Instant Insurance Quotes from GoMissionTrip.com
We’ve partnered with GoMissionTrip.com to provide instant travel insurance quotes online. Just choose ‘Purchase Trip Insurance’ on the ‘Trip Details’ page to see what GoMissionTrip.com can do for your trip.

Team Documents: Visible to Team
When attaching documents to a trip you can now specify whether that document is visible to the team or just to the team leaders. This will allow you to upload more sensitive documents to your trip without exposing them to the entire team.

Admins can now change passwords
Trip admins can now change a user’s password when viewing that person’s profile. Just choose the ‘Change Password’ option in the ‘Related Options’ on the team member’s profile.

Travel Agent Export
The Travel Agent Export has been updated to include Gender in the export file.

Custom Subdomains
Add a bit of personalization to your ManagedMissions.com account with custom subdomains (http://MyChurch.ManagedMissions.com). Personalized subdomain are just $25/mo. If you are interested shoot us an email at hey@managedministries.com.

New Email Editor
Our new email editor allows you to mark up your emails with BOLD,Italicized, and underlined text in your message, as well as create numbered lists more quickly.

Email Address on Contributions
You can now track donor email addresses when entering contributions into ManagedMissions.com. These email addresses are available for export throughout the application.

We hope these new updates will make your experience using ManagedMissions.com even better! And remember, anytime you have a question or idea for us, feel free to reach out on Twitter @ManagedMissions or via email by clicking ‘Help’ while logged into ManagedMissions.com

- The ManagedMissions Team

First off, thank you for your support of ManagedMissions.com and for your feedback about the app as it has grown this past year. As a non-profit software company, we are always excited to be able to offer new features and even better usability to our fantastic users.

With the beginnings of short term mission season underway, we have been hard at work to improve the app to make this year’s trip management even more efficient for you. (Many of these new features were suggested by you on our support forum, so thank you!)

Here’s a little bit about what was included in yesterday’s update to ManagedMissions.com.

As a Leader now you can:

• Mark emergency contacts as parents, and optionally add parents of participants to emails.
• Set passport name separate from team member name, if for instance a team member goes by a different name that you want to remember.
• Enter phone numbers in whatever format you like best as well as add international numbers.
• Add new “Default Documents” and Links to new and existing trips.
• Configure “Default Tasks” with a default due date (like 30 days before the trip leaves).
• Print a PDF report called The Travel Roster which has all team members’ essential info nicely formatted for quick reference (perfect to bring with you on your trip).
• See your Income Account, Expense Account, and Purpose Code (if applicable) on the “Trip Details Page.”
• Track how many team members have verified their profile information.

Also, Team Members can now:

• Edit and/or verify profile information (team leaders will be notified when profile information is updated or verified and can also choose to disable this feature).

If you have ideas for ways we can continue to improve ManagedMissions.com, we’d love to hear about them! Just visit our support forum here.

We are so privileged to work in concert with what missions leaders, organizations, churches and individuals are doing around the world, and we look forward to hearing about what God does through the Church body in 2012. We’d love to keep in touch as your trips progress, so don’t forget to follow us on Twitter @ManagedMissions and on Facebook.

In terms of encouragement and building up a mission team, I think we can agree that the word is indispensable. (Hopefully we can also agree that that holds true regardless whether on the mission field or off.)

Over the years of going on mission trips, specific passages have become consistent reminders to me of God’s heart for missions. While each of these verses addresses different things, they primarily speak to God’s design of the body of Christ including our call to spread the gospel, brotherly affection and selflessness. Because each of these passages warrants it’s own blog post (or volume), I’ll leave you with just a list and let God’s word speak for itself.

1. Romans 12:9-13
“Let love be genuine. Abhor what is evil; hold fast to what is good. Love one another with brotherly affection. Outdo one another in showing honor. Do not be slothful in zeal, be fervent in spirit, serve the Lord. Rejoice in hope, be patient in tribulation, be constant in prayer.”

