How do you feel about missions trips?

[Anonymous]

Mission trips are dangerous to communities and exploit the poverty of the people for self serving reasons.

There are all kinds of ways to rationalize them- exposure to other lives, building a few stoves, buying trinkets from locals, etc. Those are all ways to rationalize the the fact that they are truly not doing as much for others as they are for themselves under the guise of "helping the poor".

Take that time you spent on fundraising (basically asking for handouts to fund an overseas vacation) and use it to do some research on which LOCAL organizations are already on ground there that you can help. And then ask for money to donate to that organization instead of using that money on plane tickets and trinkets.

It's a gross behavior that has somehow become normalized in this society.

[Anonymous]

Google poverty tourism or missionary tourism. Lots of thought pieces on why these are bad.

My 70 YO mom does them and is always inviting us to go. I don't have the heart to tell her that spending $30k to send 10 people to Costa Rica to paint two houses is inefficient from a economic standpoint.

[Anonymous]

I'm astonished by these responses. Have you actually been on any of these trips?

I am not religious and have never been, but was raised going to a church semi-regularly. My church partnered with others and went to Mexico every year for upwards of 25 years to build houses for homeless people in 2 specific towns, then a hospital and a school. I went on those trips for many years, starting at age 13, and they absolutely formed the person I am today and created a global, humanitarian perspective that I hope to pass on to my children. We would work alongside the soon-to-be homeowners pouring cement, raising roofs, installing windows. We developed real relationships with families and the community that continued for many many years.

Sadly, the dangers of the drug cartels stopped the trips about 5 years ago, but many participants have gone back on their own dime for short visits to maintain those friendships.

I can only hope that I'm able to offer similar experiences to my kids when they're older.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:I'm astonished by these responses. Have you actually been on any of these trips?

I am not religious and have never been, but was raised going to a church semi-regularly. My church partnered with others and went to Mexico every year for upwards of 25 years to build houses for homeless people in 2 specific towns, then a hospital and a school. I went on those trips for many years, starting at age 13, and they absolutely formed the person I am today and created a global, humanitarian perspective that I hope to pass on to my children. We would work alongside the soon-to-be homeowners pouring cement, raising roofs, installing windows. We developed real relationships with families and the community that continued for many many years.

Sadly, the dangers of the drug cartels stopped the trips about 5 years ago, but many participants have gone back on their own dime for short visits to maintain those friendships.

I can only hope that I'm able to offer similar experiences to my kids when they're older.

+1 You shouldn't be surprised. Many DCUM posters are not religious and strongly oppose anything associated with a particular church, synagogue, or religion.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:I'm astonished by these responses. Have you actually been on any of these trips?

I am not religious and have never been, but was raised going to a church semi-regularly. My church partnered with others and went to Mexico every year for upwards of 25 years to build houses for homeless people in 2 specific towns, then a hospital and a school. I went on those trips for many years, starting at age 13, and they absolutely formed the person I am today and created a global, humanitarian perspective that I hope to pass on to my children. We would work alongside the soon-to-be homeowners pouring cement, raising roofs, installing windows. We developed real relationships with families and the community that continued for many many years.

Sadly, the dangers of the drug cartels stopped the trips about 5 years ago, but many participants have gone back on their own dime for short visits to maintain those friendships.

I can only hope that I'm able to offer similar experiences to my kids when they're older.

Perfect example of the rationalization that missionaries are steeped in. Because it helped YOU, it must have helped them. Not true.

[Anonymous]

I am very religious. And many, many religious people including missionaries on the ground have problems with parachuting in for 10 days never to be heard from again. To the PP whose church had a 25 year partnership with a specific town I will make an exception to my general rule.

[Anonymous]

I think the Go Fund Me's for "my mission trip" are kinda gross. My neighbor wanted money to go on a mission trip to the Amazon where she was apparently going to take a boat trip down a river or something. If she wanted to go on a tour and take a trip, she should pay for it herself and not shake down the neighbors in the name of religion.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:I'm astonished by these responses. Have you actually been on any of these trips?

I am not religious and have never been, but was raised going to a church semi-regularly. My church partnered with others and went to Mexico every year for upwards of 25 years to build houses for homeless people in 2 specific towns, then a hospital and a school. I went on those trips for many years, starting at age 13, and they absolutely formed the person I am today and created a global, humanitarian perspective that I hope to pass on to my children. We would work alongside the soon-to-be homeowners pouring cement, raising roofs, installing windows. We developed real relationships with families and the community that continued for many many years.

Sadly, the dangers of the drug cartels stopped the trips about 5 years ago, but many participants have gone back on their own dime for short visits to maintain those friendships.

I can only hope that I'm able to offer similar experiences to my kids when they're older.

Perfect example of the rationalization that missionaries are steeped in. Because it helped YOU, it must have helped them. Not true.

