A Guide to Mission Trips: What Kind of Mission Did I Go On?

Have you ever wanted to go on a mission trip or were just curious about how they worked? Maybe you are just looking for information about them because someone you know went on one or recommended an organization to you. In this post, I will provide basic information about mission trips as well as clarify what type of organization Lighthouse Medical Missions is, and the activities I participated in.

For more detailed information about my personal experience on the El Salvador 2025 mission trip with Lighthouse Medical Missions, visit my other blog titled "El Salvador: My Mission Trip Story."

Clarification

There are various types of mission trips that are organized all around the world. Most aim to help underprivileged or struggling communities in some way and are generally nonprofit. Some organizations have religious affiliations or faith-based goals, while others do not.

Focus

Mission trips and organizations are generally defined by their focus or their overall goals and intentions. Common focuses include humanitarian missions, religious missions, and educational missions. Some organizations and mission trips may have more than one focus, or may be a combination of these.

Humanitarian missions are generally focused on providing physical aid to communities in need, ignoring any affiliations that community might have with certain groups or practices. They specialize in areas such as disaster relief, medical aid, food distribution, and so forth.

The primary focus of religious mission is to evangelize. Religious missions generally emphasize spreading the gospel, building religious infrastructure, or teaching scriptures.

Education missions strive to educate and connect with other communities. They provide more opportunities to communities that struggle with access to educational resources, and can set up educational systems, literacy programs, and provide opportunities to learn about other cultures.

Location and Duration

These are simple, yet defining characteristics of mission trips. Generally, a mission trip is termed domestic or international. This reveals the location of the mission. For example, an organization that arranges domestic missions will operate in the home country of that organization, while one that arranges international missions will serve communities outside of the country in which their home base is located.

Duration is also an easy way to characterize a mission. Mission project can be short term or long term. Long term missions aim to set up a network and a presence in the targeted area and usually establish more extended commitment, working toward long term solutions to presented problems. Short term missions address immediate situations that arise in their location. They typically last a few days to a few weeks.

General Categories

Here are a few broad terms under which a mission trip can be categorized:

Medical/Healthcare

Construction

Teaching/Education

Disaster Relief

Evangelism

Sports Programs

Community Development

Orphan Care/Family Reunification

Lighthouse Medical Missions

Lighthouse Medical Mission is a dual-focused mission organization. Using the above descriptors, it would be classified as both religiously-focused and humanitarian-based. It is a short-term mission trip aimed at addressing immediate need, specifically in the category of medicine. Lighthouse Medical Missions is internationally focused, going to countries such as Liberia, El Salvador, Gambia, Sierra Leone, Guinea Biseau, Guatemala, Colombia, and more. It is an organization tied to the Lighthouse Church in Santa Monica, and it visits needy communities that are located around fellowship church that have been planted internationally.

When I went on the mission trip to El Salvador, the week days were focused on setting up free clinics to address medical concerns within the surrounding community, and the nights were spent at revival services with the church that had been planted in that location. The goal of the medical mission was not only to address the physical issues in the community but also to win souls and address the spiritual needs; the physical aspects were very closely intertwined with the emotional, mental, and spiritual problems.

Conclusion

In short, Lighthouse Medical Missions is a powerful team that seeks to address both physical and spiritual needs. I would encourage anyone interested in the medical field that has evangelical convictions to look up Lighthouse Medical Missions, contact them, and decide if that is an area in which you want to serve.

I know that my life was blessed through them; this trip strengthened my convictions, boosted my interest in the medical field, and confirmed my calling.

To read more about my personal experience and learn about the day by day activities, visit my other blog entitled "El Salvador: My Mission Trip Story."