2. 1 Peter 4:10-11
“As each has received a gift, use it to serve one another, as good stewards of God’s varied grace: whoever speaks, as one who speaks oracles of God; whoever serves, as one who serves by the strength that God supplies–in order that in everything God may be glorified through Jesus Christ. To him belong glory and dominion forever and ever. Amen.”

3. John 15:16
“You did not choose me but I chose you and appointed you that you should go and bear fruit and that your fruit should abide so that whatever you ask the Father in my name, he may give it to you.”

4. John 4:36-38
“Already the one who reaps is receiving wages and gathering fruit for eternal life, so that sower and reaper may rejoice together. For here the saying holds true, ‘One sows and another reaps.’ I sent you to reap that for which you did not labor. Others have labored, and you have entered into their labor.”

5. Luke 10:2
“And [Jesus] said to them, ‘The harvest is plentiful, but the laborers are  few. Therefore pray earnestly to the Lord of the harvest to send out laborers into his harvest.’”

6. Romans 15:5-7
“May the God of endurance and encouragement grant you to live in such harmony with one another, in accord with Christ Jesus that together you may with one voice glorify the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ.”

7. 1 Corinthians 15:58
“Therefore, my beloved brothers, be steadfast, immovable, always abounding in the work of the Lord, knowing that in the Lord your labor is not in vain.”

8. 1 Corinthians 2:1-2
“And I, when I came to you, brothers, did not come proclaiming to you the testimony of God with lofty speech or wisdom. For I decided to know nothing among you except Jesus Christ and him crucified.”

9. Philippians 1:27
“Only let your manner of life be worthy of the gospel of Christ, so that whether I come and see you or am absent, I may hear of you that you are standing firm in one spirit, with one mind striving side by side for the faith of the gospel.”

10. Colossians 4:2, 5-6
“Continue steadfastly in prayer, being watchful in it with thanksgiving… Walk in wisdom toward outsiders, making the best use of the time. Let your speech always be gracious, seasoned with salt, so that you may know how you ought to answer each person.”

What verses have encouraged you or your team as you’ve participated in missions?

Twenty years ago, if you were to travel across the world, there was a good chance that the only communication you’d be sending back home was a postcard or maybe an email from an internet cafe.

However, today’s blogging, tweeting and Facebooking culture is a great opportunity for mission teams to share the experience with friends and families back home. Because the schedules of each team and internet availability will vary from team to team, a unique approach to communication is sometimes called for.

As a social media junkie and a communication degree holder, finding effective and engaging ways to communicate is kind of my gig. So, for my first time leading a mission trip this summer, I had to think of some fun ways to interact with supporters and ease the anxious thoughts of about two dozen parents. Here are some of the things we tried that worked and some of the things I’d like to do on future trips.

1) Blog

Before we left for Slovakia, I set up a blog using WordPress. (If you’re not familiar with WordPress already, it might be easier to use a different host like Blogger or Tumblr.)

On our blog we posted brief updates about what the team was doing as well as longer stories about our ministry in Velk’y Krtíš and photos. We had the luxury of several hours each night to for the slow internet connection to upload our posts as well as a team leader who loves to blog, which made it the perfect home-base for use to communicate with everyone back home.

2) Facebook Group

Before we left, we also invited parents to join our Facebook group, and while we were gone, parents used the page to talk with one another, post photos from the airport and even scheduled a night to get together and pray for our team. For the parents of our team members, this was an invaluable tool to connect and encourage one another while their kids were over seas. Click here for some tips on creating a Facebook group.

3) Team video or vlog posts

Photos and stories are great, but if you have the opportunity to film and upload a video of the team having fun or working hard, not much else will do a better job of giving supporters a feel for how the team is doing. Here’s a video we posted while on the trip.

Occasional video-logs or “vlogs” are also a great way to update supporters. Whether it’s a brief testimony from a team member or the team leader recapping the day’s events, it’s an easy way to share if you don’t have the time to write about all that’s going on.

