kids spend even the week with them.

One church can't make another do something so even if one church sees a need in another's community if the church from that area doesn't take action not much they can do.

I find it sad that a few groups have gone to Disney or taking things to more of a tourism aspect but that isn't the case of any of the churches around here. Most seem to truly trying to meet a need.

 

[Gumbo4x4]

I mean we went to a place in Dallas. I have to imagine if our church in a small town north of Houston was sending kids to Dallas thay the Dallas churches were sending their kids somewhere. I of course don't know the inner workings but seems like if your in a state where there is a church on every corner then each community should be able to meet the needs of its own. I hope that makes sense.

It is kind of like when I saw the missionary group at Disney world. I was confused and looked up the group later. They legit go to Disney in mathif shirts and hand out water and pamplets to other park goers. I was just taken aback that they weren't even helping to Orlando needy just other people at Disney!

I know not all groups are like this and a lot of well run churches and parishes do continue to support the communities they minister to but I guess I've been burned a few too many times by the not great type.

It does make sense. It's probably not my place to comment since I don't even go to church. I do think most of these trips start with the best of intentions. It seems the idea means or meant something to you. Maybe it could have been an opportunity to change the program in a meaningful way.

 

[wilkeliza]

It does make sense. It's probably not my place to comment since I don't even go to church. I do think most of these trips start with the best of intentions. It seems the idea means or meant something to you. Maybe it could have been an opportunity to change the program in a meaningful way.

I did make something of it just not in those programs. Sadly you question too much and you get blacklisted. Since then I've also converted so it is a little different. I do what I can where I live now some years it is less then others but I'd do feel a little better about fostering a community.

 

[Turn the Page]

Yep! A couple of friends have been fundraising for their family mission trip (one has a few kids, one who's 5 months old). I guess they visit some random place in America... let's say Saint Paul. They go there and work in the food banks and homeless shelters. It kinda frustrates me that they do this, because A.) the shelters and food banks in our area and surrounding are always desperate for volunteers and B.) that fundraising money that is being used to get them there could have just been donated to the organizations instead.


I don't know, maybe I'm just too far out of the loop now, but it seems...odd.

I just got a pm on facebook from a girl I went to high school with asking for donations for a mission trip. Now, she is not religious that I know of and let's just say she does NOT strike me as the type to go on a mission trip. But she is planning what she calls a mission trip to an orphanage in Ghana on her own. Meaning, she is not going with a church or other organization which also strikes me as odd. And she claims to have paid for her travel expenses herself (she is always posting about how broke she is so how she could afford to take 4 weeks off work and buy airfare to Africa I have no idea) and that tapped her out so she is asking for people to donate money for her to buy supplies to donate to the orphanage.

I had the same thought as you. Why not just donate the money to the orphanage or buy supplies and donate those rather than going all the way over there. I asked a mutual friend if it was legit and apparently she met a guy online who lives there and she is going to see him and is apparently using the solo mission trip as a cover to get people to pay her way over there. Klassy.

 

[DisneylandDarling]

I just got a pm on facebook from a girl I went to high school with asking for donations for a mission trip. Now, she is not religious that I know of and let's just say she does NOT strike me as the type to go on a mission trip. But she is planning what she calls a mission trip to an orphanage in Ghana on her own. Meaning, she is not going with a church or other organization which also strikes me as odd. And she claims to have paid for her travel expenses herself (she is always posting about how broke she is so how she could afford to take 4 weeks off work and buy airfare to Africa I have no idea) and that tapped her out so she is asking for people to donate money for her to buy supplies to donate to the orphanage.

I had the same thought as you. Why not just donate the money to the orphanage or buy supplies and donate those rather than going all the way over there. I asked a mutual friend if it was legit and apparently she met a guy online who lives there and she is going to see him and is apparently using the solo mission trip as a cover to get people to pay her way over there. Klassy.

When I was reading, I instantly thought of a girl from my high school who would do a stunt like that. There's one in every graduating class... lol

 

[DisneylandDarling]

Well. For one thing, it's about expanding their kids' horizons about the meaning of poverty and interacting with people of other cultures. The "needy" in, say, Chicago have access to clean water and electricity and four walls. They may not want to go to a shelter or they may be on a really long list waiting for housing, but it's there.

In South America (where a lot of my childhood church's groups go) there's a real need for back breaking work, like filtering water, digging foundations, helping them plant gardens. The group might hit the beach once in 2 weeks but the other 13 days they're essentially unpaid manual labor in less than ideal conditions. And there's a cultural exchange going on- language, food, spiritual.

