To do: Missions Packing lists

I don't have my most productive days unless I have a list that helps me focus and clears my brain of clutter.

Currently I am working on packing lists for our short mission trip - what to have in our carry ons, what to check into the airplane baggage hold. I will detail below what I have for anyone using this for future reference. 

Ideally, I'd pack real light and only use one carry on bag and my purse or a small bag. But we will be taking gifts too, so I don't think that is going to be feasible so for now I am assuming a purse, a carry on and a suitcase to check in. 

[If you've never flown before, a checked bag is one that you hand over to the airline when you check in at the ticket counter. They put it in the cargo hold of the plane and you get it back at the destination.]

Of course, depending on conditions of where you go, you might have some specific needs. Also pay attention to ever-changing airline rules.

For a PRINTER FRIENDLY version of this page, click http://www.boldlycompassionate.com/2013/06/to-do-missions-packing-lists.html then at the bottom click print.

Personal bag

American airlines, max size for this (if you are also taking a carry on) has dimensions length + width + height less than 36 inches

• Passports & tickets,
• vaccination certificates
• money
• visa (N/A for short trip to Honduras)
• phone & kindle
  > A money belt is a good option for safely carrying cash and important items.

Carry On bag

American Airlines current guidelines are 22x14x9 max size {Link}
Liquids & gels (shampoo etc) must be in bottles of 3.4 oz or less.
They must ALL fit into single quart-sized transparent bag; one per person is allowed.
Cosmetics such as mascara are considered liquid or gel. {Link}

• Change of clothes (at least one set in case luggage goes missing)
• Small travel toiletry kit in clear ziplock bag - toothbrush/ paste, wipes, tissue,
• Contact lens kit
• Camera
• Medications - anti-malaria pills, eye drops, prescription medication,
  tylenol, non-drowsy dramimine, Tums
• Spare shoes
• Small gifts
• Bible, journal, pen
• Testimony - have your testimony written out, especially if someone will be translating.
• Sunglasses

Checked Baggage

American Airline size and weight limits: Link
Bottle volume limit for liquids your checked baggage: Max size per bottle 16oz, total 70 ounces.

 Toiletries

• toothbrush & paste 
• dental floss (very versatile and strong, can be used as string/ thread)
• razor & shaving cream
• sunburn remedies & sunscreen 
• towel, if not supplied
• soap and shampoo 
• Toilet paper (remove inner tube to flatten, pop in ziplock to keep dry)
• Feminine hygiene items, small bags for disposal
• Contact lens solution
• Hand sanitizer/ wet wipes
• Comb/ brush
• Deodorant
• Small First Aid kit including anti-diarrheal, laxatives, anti-histamine
• Hair bands & ties

Laundry items
We will have a small washer/ dryer at Manuelito Project

• Travel pack of laundry detergent
• Plastic bag for dirty clothes
• If no dryer, take a small clothes line and some clothes pins

Clothing  

Tip #1: base on climate & modesty. Other countries have not all embraced short shorts and spaghetti straps.
Tip #2: Consider taking things you wouldn't mind leaving behind for the people there. This can also apply to things like your first aid kit or shampoo etc.

• T-shirts & loose shirts/ blouses
• Pants, cotton/ light if in hot weather
• Long shorts
• Walking/ work shoes
• 1 set smart clothes & shoes for church/ speaking
• Team t-shirt, if applicable
• Swim suit, if applicable
• Flip flops/ shower shoes
• PJs/ sleep clothes
• Underwear/ socks 
• Warmer clothes for evening (check ahead for evening temps)

Miscellaneous

• Water bottle (maybe water cleaning tabs or straws)
• Snacks
• Gifts for missionaries and the kids
• Supplies - if taking work supplies with you
• Bug spray
• Sunscreen & aloe vera for sunburn
• Poncho
• Work gloves
• Zip lock bags to keep things dry
• Sweat band or hat
• Small flashlight, batteries
• Few photos of family to show
• Phrasebook/ translations
• Charger for kindle or phone
• Electrical adapter (N/A for Honduras, but in many countries you may need an adapter for your electrical items)
• Mosquito net, if applicable (not for our trip)
• Spare batteries.  [Uninstalled lithium batteries cannot be checked, but spare regular batteries can be. See FAA guidelines if unsure]