4) Flickr

Not only is Flickr a great online application for sharing photos from the field, it’s also a way for everyone to share their photos once the team is home again. Once we got home, I asked everyone on our team to upload their photos to a “pro” account for the team. Flickr offers limited free accounts, but with the pro account we can upload and download unlimited photos and videos for the year. Since most of us had taken upwards of 200 pictures, $25 for the year was money well spent.

5) Twitter

Twitter is a great option for teams that don’t have internet access but for whom SMS texting is a possibility. It’s also a good tool for letting people know you’ve updated the blog or uploaded new photos as well as quick updates about the team and even prayer requests.

This definitely isn’t an exhaustive list of communication tools, but it’s a start. Regardless of how you do it, the technology we have today offers of a lot ways to communicate more frequently than we could just a few years ago, so let’s take advantage of it a include those people who’ve supported us.

What are some ways that you communicate with your supporters while your team is out on the field? What has worked for you in the past? Is there anything you tried for the first time this summer?

Hello. Devin here,  filling in for my wife Ashleigh this week. This summer we led a short term trip to Slovakia with a group of High School students. I wanted to share with you some things we did to have fun and bond as a team before we left for our trip.

Meet Regularly

Summer Missions in our High School Ministry starts in January. After the team is formed, we start meeting together regularly. Our team met every other week whenever possible. Regular meetings did 3 big things for the team. First, we prepared together for the ministry we’d be doing in Slovakia, which meant we were really ready by the time we got there. Second, the team spent a lot of time together and started getting to know each other and their personalities. Third, we spent time praying together and preparing spiritually for the work and challenges awaiting us in Slovakia.

Learn Each Other’s Names

It may seem like a small thing, but it’s so important for everyone on the team to know everyone’s names. It goes a long way towards fostering a sense that we weren’t just a group of strangers, but a team. In a perfect world, a one time introduction of everyone would be good enough, but humans (and especially high school students) forget names. It’s not exactly exciting but for the first few weeks, I made a point to start each meeting by going around the group reintroducing ourselves.

Eat Together

Having a meal together is a great way for the team to bond socially. We replaced a few of our Sunday afternoon meetings with Sunday lunches, and it was fantastic. It’s a nice break from business laden meetings and an even better opportunity for the team to get to know each other.

Serve Together

We had a great opportunity to spend time serving as a team before the trip even left. A local ministry was having a retreat in northern Arizona and they needed people to work in the kitchen. Our team, along with several other high school missions teams, went for the weekend and had a blast working hard and serving together. It was only 3 weeks before the trip and it gave everybody a taste of what they were in for. The whole team got really psyched up for the trip.

Did It Work?

This was my 5th time going on a short term mission and I can honestly say that I had never been on a trip where the team felt so united. On the last night, we spent time reflecting on the trip, and it was awesome to hear so many students talking about the friendships they had formed on the trip. I was really blown away at how the team came together as one to do the Lord’s work in Slovakia.

I would encourage anyone to use all or any of these team building opportunities. What successful team building strategies have you used?

So how do we ease back into our everyday lives without giving up the things we loved about living a missional lifestyle?

It’s funny how when the body of Christ is working like it ought to, you can feel at home almost anywhere.

Last month, my husband and I took a group of twelve high school students to Velk’y Krtíš, Slovakia. Our primary purpose, like many mission trips, was to provide whatever support we could to the missionaries who live there long term.

For two weeks, we lived in our goal of encouraging our brothers and sisters in Christ and building up the existing ministry–in short we were actively engaged in the body of Christ 24/7.

Sometimes that looked like being patient or bearing the burdens of team member. And other times it looked more like being encouraged or admonished by another. And often it looked like lifting up another person and allowing yourself to become less important.

Whatever it was, it was good. It was unifying. And it was something I didn’t want to leave in Slovakia.

And I hoped by God’s grace, we wouldn’t.

