Prepare your Hearts

To prepare to go on a Mission trip you must prepare your hearts for His Ministry and unexpected challenges.  You must be flexible, flexible, flexible.  If you have never been on a short-term mission trip, please consider going - It will CHANGE your life forever!

Jack Hempeling wrote the following in his book, Before You Go:

We must prepare our hearts.  Our long term impact depends more deeply on our heart preparation than our technical preparation. We must prepare to stay focused, to be unified, to be positive, pure, humble and submissive and full of faith and praise.  All of this combined with practical and technical preparation is what will allow us to make a greater impact and touch people's lives.

We are to throw out pride, rebellion against the team or leaders, division and strife among the members, complaining about circumstances, negative attitudes, course language, inappropriate relationships and impurity.  We must be vigilant to keep them away from our hearts.

Expect the unexpected.  God has set this trip in motion and He may choose to use you in many different ways.  Maybe witnessing to someone in a crowded airport or in the seat next to you.  He may intervene and create a greater plan for you in the field, one greater than you had planned.  Be open to His plan and be flexible.

We are to not allow anyone, even ourselves, to limit us from fulfilling God's call for us.  He has set us apart for His purposes and He creates a stir in our heart to respond to that calling.  He put in our hearts the desire to go to the mission field so we need to resist the temptation to focus on our personal limitations.