The Dark Side of Christian Mission Trips

When Jonathan Hollingsworth was in college, he seized an opportunity to spend a year in Cameroon as part of a mission trip. But he realized quickly after arriving that his idealism didn’t match up with the sponsoring organization’s goals.

He and his mother Amy, whom he frequently confided in during his time in Africa, now tell their story in Runaway Radical: A Young Man’s Reckless Journey to Save the World (Thomas Nelson, 2015).

In the excerpt below, Jonathan begins to realize the extent of the...