Going on a short-term mission trip is a wonderful opportunity for people of any age to see the work that God is doing in the world. While there are countless things to be learned throughout the trip, one crucial aspect that can be easily overlooked is the debriefing process. Without taking proper time to reflect, it is much too easy to get swept back into the busy routines of everyday life and forget the meaningful lessons that were learned. Whether you’re leading or participating in a short-term mission trip, going through a thorough debrief after your trip is beneficial to ending it well. With that in mind, here are some ways to assist you with your debriefing process.
Start off Prepared
While you won’t technically start the actual debrief until after the mission trip, there are ways that you can be preparing yourself or your team early on to step into that process well. One way to start off well is to encourage and foster a strong sense of trust within your group. By helping your team develop a safe space where they can be comfortable sharing with each other, this will make the discussion time at the end of the trip that much more valuable and encouraging.
Another way to make the debrief time more beneficial could be to prepare your team to pay attention to certain themes throughout the short-term trip. An example of this could be getting your team to observe how they see God working in their lives. By choosing something to observe throughout the trip, it can create discussion points during the debrief time at the end as well as opportunities to be encouraged throughout.
Something else you could consider before your departure is what each person’s expectations are. Recognizing these expectations, identifying whether they are realistic or not, and being aware of how they could potentially impact a trip are all useful things to consider beforehand. Identifying either themes to notice or expectations to be aware of can help each team member as they process their trip and can create valuable discussion time in the debrief as well.
Make Time to Journal Throughout Your Trip
Not everyone enjoys journaling, and that’s okay. Even so, there are quite a few benefits to setting aside time to slow down and recap the events of the day. Not only does this give space to reflect while everything is still fresh in your mind, it also gives you an accurate record to look back on at the end of your trip when you do an in-depth debrief. It is easy to forget little things, so journaling throughout your time away is especially helpful if you will be gone for a longer period of time and you want to remember more specific details
If journaling isn’t really your thing, just remember that it doesn’t have to be pages long. Just a couple of sentences of what your activities were or how things made you feel are more useful than not writing anything at all. Even answering questions like, “what was enjoyable about today?” or “what was hard about today?” can go a long way when you look back over your trip. Plus, keeping a record like this also gives you a way to look back on the memories you made long after you have returned.
Go Through Debriefing Questions
Debriefing questions are probably the most common, but no less exceptional, tool for examining your short-term mission trip. Taking time to answer questions can help you and your team reflect deeper on your experience so that you can take what you learned and apply it to regular life without just moving on from it. As you take time to go through debrief questions, it is crucial to be honest in your answers. There might have been parts of your trip that were particularly challenging, and it is a good thing to acknowledge those things, even if someone else on the team didn’t experience it in the same way. Reflecting on your time away is meant to be a tool for you to look back on the events you experienced and identify what your learned and how to take the important things with you; debrief questions are an excellent way to do this.
Debrief as a Team
Each of your team members are unique and will have had different experiences, challenges, and perspectives regarding the mission trip. Since there is something to be learned from each person in your group, it’s a good idea to spend time as a group sharing about your experiences and things that you have reflected on. As mentioned earlier, it is very important to be fostering trust within the team so that it is a safe space that everyone can feel comfortable sharing in. Debriefing together is an excellent way to gain new perspectives on the trip and is also a way to be encouraged by your team members.
There are so many benefits to going on short-term mission trips, but there are even more benefits that can be gained from them by taking the time to debrief them. If you’re going on a trip in the near future and want to do this well, but aren’t sure where to start, we invite you to check out some of our resources that are available to help you with this process. Feel free to also check out the GoJournal which includes a daily reflection guide for when you’re on the field and a debriefing guide for after your return.