10 {Practical} Ways to Prepare for a Mission Trip

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So, you are going to the mission field!!

Perhaps you are going on a short-term trip, maybe going long term.  Or, maybe you are planning to go for the rest of your life.

I'll bet you have millions of questions.

What should I pack? How do I prepare? Should I start learning the language now?

Questions, questions, questions.

I asked all of these and more as I prepared for my journey to Croatia many moons ago. And now that I am nearly a decade down the road, I'd like to take a moment (or a month) and answer some of these questions.


10 {Practical} Ways to Prepare for a Mission Trip
1. Pack Wisely 
This is particularly true for those planning to become long-term or lifetime missionaries. After parting with so many things that carry so much meaning, you begin to latch on to odd things. For me it was a gargantuan binder of sheet music and my pair of smart heels.  I had to have them. I was convinced that if I left them behind I would regret it for decades to come. The truth was that I carted around that stupid binder of sheet music for 8 years before I was finally able to admit to myself that I either no longer remembered or didn't like 80% of the songs in it. And the heels? Well, let's just say heels and cobbled stone streets are not a comfortable combination.  I did a lot of walking my first 5 years in Croatia.  So, the heels were cute, but impractical. And by the time I had opportunity to wear them, they were out of fashion.

On the flip side, I arrived in late summer - which meant fall and winter were just around the corner.  I did not pack a winter coat or winter boots.  Somehow these two very necessary items managed to escape my attention and I was forced to shell out a lot of money to purchase items that could have been purchased far cheaper in the States.

Before you begin parting with precious belongings (that is to say, before you reach the "attachment" stage of sorting your belongings), do some research on the country you plan to serve in. Write out a list of items you will need within the next 6 months to a year. As days and weeks go by, you will add to and subtract from that list.

One month before your departure, sit down with your list and begin weeding it out until you have a sensible list of packable items to take with you.

One week before you depart, practice packing and weighing your bags.  As you do, you may find that you need to do a little more weeding.

If you have to leave some things behind that hold extra special meaning for you, consider mailing them to yourself or leaving them with a friend or relative.  You may find that over time your attachment to these items dwindles. 

2. Pack a Memory
In your quest for sensible packing, do not forget to pack a memory.  Do you have a nick-knack that holds a special memory or perhaps a small wall-hanging or a tea cup? Pack it!   Even if it shouts "I'm a foreigner" in neon lights.

Take a few small items that hold special significance to you and your family and give them a place of honor in your new home.

3. Learn Common Phrases
Arm yourself with a few phrases that may help you in the airport, at the coffee shop, in locating a restroom, and so on. There are programs you can purchase for a reasonable price, and there are a lot of sites online that aid in learning common phrases.  However, I would caution you against trying to learn the language on your own.

In preparing for my mission trip to Croatia, I purchased some language books and began tackling the language. Not only was this overly ambitious, I managed to learn a lot of words, phrases and accents erroneously.  It was much harder to un-learn what I'd already learned. Just stick with the basics, and begin tackling the rest with a professional tutor or language school.

4. Arrange for a Translator
Upon arrival, you will have a certain number of hours to register your residence at the local police station.  While the immigration department should have English speaking personnel on hand to communicate with foreigners, my experience is that this is not always the case.

You will save yourself a lot of money in Advil by contacting someone ahead of time to arrange for a translator to go with you in arranging all of your official matters.

5. Research Necessary Documents 
Depending on the country you visit, you may not need to arrange a visa ahead of time.  Some countries allow for a tourist visa that allows you a 3-month stay upon entry to the country; after which you either receive residency if you have submitted proper paperwork, or you must leave the country for a certain length of time.

Do not just rely on a website to tell you what documents you will need for temporary or permanent residency. Before you leave the country, call a local embassy or have a person in the country you are traveling to find out from the local police station about the necessary documents you will need in order to obtain residency. It is far easier to obtain the necessary documents while you are on the home-front rather than doing extra leg work, and incurring extra costs, to have them sent to you after you have already left the country.