I haven't done any mission trips. It isn't my thing. But from what I understand the fundraising doesn't make it a free vacation- say the original cost is 2000 and the bake sales or whatever knock off 400 per person. That means those folks are still paying 1600 to basically be manual laborers. What it essentially does is make it possible for the less well off members of the congregation to go. And many of them want to contribute in that way. I respect that. I don't get it, but I respect the families who choose to use their precious vacation time for trips like that. Me, I'd rather spend that 1600 on a trip to Mexico to drink maitais on the beach.

I'm not so much talking about taking missions to places that are in dire need of assistance, but more of cities in the U.S. where the needs are very similar to their own community. Going from Seattle to St Paul isn't really going to broaden the kids' horizons. The poverty level and culture is more likely than not exactly the same as their own. My thoughts are, why waste the travel expenses when your own community is in need of the same assistance - know what I mean? If they are set on helping the St. Paul food bank, why not fundraise and donate the funds directly than "waste" it paying for airfare/hotel/food/ground transportation?

Going to places that are in dire need is something else entirely, though and I would agree. Going down to places destroyed by tornadoes or hurricanes (or even around the world) is where labor/help is absolutely needed. Hopefully I'm explaining this okay! I think you and I would be in agreement, not sure I explained my original post clearly.

 

[Westcoastwild]

I'm not so much talking about taking missions to places that are in dire need of assistance, but more of cities in the U.S. where the needs are very similar to their own community. Going from Seattle to St Paul isn't really going to broaden the kids' horizons. The poverty level and culture is more likely than not exactly the same as their own. My thoughts are, why waste the travel expenses when your own community is in need of the same assistance - know what I mean? If they are set on helping the St. Paul food bank, why not fundraise and donate the funds directly than "waste" it paying for airfare/hotel/food/ground transportation?

Going to places that are in dire need is something else entirely, though and I would agree. Going down to places destroyed by tornadoes or hurricanes (or even around the world) is where labor/help is absolutely needed. Hopefully I'm explaining this okay! I think you and I would be in agreement, not sure I explained my original post clearly.

Oh lol. We're totally in agreement. I didn't realize you meant St. Paul, Minnesota? Totally misread it. No, I don't understand mission trips like that one either. I would have definitely asked that family a lot of probing questions about their "mission trip".

 

[Westcoastwild]

I just got a pm on facebook from a girl I went to high school with asking for donations for a mission trip. Now, she is not religious that I know of and let's just say she does NOT strike me as the type to go on a mission trip. But she is planning what she calls a mission trip to an orphanage in Ghana on her own. Meaning, she is not going with a church or other organization which also strikes me as odd. And she claims to have paid for her travel expenses herself (she is always posting about how broke she is so how she could afford to take 4 weeks off work and buy airfare to Africa I have no idea) and that tapped her out so she is asking for people to donate money for her to buy supplies to donate to the orphanage.

I had the same thought as you. Why not just donate the money to the orphanage or buy supplies and donate those rather than going all the way over there. I asked a mutual friend if it was legit and apparently she met a guy online who lives there and she is going to see him and is apparently using the solo mission trip as a cover to get people to pay her way over there. Klassy.

Wow. Haven't met that particular kind of moocher before.

But that's pretty easy to check and not what the OP is really talking about, I think. I wouldnt give any money to an indivividual that is not affiliated with a legit group mission trip.

 

[amberpi]

I figure this was like the Crusades, ask for money and you might get it...I don't get this anymore now (being asked) that I'm not in suburbs, but it sure happened a lot when my formerly hedonist self lived there.

 

[mi*vida*loca]

I always thought mission trips were to also "spread the word." Convert people to whatever religion you are. I know when my grandmother goes they do preaching and praying and spreading the word. It's not just about helping the people.

 

[eeyoreandtink]

I always thought mission trips were to also "spread the word." Convert people to whatever religion you are. I know when my grandmother goes they do preaching and praying and spreading the word. It's not just about helping the people.

In my experience, mission trips are about helping people, period. The idea is that showing God's love by helping those in need spreads that love as a natural consequence. If people choose to find out more about that it's offered, but it isn't a requirement for receiving help.

 

[NHdisneylover]

Yes---I have been sent gofundme links for several people in the last couple of years. Most are going on "mission" trips which involve very little volunteer work of any sort and a lot of travel/fun. I have looked up the companies several times (one apparently had a history of providing "work" for the mission goers--so at least those kids felt they were contributing to society and were working, but apparently they poorly skilled Americans were sent to build walls, which were later taken down by locals to be built again by the next set of missionaries--oye vey!).


