When my children were six, eight, and eleven, I took them on a mission trip to Mexico. God used that trip to gradually change our thinking, our attitudes, our priorities, our individual lives, and our family. Here's why I encourage you to take your family on a mission trip.

Our God is a missionary God. He loves every person and every family in the world as much as He loves you and your family. He wants His name glorified among all the peoples of the earth. God wants to give your family His heart for the world.

A mission trip gives your family a unique opportunity to hear God's voice. Many organizations lead short-term mission trips. Which one fits your family best? Perhaps, like me, you'll see a notice for a mission trip that grabs your attention. Then you'll check out the details. Here's the key question: "Does God want our family to go on this mission trip at this time?" Discuss and pray about it as a family. Help your children learn to hear God's voice. If God wants you to go, He will make it clear to you.

A mission trip gives your family a common focus. Today, family members often run in different directions. A mission trip gives you singular vision. You prepare together, learn about the culture, write and send support letters, attend team meetings, learn words and phrases in another language, pray together-and that's all before the actual trip!

A mission trip gives your whole family firsthand experience in trusting God as your provider. A mission trip costs money. A mission trip for the whole family costs lots of money. Pray and ask God to provide for your needs. Tell others of your plans and ask for prayer support and financial help. Then leave it in God's hands. As the saying goes, "Where God guides, He provides." Your children (and you) will be amazed by the variety of ways God provides. (Even if you are able to pay for the entire trip yourself, don't do it. Don't prevent others from supporting you. Don't miss the joy in God that overflows as He meets your needs). When God provided over $300 beyond our costs for our Mexico trip, my children concluded, "God must really want us to go! Now we can give this money to the people in Mexico." Together we decided which projects we wanted to give that 'extra' money toward. .

A mission trip helps you experience life from a different perspective. People in other cultures have traditions, customs, and beliefs that are just as important to them as ours are to us. They think and act differently than we do. You eat their foods, do things their way, and learn from the people you serve. At a school in a Nairobi slum, three-year-olds through eighth graders all received a tin plate with a large scoop of beans, corn, and ugali. The children laughed and talked as they ate their lunch. Not a single bean was left on any plate. Later, I learned that most of those children wouldn't eat again until they were at school the next day.