Four resources for planning a mission trip include Time International, MANNA Worldwide, Champs Missions, and New Hope Initiative. Read their information and see if they can help you plan your next mission trip.TIME INTERNATIONAL
Dave and Janet O’Rear
www.timeinternational.net | time@timeinternational.net
TIME International began taking students on short-term mission trips in the summer of 1996. Their premise: to offer trips to several countries at the same time, gather high school and college students from various churches to form one team, make the trips longer than is practical for a one-church trip, use mime dramas as a way of evangelism, and choose host missionaries who would enjoy investing time in students. The International Bible Baptist Church of Miami serves as the host church for these trips. Teams generally include 12-14 people including two trip directors. All travelers meet in Miami for two days of training and team-building before leaving to their respective countries. Fifteen days later they reunite to share their experiences and prepare to take their experiences back to their own church. These trips have been influential in the lives of students. In fact, today there are nine missionaries serving in England whose journey began on a TIME trip. TIME invites missionary kids to join them in discovering a different part of the world and having their own mission trip.
MANNA WORLDWIDE
Bruce and Pamela O’Neal
www.mannaworldwide.com | admin@mannaworldwide.com
MANNA Worldwide is a Christian organization caring for impoverished children around the world by fighting disease, poverty, illiteracy, and spiritual emptiness. They provide over 100 trips a year around the world consisting of churches, business groups, and medical personnel partnering with missionaries on the field.
MANNA Worldwide manages 145 projects and operates in 37 countries. Their objective is to help missionaries start new churches along with a feeding program for children and orphanages — building a greater bond between laypeople and ministries. They have seen long-lasting effects by taking people to various countries. Not only does it encourage the missionary but it also helps the traveler develop a greater love and vision for people around the world as they fall in love with the children they feed and see the changes Christ makes in the children’s lives.
One pastor recently shared, “Not only did God do an amazing work in our team members’ lives, but they have spread their excitement throughout the church and our entire church has become more involved in supporting the missionary on the field and desire to support a new feeding program.”
CHAMPS MISSIONS
Rick and Fran Schuessler
www.champsmissions.org | bachamps@aol.com
Champs Missions, which began in 1988 with a future missionary and Baptist Bible College student on a survey trip, offers short-term mission trips to the Caribbean where there are 38 island nations with a population of 41 million. Champs Missions’ purpose is to start new churches, feed the hungry, heal the sick, educate the uneducated, and equip the saints.
Over 7,500 students and adults have journeyed with Champs Missions to conduct vacation Bible schools, help construct church buildings, hold free medical clinics, and be hands and feet in helping strengthen churches. They host trips to the Bahamas, Haiti, Dominican Republic, Trinidad, and Curacao to Christian school senior class trips, construction teams, college teams, sports teams, local church student ministries, and adult teams.
One traveler states, “After five hours on a plane and ten days in the Bahamas, I never knew my life would be changed in such a quick amount of time. From loving on precious kids at the local parks, helping teachers at the surrounding schools, to going door to door for hours telling people about Jesus, every part of ministry in the Bahamas opened my eyes to a new door of God’s kingdom.”
NEW HOPE INITIATIVE
Sandy and Karen Baird
www.newhopeinitiative.org | info@newhopeinitiative.org
New Hope Initiative takes volunteers on short-term mission trips to countries such as Kenya, Tanzania, Nicaragua, Sierra Leone, or India. They minister in various ways including working with children in Christian schools through the Penda Project, volunteering at a feeding center, serving alongside ladies in a microloan program called Biashara, or assisting at a medical clinic. These volunteers come from churches, schools, civic clubs, and businesses. Some are also individuals and families who are unable to find a team or organization to travel with but desire a personal mission experience. Many trips are general vision-casting trips, allowing first-time participants a balanced personal look at what mission work is all about.
One life changed during a trip was that of a young Tanzanian girl who fell into a fire as her parents prepared a meal. The doctor from the New Hope Initiative Clinic treated the girl but she was in need of major surgery. An American plastic surgeon taking a New Hope Initiative trip shortly after the girl’s accident partnered with the clinic’s doctor to perform a skin graft that has greatly enhanced the quality of the girl’s life.