Update after trip: A few extras I will take -
dry shampoo
lots more wet wipes (and lysol wipes)
Crackers/ light snacks

Shopping for mission clothing

We're going to a hot humid place in their rainy season, so clothing for us needs to be light and airy while still maintaining modesty. Not all countries have embraced short shorts or spaghetti straps, and it's important not to offend our hosts.

With that in mind, we've been paying attention to what we see in photos of the project. Longer shorts, almost always pants. Some tank tops, mostly full t-shirts.

Have you tried to shop in an American mall lately for a teenage girl?  It is extremely difficult to even purchase shorts that are finger tip length (school rules), let alone nearly down to the knees!  We have compromised by getting capris, or getting older out-of-style jeans and cutting off below the knee and turning them up for long shorts. [I would love to think that schools could put pressure on the fashion industry so parents don't struggle with this so much. Alas, I fear it will always be the reverse with schools relaxing rules to meet the lack of co-operation of the fashion designers. Mini rant over.]

We are also aware of certain things like slogans on t-shirts (America sense of humor isn't always acceptable everywhere else), camouflage patterns (countries recovering from recent wars, this might trigger trauma in people with PTSD),  tattoos might need to be covered (offensive in some places, also consider fear for street kids after seeing gang tattoos all their lives).

Arbor Day at the mission project

A few weeks ago, I posted a donation request for the Manuelito Project to purchase fruit trees for Arbor Day 2013. This was what they managed to get, and some photos of their celebration!

Item donations and care packages

I have been asked about taking small item donations. We will have some space in suitcases to take items to give to the children and the missionaries at the Manuelito Project.

General rules of thumb -
Not too heavy or large. We have bag weight & size limits
Think of boys and girls items
Avoid anything in camo colors or any kind of military/ weapon theme
No liquids or things that will melt easily

I think of the kinds of items we'd put in an Operation Christmas Child shoebox - toiletries, underwear, coloring pencils, hard candy, small stuffed toys (real small, 50 kids!), bouncy balls, combs, hair ribbons, and so on.

We will collect these until July 7. This gives us time to distribute between suitcases.

Dual team dinner and a 'real' missionary!

Food is a common theme of our meetings. On Sunday we got together for our team meeting & coupled it with lunch. Last night we have a combined team get together with a meal with the folks traveling to Unalaska.

While we are in Honduras, nineteen others will be on the island of Unalaska in the Bering Sea. They have a long trek to get there, it will take a couple of days of flying and boat, and then will be serving at a United Methodist church on the island.

Last evening they had a meal for them and their families, and they kindly invited us along. It was a pleasant evening and Jason took along the Honduran bean soup to share.

They had a speaker, Susan Fuller, who is a missionary working in the far east of Russia. Sue is from Western PA but has been serving in Russia for 18 years. She talked a little of her ministry there (in an orphanage) and gave us a few tips for our trips - flexibility (which happened to be our topic at Sunday's team meeting) and don't forget to include the missionary's children when we take our trip. So often people are focused on the work with the natives they forget that to include anything for the kids of the missionaries who are also serving and sacrificing.

It was a pleasant and informative evening!

Mission preparations: Safety

As you might guess about me, I am pretty conscious of safety and taking precautions wherever I am. As I get older and more aware of my mortality, so increases my sense of danger and therefore safety!

However, I think it goes without saying that there are some places that are more dangerous than others, and it is definitely prudent to stay informed about conditions in the country and town you are visiting, regardless of whether you are an adventure-seeker or a worrywart. 

