What can we do in a stay-at-home world where volunteer mission teams are all cancelled? How can we disciple people effectively in a world of virtual connections? How about a virtual missions trip?

We prayed for how God could use us during this Covid-19 stay-at-home time. The idea of leading a virtual mission trip with our church kept coming to mind. We talked to friends whose opinions we valued and were met with a mix of interest and skepticism. Three people were enlisted to pray every day for clarity to help determine if this vision was something to pursue. That’s when things started to happen. Our church leadership responded with enthusiasm and wanted to give it a try. We decided to schedule start the trip in two weeks, and we were praying for ten people. An announcement went out for registration with a one-week deadline, and the first person signed up immediately. Five days later we still only had one person. In the last two days, nine people registered, making it a group of ten. Praise God for answered prayer!

Prayer was the driving force of this experience. During the two weeks of preparation, God provided ideas for ways to serve in our community and beyond, both from home and serving safely outside the home. Key people with expertise in different areas agreed to speak during our training times. Lastly, the Lord provided the perfect team of people with serving hearts, full of grace and patience as we learned together how to make this work. The final team included eleven people at The Grove Church in Minnesota, and included first time mission trip members and several with extensive experience. The mission trip was conducted using a combination of Zoom meetings, at-home projects and a couple external projects done using social distancing guidelines. The objectives for the week included prayer, trauma training and discipleship through service projects. The four-day agenda consisted of morning time of about 2 ½ hours on Zoom doing devotions, prayer, engaging with speakers and training. This was followed by releasing the team to do their assigned projects, with a debrief and sharing time at the end of the day back on Zoom.

God showed up in powerful ways each day! It was a joy to serve God together through these projects. One of the unexpected fruits was the tremendous fellowship that took place, even though most of the trip was done on Zoom. God spoke in powerful ways through speakers and training sessions. We heard from a hospital leader about his perspectives of the medical and business impact, heard powerful stories of ministering to the Muslim community, were challenged to pray for spiritual revival out of this crisis, were trained in providing trauma support, and did service projects. I am convinced that after specific prayer for help two angels showed up on the phone in a miraculous way to enable success in the food delivery project! The overall experience provided a taste and interest in future short-term missions. God answers prayer! Our church and the team were each impacted in a powerful way and fully support doing it again!

We would love the opportunity to explore with your church what a virtual missions trip might look like. Email crisisresponse@efca.org for more information.