Mission trips

I was thinking about mission trips earlier, after seeing a TikTok saying they shouldn't be happening because they don't actually help with anything. I agreed so much with that video. I attended a Christian school for a few years, from 2016-2018, for my freshman and sophomore years. During the February break, spring break, and summer break, there were mission trips that lasted about 10 days. I believe it cost at least $3000 to go on these trips. I think some of these trips were to countries like the Dominican Republic, Haiti, Peru, India, Thailand, Taiwan, Uganda, Rwanda, France, Italy, and Russia. These were the trips that happened when I was a student there, they have probably added and taken away trips.

I am really glad I never went on these trips. If I stayed at that school for my senior year, maybe I would have gone on one (that was in 2020 so it probably would have been cancelled because of Covid). I heard from some students that did go on trips that they did do some projects and worshipped with locals. I heard on a Dominican Republic trip students were painting a building or something. Others pretty much just sounded like a vacation. On the France trip I heard students just hung out with French teenagers and visited touristy areas.

Again, I am glad I never went on a mission trip. I don't think it's bad to go on vacations, but claiming you helping others when you're not isn't a nice thing to do. I also think if people really wanted to help, they should have just sent money to the countries that actually needed it, rather than just have an excuse to take a vacation.