We're traveling to Honduras, a country well known for violence and gang attacks. Since we're traveling with a large organization to a place that is well established for escorting and looking after volunteers, we feel relatively safe. Still, we take no chances - we will remain cautious and sensible, and have prayed continually for God's protection.

A few months ago, we signed up for Google alerts for news of the country. We have also thoroughly read the WGM guidelines, as well as those at the US and UK embassy websites. Advice covers avoiding crime, not traveling on public transport (re-purposed US school buses), where to safely exchange money and so on.
Another example would be protecting passports. These are not something to leave around in a developing country! US passports sell for a lot of money on the black market so utmost precautions should be taken with those.

Documents - This may seem obvious, but it's important to take back up copies of these.

Passports
Travel Itinerary
Vaccination details
Travel insurance information plus quick contact card for wallet
  - (WGM provides travel insurance)
Contact details of guest house
Contact details of WGM
Contact details of US embassy/ UK embassy in Honduras

Copies of these documents are also filed with the organization, our church and with a friend. Hey, I said I was safety conscious right?  If something happens, the more people who have our info the better! :)

3 weeks out, thinking about...luggage

"Luggage check" is new on my To Do list.  In the past 5 years, airlines have gotten much stricter about bag sizes and weights. Normally I wouldn't be so concerned but we have a couple of extra things to consider.

First, we will be taking additional donation items with us. Although mostly our donations are monetary so that the project can buy what is needed, there are extra physical items we will be taking that have been donated by our church. These will be spread around suitcases to distribute the weight.

Second, we will also be distributing our own clothes among various suitcases. This is so that, in the event of someone having a delayed or lost suitcase, that person will still have some clothes to wear! I have been warned that has a higher risk of happening when traveling to Central America.

Also, sizes of carry on bags are limited - too large and they have to be checked in and sent as an extra suitcase as additional cost.

We'll be traveling with American Airlines. Their information can be found here: Baggage allowance. Going over the limit can be expensive, $100 or $200 for having an overweight bag, and $200 for over-sized. Too big, they just won't take it.

Missions fundraising: Keeping track of money

One of the things that has caused unexpected issues is keeping track of fundraising dollars. As a self-proclaimed math geek and part time bookkeeper at work, I figured this wouldn't be a problem at all. I enjoy spreadsheets, so what's the problem?

For those who don't love numbers, but must partake in this necessary side of missions, I suggest keeping very good records of incoming and outgoing finances.


A few things to consider:

Variety of payment methods:  Not only have we accepted cash, check, credit card and paypal, there has been the option for contributors to pay us directly, via our church and via WGM (the mission organization). Our company has also sold products, of which the profits were donated. Getting timely information is important, as are the details of each amount - how much, who from and so on.

Who is the payment for? Some of the funds were written to one of us directly, to our whole family, to Jason and I as a couple, or for the whole team of twelve of us. When recording this in your spreadsheet/ journal, make good notes about where the unusual sums come from. Weeks later, $21.56 won't mean anything to you nor will you know if you accounted for certain donations.

Outgoings: The biggest chunk of the money was owed to WGM to cover flights, admin costs and food. They took care of managing the administration of all of that, which made planning much easier. Other costs, such as shots and pills, mosquito nets, books for team members, team events and so on, have been paid directly by us as individuals.

Timing:  The bulk funding had to be sent to WGM one month before leaving. That meant that anything we did not collect would be covered by us directly. However, any funds sent to WGM by contributors after that date would be surplus and non-refundable. We can claim some of that back with receipts for things like vaccinations and the rest will be used for needed supplies or donated to the project.

Changing target:  Very late in the game, just days before our totals were due in, our target fundraising number dropped. A nice direction for the number to move, due to WGM getting good flight prices. I am sure there's a good chance it could have gone up instead.

Fees:  Some payment methods create fees, such as paypal and credit card. Don't forget to take those from your total.

