The potential impact of short term mission trips on the faith of a young person is hard to overestimate. Mission Trips seeks to optimize that impact, helping participants connect their travel experience to their ongoing life of faith. Rather than thinking of the varied aspects of a mission experience as disconnected parts - whether good or bad, planned or unplanned - participants are guided to see all that happens as an expression of what God is up to in their lives. The author, a parent and longtime teacher, offers tools to facilitate group and individual reflection before, during and after the trip. These include spiritual practices, stories, biblical passages, and suggestions for activities and conversation. Anyone tasked with organizing and leading a short-term mission experience involving travel away from home will find resources to strengthen the spiritual impact of the journey, with practical yet deeply faith-based direction.

Reviewed by Marie F. Fleming