Experience MissionReviews of experiencemission.org

I was in Costa Rica for 3 months and I loved it so much. It will forever hold such a special place in my heart. It provided so much healing for me and I consider my host family to be my actual family. They showed so much love to me and they deeply affected me. It was an amazing and growing experience. It was different than what I thought it would be, but I’m pretty go with the flow so I enjoyed not knowing what was next. It was exciting. However, we were the first team partnering with the community leader in the first city and so we were kind of the Guinea pigs for that partnership which proved to be quite difficult and a little tense towards the end. That partnership affected some of the people on the teams experience so that was kind of a bummer. But overall, I wouldn’t change it. The Lord used it all and I am endlessly grateful for it and will never forget it.

My trip to Costa Rica completely changed me. I went in with no idea what was going to happen or what we were doing. This proved to be a good thing, since it allowed me to enter with very little expectations. I was incredibly excited and ready to go, but was nervous because I did not know my team and did not know the language. My team turned out to be the perfect group of people I needed in my life at that time and the language barrier turned into a growing point for me. I was definitely expecting to go in and do service projects, helping the people in the communities we were in. It turned out that they helped me way more than I think I helped them. We did a few service projects, but it was very heavy on relationship building and showing God’s love solely through how you love and your actions. Being someone who is very service oriented, this was definitely difficult to get used to at first. God showed up in so many different ways throughout our 3 months in Costa Rica. Every person on my team got something different out of our trip. My trip brought me a lot of healing in ways I didn't know were possible or needed. It also allowed me to be independent and on my own, but in a safe environment. I grew a lot and it made me ready to go to college and fully live on my own. We lived in two different communities and two different host families. Each family brought me a different perspective on life and on myself. I am still very close with my host families and talk to them all of the time. They became my family and they call me their daughter and sister. I am so excited to see how our relationships continue over time. This trip was not what I was expecting in any way, but I would not trade a single minute of it. There were difficult times, but overall it was exactly what God knew I needed. God put me and my teammates in the exact places that we needed and with the families that could impact us and us them. I would go on another IMMERSION trip in a heartbeat.

If I could describe my trip with Experience Mission in two words, it would be healing and humbling. Overall, it was an incredibly transformative experience in so many ways. I’m not going to lie and say every moment was a dream, but they were real, raw, and radical. And it was in these little moments, little pockets of joy, laughs shared over a cup of coffee, dancing to worship music late at night, where I saw God. I saw pain, but I also saw unimaginable joy. I saw and experienced growth, hope, peace, and strength. The Lord worked in mysteriously wonderful ways. I was humbled beyond measure by service projects, unique church services, and the local communities. Each community we stayed with taught me something different. I learned so much about myself, the Lord, and the world. My eyes were opened to other cultures, and my heart was softened to the Lord’s grace and care. I formed lifelong friendships with both my fellow team members and the people in the local communities. Because we live in a broken world, there are going to be flaws in any church or mission organization. With that being said, there are definitely some things I would critique. I wished I would have been a little more prepared for the culture shock. From my understanding, on a South Africa trip, team members get an extra week or two as a team altogether to learn about the community and culture. However, the Caribbean trip did not receive any additional training specific to the location. I was completely unprepared for the unsanitary conditions that would await me in Belize. As a result, it took me extra time in the community to adapt to the lifestyle, sanitary conditions, and other culture shocks. The packing list is also not entirely reliable, but that’s not a major concern. Experience Mission does lack some structure, and they are not entirely clear that the trip is what you make it. However, I deeply admire Experience Mission’s dedication to cultural awareness and healthy service principles. Experience Mission values people over profit, and their relational focus on missions helps prevent hurt on both the receiving and giving spectrum. One other thing I might add is that mid-length mission trips like that of Experience Mission are not for the faint of heart. You will experience hardship, as is normal in regular day-to-day life, but there is risk in taking any sort of leap of faith. Your experience will not be perfect. Some expectations will not be met, but God uses our circumstances to work for His good. Ultimately, I would recommend Experience Mission if you are looking for a service-oriented mission trip. If you are wanting an organization more dedicated to evangelism, then this is probably not it. However, there is much to be learned and many ways to love others and God on a trip like this. Obviously, everyone’s experience is going to be different. We were each made uniquely by the one above.

I honestly feel this mission trip was for the most part up to me to make it a great mission trip. There were many opportunities to complain or be grateful. There were many opportunities to be upset or be patient. There were many opportunities to do nothing or to be involved. I tried my best to make the best of my mission trip, and I feel really blessed by God to be able to have this life changing experience.

From my experience, EM leaves a lot of the responsibility up to the participants, so the trip is kind of what you make of it. If you are a person that needs structure this could be a challenge for you. If you are free flowing and looking for adventure you might enjoy it more. I believe if you are willing and able to turn every day over to the Lord and let him work through you and around you this trip can have a great impact for the communities you visit and your own life—just don’t expect that impact to come through EM or their resources.

Truly a life changing trip. I am beyond thankful to God and EM for the opportunity to experience it.

I liked the trip. I wish that we had community partners like Hein & Helene that were more invested in our lives and helped set things up.

It is sometimes nerve racking going into an experience that is so different and so new than what you are used to doing. This trip definitely took me out of my comfort zone and into feeling awkward and out of place, but it is in those moments that growth happens. I learned so much about Cuba and how God is working there and also about myself... things to work on and see differently in my own life. I am very grateful that experience missions gives people my age a safe and helpful way to go overseas to see how God is working across the world.