We arrived home, executed a whirlwind unpacking session, and then it was back to the office. Despite the sweet fellowship I’d just experienced, I was quickly overwhelmed by my to-do lists and hundreds of emails in Outlook. And I was back to feeling alone. The worries of the world were beginning to squelch out the joy that was mine just days before.

I thought, Why does this happen?

Good thing for me, we have a gracious God who promptly reminded me of a verse He’d put in my path in Slovakia.

Psalm 62:8 says “Trust in Him at all times, O people; pour out your heart to him; God is a refuge for us.”

So, I did what it said. As I poured my heart out to God, I told Him about all of the anxieties in my world. I had forgotten to trust that He would be a refuge for us all the time–not just while we are on a mission trip.

And isn’t that the way He is?

We have a God who provides us everything we need–all the time. Sometimes our sin and our forgetfulness gets in the way, as it did for me, but He always deserves our trust.

And we need to trust Him. Not just in a “it’s our responsibility” sort of way. But we desperately need the truth of his promises–especially when we find ourselves in a place where forgetfulness comes easily.

I’m convinced that, in God’s grace, joy and unity are not fleeting or things that only happens on mission trips.

Because whether they happen in Arizona or in Slovakia, they happen because God is who He is. And that’s something that doesn’t change.

So if you’re coming home from a mission trip this year, consider what God did while you were there, and don’t second guess yourself if you start to believe that God can do the same thing at home. Instead, let’s continue to put our hope in Him to transform us where ever we are.

Do you agree that things that happen on the mission field can and do happen at home as well? If yes, what do you see God doing or hope He will do in both places? If not, what differences do you see between home and the field?

By the way, if you’re interested in seeing what we did on our trip feel free to visit our team blog: www.slovakia2011.wordpress.com.

Now, please take that statement with a grain of salt. Short term mission trips often achieve a lot of in-country purposes like encouraging and helping long term missionaries or impacting a community by meeting a vital material need. And we hope and pray that God will use our work to impact His Kingdom.

So, I’m not saying that He doesn’t or that he won’t impact the people we leave behind. He Does.

What I am saying is that the most measurable impact many trips have on the Kingdom, is on its team members. Here are a few ways I see this being played out, and I’d love to hear what you’re seeing in your teams in the comments.

Popping the bubble

There’s nothing quite like experiencing a new community and culture for the first time. And whether it’s through going deep in new relationships, working ten-hour construction days or playing with children who may or may not have bathed this week, short term mission trips are sure to take your team out of their comfort zones and personal space bubbles.

As many of you can attest, this is where the real change begins. God finds us in our brokenness and our inability to do it on our own and brings His own strength into play. Seeing God’s power in our weakness brings a renewed perspective of our identity and value in Christ.

Africa is not a country

Actually visiting a different country is a lot different than reading about one in “Multiculturalism 101.”

You may have read Dr. Dennis Horton’s article in the Huffington Post last week, which posed the question: “Are short term mission trips worth it?” (If you haven’t perused it yet, it’s an interesting read.)

As the director of ministry guidance at Baylor University, Dr. Horton conducted an interesting study on the impact of short term missions on 578 Baylor students. Of the 578 who were surveyed, he conducted in depth interviews with 32 of them who had just returned from trips.

Of the 32 students interviewed after their trips, 29 said the experience had changed the way they see other cultures, with 17 mentioning increased respect and concern. Almost half said they were less likely to see their culture as inherently superior.

He also found that some students’ existing desire to enter the mission field was strongly affirmed by their short term experience.

While many of us can say from experience that this is true, it’s exciting to see it happening similarly in other parts of the country.

♫ Come together ♪

“I have given them the glory that you gave me, that they may be one as we are one— I in them and you in me—so that they may be brought to complete unity. Then the world will know that you sent me and have loved them even as you have loved me.” – John 17: 22-23

Out of all of the things we do “programmatically” (so to speak) in the youth ministry at my home church, mission trips seem to create unity more than anything else we do. There is something about being in a foreign country and only recognizing twelve people. It forces you into a situation where it’s suddenly all the more natural to depend on and support your brothers and sisters in Christ.