Unknowns: There is still the possibility that we will have to take some supplies down as a group because the missionaries at Manuelito Project are still to determine exactly what we will be doing. For example, if we are doing VBS (in Spanish) we will have to purchase and take crafts, stories, papers and so on.

Overall, fundraising has been a great success. We've all had very generous donors and support, for which we are very grateful. Over the past few years, I've stopped thinking of coincidences as 'luck' or 'fate' but as reminders of the great provision of God. This endeavor has been filled with them, from unexpected checks showing up days after a new cost arising, to the recent report from WGM showing my family's totals all ending in 8.50 and exactly $50.00 apart. Those funny little situations I like to think of as God's gentle way of showing us how He is involved in even the smallest of details.

VBS for Honduras!

This week our church starts Vacation Bible School. Typically more than 200 kids take part every year, and during the week they do a fundraiser.


Last year they raised money for our city police department to purchase a K-9 police dog. The year before they raised several thousand dollars to purchase ducks, hens and pregnant goats for a mission in Mozambique.
This year they are raising money for the on-site school for the Manuelito Project! 

 If you'd like to donate, you can make checks payable to FUMC with "VBS Fundraiser" in the memo line and mail it to First Church, 200 East North Street,Butler, PA 16001. You can also donate online at the church website.

Countdown: 4 weeks

In 4 weeks from now, we will be on the Miami airport leg of our journey to Honduras, probably getting on the plane to Honduras. How quickly it comes around! It also sadly reminds me of how quickly it will all be over.

"Why so much planning for a one week trip?"  Someone asked me this recently. The simple answer is that with just one week to serve, we don't want to spend 3 or 4 days adapting, getting our mind out of home luxuries into necessities, from 'being served' as we so often are in United States into 'serving others'. No, we don't want to waste time. We want to hit the ground running.

Many people have sponsored us to get us down to Honduras. I am sure they would be pleased to know that we all plan to be good stewards of that financial contribution and opportunity, and that our hearts are open to God as our prayer partners seek His will to be done!

Mission trip prep: health

One final item on our health preparations has been anti-malarial pills. These are basically certain types of antibiotics that work well against various strains of malaria. They are taken shortly before, during and after the trip.

We've been told that the area of Honduras to which we are traveling has no known cases malaria but CDC still recommends the medication. Picking up our prescription today, we found out our insurance won't cover this one (same as the typhoid shot). The pharmacist informed us it was going to be $194 per person. YIKES!  We decided not to collect them but call our doctor in the morning about some alternatives!

CDC states that medical precautions are not always 100% effective, and of course we should do what we can to avoid being bitten by mosquitoes: using nets, wearing longer sleeves and pants, bug spray and so on.

For more info on travel vaccinations, visit http://wwwnc.cdc.gov/travel/destinations/list

For our purposes of traveling to Honduras, we have needed:

• Hep A and Hep B (multiple shots over a 6 month period)
• Tetanus & Diptheria (lasts 10 years)
• Typhoid (shot or pills) Not available from most PCPs locally; Walgreens have it for adults or county health Departments. 
• Antimalarial pills

Do It Anyway

Last week, I wrote about the loss of our beloved and inspiring Senior Pastor J. David Panther.
Yesterday we attended his memorial service. It was a place filled with love. Never before have I experienced, at the very same time, feelings of heartbreak, hope and inspiration.

Below is a poem that was printed and on display at the front of the church. It is attributed to Mother Teresa. It was read beautifully by our discipleship director, Rob Gillgrist who is one of our team traveling to Honduras this summer.

These words seem lovely and inspiring. Something one might pin to their wall, read once or twice, even try once or twice. Then mostly likely we forget about them, walk past the frame on the wall. Perhaps, if one is dedicated, one might even remember a couple of the lines and practice those ones often.

I am blessed to be able to say, I watched all of these words lived out by David. These are not impossible words, but acts to work on every day. These are words of bold compassion, are they not? Perhaps we can try to live by all of them every day.

Who is up for the challenge?