How to Support Your Student

We want you to be part of your student’s support team for this missions experience. One of the first things you can do to support your student is to tell them you’re proud of them. Decisions to take part in a mission experience don’t usually come easily for many reasons. They’ll need all the encouragement they can get. Another thing you can do is to commit to praying for your student regularly (if you’re not already in the habit).

If you’d like to go a bit deeper, you can help to send your student on this trip and welcome this student back from the trip. We hope you’ll ask them good question before and after the trip.

Questions for Before:

• Have you ever been in a different culture before?
• What do you expect to encounter?
• What apprehensions do you have?
• What excites you about an unfamiliar culture?
• Have you encountered poverty before?  
• If so, tell me about that.
• If not, what do you expect on this trip?
• What do you think your role on the team will be?

Questions for After:
When it comes to applying lessons to "real life," processing and debriefing a mission trip is one of the most crucial pieces of the experience. God’s Kingdom is advanced when a student has someone in their life (like yourself) who is bold and intentional about helping that student pay attention to the things God did on the trip. Our strong advice is to make time for these questions to be asked.

• What was the best part of the trip? What was the worst part?
• What expectations did you have before you left? How were they met?
• What did you see God do on the trip?
• What did you learn about God?
• What turned out to be your strongest contribution on the trip? 
• In what ways were your gifts/talents used?
• What did you discover about other people? About yourself?
• In what ways do you think you have changed as a result of this trip?
• What things do you think will be different now (in yourself, in your relationships) that you are  back?
• In what ways can I/we help make your reentry smoother?
• What role or responsibility in your life do you find hardest/easiest to fit back into?
• Would you recommend that I go on a similar trip? Why?

Pray for your student continually as she or he continues to reenter this home culture.