"The Essential Guide to the Short Term Mission Trip" Book Review

When I became the missions trip coordinator for A Child’s Hope, I started reading one of my Dad’s books called “The Essential Guide to the Short Term Mission Trip” by David C. Forward.

Chock-full of valuable guidance, information, and counsel, this book gives a great overview of a mission team leader’s responsibilities. There were so many things that I wouldn’t have thought about which are covered in the book. One of the greatest nuggets I gleaned from this book is “You cannot possibly be responsible for all aspects of a mission trip yourself.” J

This book addresses everything from the very baby stages of planning a mission trip, to presenting the trip to the governing church bodies, forming a team, developing the team, team meeting schedules and samples, dealing with conflicts during a trip, travel essentials and information, debriefing, and lots more!

My only complaint about the book would be that the information is slightly outdated, as it was written in the late 90’s—early 2000’s. But aside from that, this book provides a great wealth of beginning information for a mission team leader, and I would definitely recommend it to anyone considering leading a short-term mission team.