/quote]

I can say unequivocally that those families would disagree with you. It's amazing the difference having a solid roof over your head, instead of taped together refrigerator boxes, will do to help your present and your future. Once they had homes, nearly every single one of those families was able to have at least one member hold a job and be a productive member of his/her community. Nearly every single one of those children was able to go to school. Several of the kids I personally knew went on to college. Because they helped to build the houses and school, they were personally invested in their success. They were able to help their neighbors. They were able to feel pride in home ownership (surely something DCUM can understand). Tell them our combined efforts did not significantly better their lives.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Honestly - I think they are obnoxious. I think it is a way for folks with money to feel good about themselves by going to a fun location, doing some community service to benefit others, and then having fun and getting people to pay for it. It is questionable whether the people who are receiving the services asked for the help or even appreciate being the source of people with money's good feelings for using their vacation to help the poor. Yuck.

Yep.

I'm Indian and u could tell you stories about "mission trips" I've witnessed in India. They're just salespeople who want to feel good about themselves at best, and aggressive, crazy-eyed proselytizers at worst.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:I am very religious. And many, many religious people including missionaries on the ground have problems with parachuting in for 10 days never to be heard from again. To the PP whose church had a 25 year partnership with a specific town I will make an exception to my general rule.

That's not uncommon, and many churches in the USA partner with churches in other places. Ours has a long-time partnership with a church in Kenya.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:I am very religious. And many, many religious people including missionaries on the ground have problems with parachuting in for 10 days never to be heard from again. To the PP whose church had a 25 year partnership with a specific town I will make an exception to my general rule.

That's not uncommon, and many churches in the USA partner with churches in other places. Ours has a long-time partnership with a church in Kenya.

This is a very interesting read from a mother and son about their experience on a year long mission trip to a country in Africa.

http://amyhollingsworth.com/books/runaway-radical/

Some of their answers from on interview on http://www.patheos.com/blogs/friendlyatheist/2015/04/25/the-dark-side-of-christian-mission-trips/

"It sounds like the group sponsoring your trip was very adamant that you spread a specific brand of Christianity — and that trumped helping the people in any other way. Is that an accurate assessment?

For the most part. I mean, they weren’t so much pushing a specific doctrine or creed as they were evangelism in general. This was really disappointing for two reasons. One, I’m not an evangelist. It’s just not my thing. Secondly, I had been led to believe that this particular mission organization really prioritized humanitarian projects and services, but that wasn’t the case. They forbade me from seeking out other opportunities to help in the community unless I was going into the villages to convert people.

How typical is that of churches that sponsor these sorts of trips?

In my experience, it’s not that the church is unwilling to help alleviate the physical needs of the people they’re trying to reach, it’s that they’re afraid to emphasize it too much. Apparently, making the gospel too “social” waters it down. It’s something I’ve seen both at home and abroad, where the church feels like it has to balance helping the poor with evangelizing the poor, but the helping part usually suffers as a result.''

[Anonymous]

If more people went to places like the Highlands of Guatamala and saw the poverty there there might be less Trump supporters. Its hard to have empathy for people fleeing those types of lives unless you have seen it first hand.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:If more people went to places like the Highlands of Guatamala and saw the poverty there there might be less Trump supporters. Its hard to have empathy for people fleeing those types of lives unless you have seen it first hand.

+1.

And that empathy does not evolve out of blindly sending money to people supposedly already "on the ground". Those people on the ground hopefully have empathy, and hopefully are fiscally responsible, but all it does for you is give you something charitable to talk about at your gala events.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:If more people went to places like the Highlands of Guatamala and saw the poverty there there might be less Trump supporters. Its hard to have empathy for people fleeing those types of lives unless you have seen it first hand.

+1.

And that empathy does not evolve out of blindly sending money to people supposedly already "on the ground". Those people on the ground hopefully have empathy, and hopefully are fiscally responsible, but all it does for you is give you something charitable to talk about at your gala events.

Oh please. As if your latest mission trip is never the topic of conversations to show off your 'goodwill'.

Do your research, don't just send money to random organizations. If you want to really help, contact them and ask what you can actually do. Usually organizations don't need random people without the skills they specifically need to come there and ask for something to do. They need funds and they need people with specific skills that can come there for the long term. Be and become part of the community you want to change, not change the community to suit your beliefs.

And the fact that you are linking going on your exploiting mission trips as equating to less Trump supporters is straight up laughable. The only way that would work is if your asking people to donate to your free vacation rather than to Trump.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:If more people went to places like the Highlands of Guatamala and saw the poverty there there might be less Trump supporters. Its hard to have empathy for people fleeing those types of lives unless you have seen it first hand.

+1.

And that empathy does not evolve out of blindly sending money to people supposedly already "on the ground". Those people on the ground hopefully have empathy, and hopefully are fiscally responsible, but all it does for you is give you something charitable to talk about at your gala events.

And now your rationalizations are truly reaching. It's more fiscally responsible to ask for money to pay for your plane tickets to another country to "see the poverty''? And more mission trips mean less Trump supporters.

Yeah, okay.