Ordinarily a mission project is an away from home happening in which young people and adult leaders have an opportunity to give their total energy to accomplish a particular manual labor task. A mission project experience has the possibility of challenging adults and young people both as individuals and as the community to intentionally work together.
The intent is to offer people a choice to deepen relationships with one another and with persons who live a different lifestyle. Mission projects are suitable for both junior highs and senior highs. When considering a mission project with junior highs, a short period of time and more specific tasks to be accomplished are advisable. Senior highs tend to be more adaptable for longer experiences and more varied tasks. These experiences may include construction, visiting hospital patients, an outdoor drama, a recreation program, maintenance at a conference center, or an environmental project in Alaska. The possibilities are virtually limitless. When a youth group is open to such an experience, the creative spirit begins to put into shape what will happen.
The most important ingredient is a clear understanding on the part of leaders about the preparation necessary for a mission project.
Preparing for a Mission Project
Consider the following questions. Any "yes" answers probably mean the adult leaders and the youth group are ready for a work camp experience.
1. Has the youth group demonstrated the ability to work together?
2. Are you, the adult leader, feeling the need for something more challenging for the young people?
3. Does the youth group need an experience that will help build community and develop a more cooperative spirit?
4. Is there a ready-made experience (diocesan, agency) in which your young people could participate?
5. Are you, the adult leader, feeling adventuresome and ready for a big, demanding task?
6. Does the youth group want to experience life and live in a different setting or culture?
These same questions can also help determine objectives for a mission project. Here is an example of some possible objectives:
Young people and adults on this mission project will:
1. Encounter a job, or jobs, that challenges individual skills and energy
2. Commit themselves to accomplish together a specific task
3. Learn to live together in a setting different from their usual life situation
4. Be challenged to appreciate how other people live
5. Grow in the Christian spirit of giving and receiving
6. Be able to share new learnings for their own lives
Young people and adults planning a mission project will want to struggle with a purpose and reason for the experience. Listing specific objectives will help focus planning and assessing the event.
Congregational Support
Early in planning, the issue of money presents itself. Persons planning mission projects will want to learn what funds may be available in the congregation's mission committee budget or consider raising the funds through the youth group. Garage sales, donation dinners, selling youth skills for cutting grass or baby-sitting, private donations, and sponsorship by church members are all possibilities. Whatever way money is raised, it is a good idea to check with the vestry to make sure raising funds outside the operating budget is permissible. A mission project budget might include:
- Transportation (Van rental, tickets, gasoline)
- Supplies (Paint, work gloves, printed materials)
- Publicity and promotion (For a fund-raiser dinner, talent show, etc.)
- Food (On-site for participants)
- Housing (Donations for utilities, tents, etc.)
When planning for a mission project, involve the congregation for support and diocesan wide interest for the project. If a fund-raising event is held, the congregation is automatically involved. Another way to include the membership is to publish a "needs" list for the mission project for tools, supplies, and snacks or sponsors. A few Sundays before the event, a commissioning service during worship also gives the congregation an opportunity to be a part of the experience.
Orientation
The mission project planners will want to include parents in at least one of the orientation sessions for the participants. These orientation sessions are essential for a good experience. Orientation might include:
1. History and information about the location of the work site
2. Information on what to bring: types of clothes that are appropriate, personal articles needed, medical release forms or permission slips from parents, bedrolls, money needs, insurance coverage
3. Expectations that participants have for the event and the objectives for the mission projects
4. Information on the living conditions of the work site
5. Travel information: departure and return, mode of travel, baggage requirements, money exchange, entry documents necessary (passport, visa), medical release forms
6. Clearly defined leader and participant roles and expectations
7. Language skills (if going to a non-English speaking location)
8. Skill development if specific things need to be learned (how to talk to terminal patients, telling a Bible story, mixing paint, leveling a board, using a chain saw)
9. Clarifying the specific task to be accomplished at the work site
10. Getting acquainted, if the group is not known to one another
11. Resource people who can offer information about the location, the people, and the task to be done
12. Medical forms from all participants, including name, address, special medication, allergies, or handicaps and signed by a parent
During the Mission Project
In planning your day, be sure to arrange time for worship together or with the host community every day, time for recreation, time to visit local cultural interests, and time for participants to be alone. Set daily work goals that are reasonable, yet will challenge the group.
Evaluating the Experience
A most valuable part of the mission project is the debriefing or evaluation of the experience. Some evaluations, of course, takes place on the spot --- or example, not having hats in 102-degree heat or being without plastic sheets during the rainy season. However, a more intentional appraisal is desirable. The debriefing is not so much for finding out what went wrong as for exploring feelings and new learnings that happened to individuals and to the group as a whole. It is helpful to set aside some time before the mission project or soon after returning home to do the evaluation. Some possible questions for evaluating a mission project are:
1. What happened that you expected would happen?
2. What happened that you did not expect to happen?
3. What three things about the trip will you share with your family and friends?
4. What messages would you give to persons planning such a trip next year?
5. What changes has the experience made in you! feelings or attitudes about yourself? The youth group? The adult leaders?
Sharing the experience with the congregation enhances the evaluation in that participants sort through the happenings and select those things that best interpret and illustrate what took place. This sharing could take the form of a parish supper with presentations and reports, posters with captioned pictures, a series of slides, or a videotape. Participants might take three to five minutes during Sunday worship to give highlights of the event in a more formal way. A giant "thank you" poster with pictures, souvenirs, and artifacts might be made and posted in front of the church the Sunday after the trip. This evaluation and sharing with the membership gives the experience public closure. It will be impossible to put away or wrap up what has happened to the hearts and spirits of the participants. It will be with them for a lifetime. No one mission project is like another. Nor can an experience ever be exactly like the last one. What worked well last time might not fly the next time. Some things for adult leaders to remember:
- Be flexible
- Deal with conflicts and misunderstandings as soon as possible
- Take emergency money
- Learn as much as you can about the site, the task, and the people involved
- Be prepared to change course
- Have a "rainy day" plan
- Be prepared for those who get sick or homesick
- Have some basic first-aid supplies
- Take out travel insurance
- Take some games and recreational equipment
- Investigate sources for purchasing food on site
- Expect someone to lose his or her money
- Leave valuable personal articles home
- Never leave luggage unattended in terminals and stations
- Allow for some down time, to be free of work responsibilities
- Consider an exchange-having persons from the site you go to, to come to your location for a similar experience
Adapted from an article by Martha Holman.
© 1996 The Domestic and Foreign Missionary Society PECUSAThis article is from Handbook for Ministries with Older Adolescents, a publication of the Ministries with Young People Cluster of the Episcopal Church Center, New York, NY. Permission is granted for congregational use and use by diocesan youth coordinators. You may order this resource from Episcopal Parish Services.
