8 Tips to Talking with your Kids after the Mission Trip

You might not be going on your son or daughter’s mission trip, but as a parent you play an important role in the way they experience their trip after it’s over! You see, a big part of the mission trip experience is what a student does with the trip once they’re back home. How will they apply what they’ve learned? How will it change the way they act? How will it impact their relationship with God? As a consistent presence in your teenager’s life, you can continue the influence of the trip well beyond your student’s return. Use the following ideas to help your student connect service in another community with life back home.

 

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Take part in processing. Research shows that youth most benefit from a two-way conversation where the parent shares their story with the teenager. While you don’t want to dominate the conversation, be willing to answer the same questions your teenager is. It is valuable for them to see your faith in process.

 

Spread it out. While it might be easy to think of processing as a one-time event to check off the list, thinking through what happened and figuring out how to apply it will take time. Remember, it’s a process! So keep asking questions. Keep thinking back and looking forward with your student.

 

Find a safe space. The setting of your conversation matters. Pick a comfortable place where your student can feel safe sharing important things. And time is an even more important factor. Find a space where he or she doesn’t feel rushed or preoccupied.

 

Talk in transit. Make the most of your drive times by asking students questions while driving. Maybe make it a point to have a “question of the drive” each day. Take time to truly listen and share your own answer to each question.

 

Make an event. Churches will often have an event where students get to share about their mission trip. Have an event that focuses just on your student. It could be just your family, or you could include friends or extended family. Going out for dinner, gathering for a living room conversation or simply grabbing coffee together can all ascribe value to what was just experienced.

 

Write it down. If your student is a writer or keeps a journal, have them write down what they experienced and encourage them to share it. Consider sending a letter to supporters and friends.

 

Create a tradition. Try finding a time each day or each week where you talk with your student. The days following their mission trip are a great time to launch a new tradition.

 

JUST LISTEN! There are some great ideas in this post, but if you do nothing else, make sure you just take time to listen to your student after their mission trip. And really pause to listen well! Often after mission trips, students have hours of stories, ideas and questions, but the people in their lives give them only minutes of attention. Life-change might launch on a mission trip, but what happens during the days after determine if that change will travel with them. Seek to be part of the positive life-change your student can experience after his or her trip.

 


samPicSam Townsend helps write training, programming and marketing materials for YouthWorks mission trips. When he isn’t hanging around teenagers at church or digging into seminary homework, he is generally looking for a good conversation and a hole-in-the-wall restaurant to have it in. Sam still considers his first couple summers working for YouthWorks in Virginia and Pennsylvania communities some of the most transformative times of his life.

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Sam Townsend

Sam Townsend loves wooded trails on warm summer days, full conversations over half-price apps and puns that could make a grown man groan. He is a writer, a third-generation footlong hotdog salesman and the Senior High Ministry Pastor at Calvary Church in St. Paul, Minnesota. He’s also a big fan of YouthWorks, where he contributes to theme material creation and blog production.