Family Mission Trips

God created the family. When he created the human race he was building his family. But then sin separated God from man. When God sent Jesus he enacted a plan to bridge the gap. While Jesus was on the earth he established his church. His church is a representation of the family of God. It is the churches job to reconcile people and families back to God. Missions should be a staple in every church as much as preaching the Word, fellowship, giving and local outreach. I believe it is important for families to go on the mission field at least for a short term trip. It is important for us to pass the vitality of missions onto our children. It's important for our children to see how the rest of the world lives. It builds humility and character in a person to see that.I would encourage families to seek out family friendly mission trips. 

Local outreach is a good place to start to pass on the value of missions to your kids. What outreaches does your church support, volunteer in or run? How can you all get involved? Inform your kids that you will be giving of finances to one of more of these programs. Kids know that money is important and that if you are supporting something financially then that program must be important. See if they want to give some of their allowance or commission money to the churches outreaches. Then volunteer at one of the outreaches. Time is one of our most important resources which also expresses value. So what you place your time on has value to it. These are great ways to share life together as a family and to express the love of Christ as a family. When your kids get to minister to other kids, I believe that blesses the Fathers heart. As this is instilled in your children it becomes a life value. As they get older and they see other kids picking on the underprivileged kid in school they will know not to join in. It will be important to them that they befriend that kid because it was instilled in them through example. Then when they are grown and have kids of their own they can pass along the importance of loving the unlovable of loving those in need. Placing time, money and energy into local outreach is a key factor in demonstrating the love of God to your children and passing that heritage along.  

What short term trips is your church conducting? If your church is not doing a short term trip then take a look at another ministry. Many ministries do some great short term trips. Find one, apply and believe God for the finances. God will provide. Your Father is always willing to finance the family business of redemption. 

Here are some good ministries that do safe, short term missions trips:

• John Smithwick Ministries International. John is a fantastic speaker and has a true heart for the nations. I've heard him speak while in Bible school. He's a family man and leads teams on trips all over the world. This ministry has three core aspects to it. They do mass crusades, short term trips known as Global Ventures and church planting. You can watch his adventures on GVTV. His Global Ventures are filmed, edited and ready to watch. Season 3 is coming soon. What a great way to introduce your children to missions than to watch a Christian Reality show. We've seen season 1 and it was a first rate production. 
• e3 Legacy This looks like a wonderful ministry for families. They focus on family friendly trips and building up believers for evangelism and church planting. Many of the trips you will go on are to places and villages that have never heard the Gospel. They desire for your family to be equipped and safe in order to minister to other families and reach the lost. They have over 800 families serving. They have planted over 4000 churches and their efforts have yielded over 35,000 believers. That's some sweet fruit.
• World Servants. They take you on safe family friendly U.S. trips and short flight missions. Flexibility is one of their values which is important when dealing with kids and families. The trip leaders will be sure to inform your family with what to expect and what are the cross cultural differences. Other priorities include safety with transpiration, lodging, and work areas. Opportunities for rest and nap time for families with small children will be offered. There will also be flexible devotion time for spiritual strengthening.

For more on this and other articles on missions please see:http://imprintmissions.com/what-are-good-family-mission-trips/