6. Bring Holiday Cheer
There is nothing like your own national holidays to make you feel sentimental and a little sad. Pack a few Christmas ornaments, your special Thanksgiving salt and pepper shakers, a national flag - whatever will help to make those holidays a little extra special during your first few years on the field. 

Do not be afraid to celebrate them - even if they aren't celebrated in the country you are serving in.  Invite a few local friends to celebrate with you and give them a taste of your culture.  They will enjoy getting to know a little more about you and the country you come from!

This is especially true if you have children.  They need to know that there are some things that always remain the same no matter where you are!

7. Try New Things
After a month or so on the field, the honeymoon period wears off and a level of intimidation starts to creep in. You may be tempted to cling to anything and everything familiar.  While this is not bad (this is a normal response to culture shock), do not embrace this feeling too much. Resist the temptation to avoid learning something new - and possibly failing in the process.  Fight to remain open-minded and remember that integrating into a new culture always comes with challenges, failures, and faux pas. But it will also reap abundant rewards down the road!

8. Prepare Emotionally
Now, this one is slightly tricky because while you need to be realistic and realize that the journey you are embarking on, exciting as it may seem, brings with it a level of shock you may never have ever experienced before; nothing - and I do mean nothing - can adequately prepare you for that.

Later on this month we will examine some of the emotions you will face during your first term on the field.

I would like to recommend a book that I have read multiple times.  I read this book through twice before I left and have read it countless times since moving here. It has helped me to realize that the extreme emotional struggles I have faced while living in and adjusting to a new culture are normal and to be expected. The book is called Culture Shock by Myron Loss. In my opinion, no one planning to embark on a mission should be without this book. Read it before hand, to prepare yourself and then pull it out each month during your first year on the field to remind yourself that you are normal!

9. Cultivate Friendships
I can hear the collective "duh!" right now.

I mention this because of a big mistake I made after coming here. I will delve into this more later this month, but I would like to simply point out that there is, for some, a tendency to one extreme or the other.  The one extreme is to find comfort and familiarity in other missionaries while neglecting to build quality relationships with the people you are called to serve. The other extreme is to fear the first extreme, thereby failing to cultivate friendships with your colleagues.  Neither extreme is helpful or healthy.

Remind yourself to find a balance.  You must cultivate friendships with the local people. You are called to serve them and you cannot serve them adequately if you do not really know and understand them. However, you need to fellowship with "home folk". You simply cannot give incessantly.  Building friendships with your colleagues will help to keep you growing and maturing in your relationship with the Lord and your ministry.  

10. Learn to Laugh at Yourself 
I cannot emphasize this enough.  You must not ever take yourself too seriously.

Moving to a new country and culture is nearly like being born again in a physical and emotional sense, not a spiritual sense. You will say dumb things, do dumb things.  You will pay waaaaaaay too much for something and leave a clerk snickering behind your back.  You will find everything frustrating and complicated and lose your cool.

There will come a time when you will look at yourself and wonder "Am I even really saved???"  Because the pressure of a foreign....well.... everything will grow to be too much and you will see stuff come out of your heart and hear stuff come out of your mouth that you never dreamed were even there!

I know, you're saying, "Ha! Not me, Roz.  I'm sanctified and holy. Only good stuff goes in so only good stuff will come out." Yeah, I thought that too.  But later on this month you will learn what I really looked like that first year on the field.

But the good news is, it's normal! And if you learn not to take yourself - and others also, by the way - too seriously, you will survive with only minor scars.  And a much smaller bill from your favorite shrink.

I'm just kidding about the shrink!

In the weeks to come, we will examine many of these elements more closely.  My hope is to help prepare you, as much as possible, for your mission.
On Friday - you will find this list as a free printable!!  Be sure to pass the word on to your friends or family members who are planning a mission trip!


  Do you have a question related to missions?  Feel free to contact me via email, comment below or visit my Facebook page to ask your question.  It will be featured here during our fall Answer the Call series!



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