My niece is going on such a trip next month. I didn't know it was a mission trip until the GoFunMe link went up on facebook. I talked to her about it a lot on our last visit--heard all about the hiking planned, the tourist attractions, etc, not a word about mission work. So I asked---the youth group is running to prayer type services in local youth centers over the 2 weeks of the trip. That's what makes this $5000 plus trip a "mission" Yeah, I gave her spending money for hte trip for her birthday but will not donate to the so called mission (though, I tend to feel most of the time the people of a region are better served if money is donated to help them help themselves, spend that money hiring locals who have at least as much skill as some random US college students, or else to send highly skilled poeple to the region who really might be able to offer something that is not available otherwise, like doctors without borders, etc---so, yeah, not my chosen way to assist even if the travellers will be working in some capacity)

 

[NHdisneylover]

I get what you're saying about them having full time local help, but is that even an option? Maybe that one week of attention a year is all they're gonna get. Ever.

In high poverty areas, you don'T think for the funds it take to have people travel there and help for a week, that someone could be hired, helping that person as well, to do the same, if not more? Espeically when you start looking at the trips that cost thousands of dollars and go to impoverished nations where a few dollars a day is a decent wage?
Often you could either: bring in 20 low skill mission people for two weeks OR hire 20 likely better skilled (or at least will learn the trade and improve with continued time) locals for a year for the same money. Meanwhile, not continuing the "white saviour" narrative and helping the local economy by keeping 20 people employed, and yet people like to feel good about being a tourist (and maybe have an excuse to ask for funds from others) so the volunteer-tourism industry thrives (both religious based mission trips and otherwise)

 

[NHdisneylover]

Well. For one thing, it's about expanding their kids' horizons about the meaning of poverty and interacting with people of other cultures. The "needy" in, say, Chicago have access to clean water and electricity and four walls. They may not want to go to a shelter or they may be on a really long list waiting for housing, but it's there.

In South America (where a lot of my childhood church's groups go) there's a real need for back breaking work, like filtering water, digging foundations, helping them plant gardens. The group might hit the beach once in 2 weeks but the other 13 days they're essentially unpaid manual labor in less than ideal conditions. And there's a cultural exchange going on- language, food, spiritual.

I haven't done any mission trips. It isn't my thing. But from what I understand the fundraising doesn't make it a free vacation- say the original cost is 2000 and the bake sales or whatever knock off 400 per person. That means those folks are still paying 1600 to basically be manual laborers. What it essentially does is make it possible for the less well off members of the congregation to go. And many of them want to contribute in that way. I respect that. I don't get it, but I respect the families who choose to use their precious vacation time for trips like that. Me, I'd rather spend that 1600 on a trip to Mexico to drink maitais on the beach.

I am all for travel and expanding horizons and even travelling together with your youth group or school group, etc to do so. I just don't like seeing it sold as something it isn't.

 

[Gumbo4x4]

In high poverty areas, you don'T think for the funds it take to have people travel there and help for a week, that someone could be hired, helping that person as well, to do the same, if not more? Espeically when you start looking at the trips that cost thousands of dollars and go to impoverished nations where a few dollars a day is a decent wage?
Often you could either: bring in 20 low skill mission people for two weeks OR hire 20 likely better skilled (or at least will learn the trade and improve with continued time) locals for a year for the same money. Meanwhile, not continuing the "white saviour" narrative and helping the local economy by keeping 20 people employed, and yet people like to feel good about being a tourist (and maybe have an excuse to ask for funds from others) so the volunteer-tourism industry thrives (both religious based mission trips and otherwise)

Sure, you can always find a more efficient use of the funds, but the reality is those funds will probably never be raised without some sort of incentive.

I look at it like the situation a friend has at their Catholic Church. They fund raise for a TON of local projects & then have to fight with the STL Archdiocese because they want a cut of the fund raising. But, the thing is, the people aren't interested in raising money for the Archdiocese above & beyond the minimum required. They're only able to raise this money because it has a specific purpose that appeals to them.

Every year, when our local city does a fireworks show, some cranky old gal writes a letter to the editor stating that money used for the show would have been better used to help seniors on fixed incomes. Then the next week, someone from the fire department writes in to say the show was paid for with donations. Then the next week, crank writes back that even if it is donations, they could have used the $ to help Seniors on fixed incomes. But, the donations weren't random. They had a specific purpose. And if not for that purpose, there'd be no donations.

So, while I get where your criticism is aimed, we also have to accept the reality of the situation. Truly selfless donations are rare.