The long term effect on the church body is invaluable, especially in the United States where relationships typically run shallow. The impact of unity goes beyond the church however, and like Jesus promised, has a profound impact on the world around us.

With these kinds of benefits to our churches, it’s hard to argue that we don’t need short term missions—and it may be that we even need it more than the communities we visit.

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Do you agree? How do you see short term missions impacting your local church or mission organization? What is one thing you hope your mission team this year will be impacted with?

Whether this is the first mission trip you’ve lead or the fifteenth, preparing is hard work.  Every year, during mission season, there are probably a thousand things running through the minds of every trip leader.

With all of the ministry decisions on your plate, we want to alleviate some of the administrative stresses of planning a mission trip and give you more time to focus on your team.

Here are five administrative hassles that ManagedMissions.com helps you leave behind:

1) Endless spreadsheets

A spreadsheet for team member info. One for the budget.  And one for each team member’s fundraising progress. Or if you’re like one pastor we know… 20 pages of team info, a constantly evolving notepad for the budget, and a stack of 20 pieces of lined paper—one for each person’s contributions.

Whatever your method—spreadsheets or yellow notebook paper—ManagedMissions.com (MM) is the light at the end of the tunnel. MM keeps track of all of it in one place, no excel finesse required.

2) Communication snafus

Have you ever wanted to email the team members who missed a meeting?  Or maybe just the ones who are a little short for the next fundraising goal?  Instead of sorting through contribution totals, MM allows you to email specific team members who meet the criteria you choose.  We’ll even get the note started for you.

3) Tracking down a travel agency

While some large organizations have travel agencies they’ve been using for years, the average trip leader may not know where to start.  We’ve made it easy for either way.  If you don’t know what travel agent to use, click “Get Travel Quotes” to send your trip information to a few agencies and request a quote.  Once you have an agent, just use the “Travel Agent Export” to get exactly the information your agent needs for ticketing.

4) Dollar discrepancies

Team members may not always keep accurate records of their contributions, but with MM, they know which checks you have received from them. For instance, if you may have a $1100 total for one team member, but they might think they’ve turned in $1250. By encouraging team members to log-in regularly to track their fundraising progress, you can catch discrepancies quickly and more easily figure out where that extra $150 disappeared to.

5) Losing people in the shuffle

Communicating about a change in the training schedule can be a pain. However, with MM’s easy to update calendar of events, meetings, tasks and goals, team members can log-in to see what is coming up next and mark it on their own calendars.  And if you need to change something, everyone has access to the change. No more printing out new schedules.

What are some of the administrative hassles you’ve dealt with while planning a mission trip? Let us know in the comments below, and maybe you’ll be the inspiration for the next ManagedMissions.com feature.

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As a mission trip leader, it’s your job to help support each individual while also promoting team unity and preparation, but it can be easy to get caught up in the administrative work that planning a mission trip requires.

Here are three simple things to put on your list to help your team prepare for the mission field together.

Pray.

Pray that your team will be an encouragement to the body of Christ. Pray for God to reach the lost with the gospel. Worship together. Pray for God to provide financially. Pray knowing that a big God hears you.

“And this is the confidence we have in approaching God: that if we ask anything according to his will, he hears us. And if we know that he hears us—whatever we ask—we know that we have what we asked of him.”  – 1 John 5: 14-15

It may seem like a no-brainer, but unless you make prayer a priority as a team leader, it will easily slip by the wayside.  Praying together can help your team members work through anxieties they may have about missions; remind them of the bond you share in Christ; and prepare them to support one another better during the trip.

Work.

Breaking a sweat together before you spend two weeks in a foreign country is a good thing.  Aside from learning to serve together in a physical sense, it’s a great way to break the ice among team members, and creates opportunities to learn about each person’s strengths and weaknesses.

“From [Christ] the whole body, joined and held together by every supporting ligament, grows and builds itself up in love, as each part does its work.”  – Ephesians 4:16

Emphasizing team building experiences, like serving together, will make it more natural for team members to labor alongside one another as a body, rather than a group of individuals, when it comes time for the trip.

