Martha VanCise. Successful Mission Teams. New Hope Publishers.

Help! I've been assigned to lead a mission team to (you fill in the location). What do I do? Successful Mission Teams is a thorough guide to determining where to go, how to prepare for the trip, making travel arrangements, and what to expect on the field.

I read through this book wishing I had owned it thirty years ago when I went on a six-month trip to Honduras. I would have been much better prepared for the cultural shock and the lifestyle changes that were required.

The book is very detailed. It provides scriptural references for missions and plenty of real-life examples of different activities (both positive and negative) that will happen when the volunteer mission team arrives at the "mission field". It includes everything from keeping safe to giving talks to a foreign population.

Here is just one example of VanCise's writing style. Notice how practical her advice is. She can write with authority because of the many mission trips she has lead to various nations in Latin America and the Caribbean region. I really appreciate her advice because I know she has lived through much of what she writes about.

It'll Kill Us All.

On many teams, there is an all-knowing food sheriff who tries to manipulate menus with safe food rules. On one team, two men loudly proclaimed the dangers of lettuce. Although the lettuce had been disinfected, they publicly accused the missionary of serving dangerous food.

A few days later, a local resident brought a thank offering of strawberries to the camp. The missionary washed them and warned team members that they truly ate them at their own risk. (Unlike lettuce, strawberries could only be disinfected by cooking.) Guess who ate the most strawberries? You guessed it. The men who loudly claimed the lettuce would kill everyone.

Being careful about what you eat is sensible. However, try not to be offensive when you truly feel a food may be dangerous. [Page 144]

Recommendation

Don't take a mission trip without reading this book! If you work through it as you choose the team members, you'll be well prepared for a trip that will provide real help on the mission field. Being adequately prepared will make the trip successful even if there are difficulties and problems you don't expect. Being prepared is always better than being caught off guard once you arrive at your mission field. The book's price makes it possible for every person on the team to have a copy.

Copyrighted by Diana Pederson, 2005-2009