Play.

“It is requisite for the relaxation of the mind that we make use, from time to time, of playful deeds and jokes” – St. Thomas Aquinas

Even serious guys like St. Thomas Aquinas saw the value in playfulness and just enjoying one another. Hopefully, this one will develop on its own.  But, as a leader, you can be mindful that amidst trainings and meetings, that you throw in some lighthearted fun.

For your team that might mean going out for pizza and not talking any business. Or maybe it looks like playing at a place like JumpStreet or Pump It Up for a few hours or going bowling. Whatever you do—enjoy being together.

How is your team praying, working or playing together? What area does your team excel in? What area do you think could be emphasized more on your team? Let us know in the comments below.

“And my God will supply every need of yours according to his riches in glory in Christ Jesus.”

-Philippians 4:19

We work with a lot different mission trips and organizations that all face the common challenge of raising enough money for their teams.  While many teams have their members send out letters to friends and family, asking for support, some team members may still have trouble raising the amount they need.

Here are 20 unique fundraising ideas to help your team stay in the black:

1)      Host a group garage sale. The more stuff, the better, so join forces to make your garage sale a success.

2)      Do a 50-50 raffle. Sell tickets to friends and family for $2 each.  The winner gets to keep half of the total, and the other half goes toward your trip.

3)      Do a photo-shoot. Do you have an aspiring photographer on your team? Offer to do discount photo shoots and provide a disc with all of the photos.

4)      Teens—do laundry for a month for your family. A tedious job, but someone has to do it—and your mom will be glad it’s not her.

5)      Put on a concert. If you have a few talented musicians on your team, have them play on a Friday night at church or another local venue. The other team members can sell tickets and serve snacks to attendees.

6)      Offer to clean your neighbor’s house. Get your clean on, and take the opportunity to tell them about your trip.

7)      Do a gift-card raffle. Collect donated gift cards from local businesses and restaurants. Then raffle off the whole bundle. Talk to your local grocery store about selling raffle tickets to customers.

8)      Host a Parent’s Night Out. Whether it’s on Valentine’s Day or just a random Saturday night, parents always appreciate a good babysitter.

9)      Personally ask close friends and family members for support. A quick phone call can give your friends and family a chance to ask questions and you a way to personalize your request for support.

10)   Host a cake auction. Have groups of team members bake and decorate the most tasty or creative cake they can think up. Then, invite family and friends to bid on each cake. This is a great chance to tell people more about your trip and enjoy some yummy treats!  (Some areas will require team members to get a food handler’s license.)

11)   Do a restaurant fundraiser. You’ve got to eat anyway, right? Many restaurants offer a percentage of the proceeds to groups for a night.

12)   Sell roses at church on Mother’s Day. Encourage your church to do a little extra something for Mom and support missions at the same time.

13)   Sell Avon. Do you know someone who sells Avon or Mary Kay? Ask them about how to sell beauty products as a fundraiser for your team.

14)   Make Mother’s Day and Father’s Day cards to sell. This is a great one if you have some team members with excellent scrapbooking abilities.

15)   Throw a three-legged-race-a-thon. Have each pair of team members collect pledges for the number of “laps” they complete with their legs tied together. Then, invite all of your supporters to come out and watch.

16)   Offer to do yard work for a neighbor or friend. Don’t forget to tell them why you’re raising money.

17)   Do a service auction. Auction each team member off to do yard work, running a garage sale, cleaning house, car washing for a month, personal shopping services, a few nights of babysitting, etc.

18)   Run in a local race. Collect pledges for every mile you run.

19)   Ask 10 coworkers for $10 each. You might be surprised at how many people in your office are happy to support your trip.

20)   Volunteer at a wedding. Do you know someone who is getting married? Offer to serve cake or dinner as a team.

What are some creative ways you or your team members have raised money for missions? Tell us about them in the comments.

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