Why I Took My 10-Year-Old to Africa

Many parents will never take their children overseas—whether because of financial limitations, safety concerns, scheduling challenges, or possibly because they simply do not see the value. I had the unique privilege of taking my 10-year-old son to West Africa on a short-term mission trip, and it proved to be a tremendously rewarding experience for both of us.

We spent several days near Adeta, Togo, serving alongside a doctor from our church who works as the hospital administrator and chief surgeon at a missions hospital that cares for approximately 3,000 patients each year. The second leg of our journey took us to Wa in the Upper West Region of Ghana, where lifelong friends of mine pastor local churches and oversee large Christian schools that serve many Muslim families in the surrounding community.

In this article, I want to share some of our experiences from the trip, but more importantly, I want to discuss the risks, reasons, and rewards of taking a child on an overseas mission trip. My hope is to explain why I believe this can be a valuable and worthwhile opportunity for Christian parents to consider pursuing with their children.

Why I Took My Son

The idea of taking my son on a mission trip formed years ago when my wife and I wrote a mission and vision statement for our family. One of the things we identified was that we both value travel and want that to be part of our family culture.

As a result, we’ve built travel into our lives. We’ve visited national parks, flown across the country to visit family, and gone camping several times a year.

Both my wife and I went on mission trips as young teens, and those experiences were hugely influential for us. We wanted our children to have similar opportunities to see God’s work among the nations. When this mission trip opportunity came up, it fit naturally with that vision. ¹

Here are four reasons why I took my son with me:

1. To Build Lifelong Memories

This trip gave us a lot of focused time together as father and son—not something that happens often in a large family. I still have clear memories of one particular backpacking trip with my dad when I was about 10, and I wanted that same type of lifelong memory for my son.

When you experience new, unfamiliar, and even difficult things together, those moments often become unforgettable. Long flights, rough roads, new foods, conversations with people from another culture, and shared adventures have a way of strengthening relationships and creating memories that last a lifetime.

2. To Broaden His Perspective

I wanted my son to experience African culture firsthand. Children (and adults) are naturally self-focused. Seeing how others live—especially those who have far less materially—helps cultivate gratitude and perspective.

More importantly, joining Christians from another culture in worship helped my son appreciate the beauty of Christ’s global church. God loves the nations. His plan of redemption has always included people from every tribe, language, people, and nation (Rev. 5:9). Firsthand fellowship with brothers and sisters in Christ from another culture is unforgettable.

3. To Help Him Do Hard Things

This trip stretched my son. He ate unfamiliar foods like fufu, he experienced West African climate in dry season, he endured dozens of hours of travel on rough roads and overnight flights, and he pushed through the challenge of communicating with kids who didn’t speak his language.

These kinds of challenges build resilience. They teach kids that with God’s help, they can do hard things. Growth rarely takes place in comfort. Some of the best lessons come through difficult and inconvenient circumstances.

4. To Strengthen his Faith in God

A week before our departure, we received the news that my son’s passport and travel visa which should have already arrived had apparently been lost in the mail during a major winter storm. As we helped him to process the uncertainty, God provided an unexpected opportunity to strengthen his faith.

Amazingly, our flights were delayed by one day, and a few hours after the change, the tracking information for his passport suddenly updated. His passport arrived on our doorstep just in time for him to catch the rescheduled flight. It was a memorable lesson in trusting God’s sovereignty when circumstances are out of our control.

5. To Grow His Heart for Missions

I want my son to understand what God is doing among the nations—and to see it with his own eyes. He witnessed gospel ministry through faithful believers who love Christ and desire to make Him known in a hospital in Togo and a school in Ghana. He saw Christians using their skills to further the gospel through bookstores, technology, and maintenance.

The Great Commission is not merely a command we read about, but a calling that faithful Christians are actively pursuing all over the world. My hope is that experiences like this will help him understand God’s heart for the nations and deepen his love for the spread of the gospel.

The Purpose of the Trip

In our case, we didn’t go on this trip to run programs or use specialized skills. We were there to learn and encourage the missionaries we support. Our church serves as the sending church for the missionary family we visited in Togo.

Our purpose in going was threefold:

• To observe and learn more about the ministry and how the missionaries were doing.
• To encourage our missions partners through fellowship and support.
• To report back to our church so we could pray more knowledgeably and effectively.

As a pastor, I had opportunities to preach and teach, but most of our days were filled with conversations, observation, and relationship-building. At the end of each day, before collapsing into bed, my son and I recorded a short video recounting everything we had experienced. Those videos helped us capture lessons and memories that we hope to remember for years to come.

Aside from one hike to a waterfall with some missionary kids, this wasn’t a sightseeing trip. Yet my son had a terrific time and experienced things that few children his age ever have. ²

Was It Safe?

Traveling to remote regions of Togo and Ghana certainly involved some risk. My son had opportunities to hold scorpions, play soccer with local children, ride on the back of motorcycles, chop with machetes, and eat unfamiliar foods.

At the same time, I never felt reckless. We took necessary precautions, relied heavily on missionary and local guidance, followed local customs, and exercised common sense. It was especially helpful to have trusted local believers helping us navigate markets, transportation, and border crossings.

The reality is that all worthwhile endeavors involve some level of risk. Parents drive their children on busy highways and allow them to participate in physical activities that carry some degree of danger. International missions travel is no different. The goal is not to eliminate all risk but to wisely evaluate it and trust God as we move forward.

What I Took Away

I had been to Africa when I was a teenager, but this time I went as a pastor—and as a father.

I came away with a deeper appreciation for the faithfulness of our missions partners in Togo and my pastor friends in Ghana. Ministry in West Africa involves perseverance and sacrifice. Their example of love for Christ and for the lost strengthened my passion for missions and my commitment to gospel ministry.

Watching my son interact with Christians from another culture and grow in his understanding of God’s work around the world was impactful. ³

Finally, I value the many meaningful, shared experiences I had with my son—memories we made together that I’ll never forget.

What About the Cost?

This is a real question for most families. In my case as a pastor, the church supported the trip. But more broadly when it comes to travel costs as a family:

• We’ve built travel into our budget over time
• Family and friends have sometimes helped
• We’ve used budget airlines and flown creatively (R.I.P Spirit airlines)
• We’ve taken advantage of credit card travel rewards (sorry, Dave Ramsey)

We’ve flown as a family of eight across the country multiple times. It’s not always easy—but it is often possible with planning.

Where Do You Start?

If you’re considering something like this, here are a few simple steps:

1. Get to know your church’s missionaries

Read their updates as a family and pray for them regularly. This will go a long way for your child when you arrive on the field.

2. Talk to your pastor

Seek guidance before making your plans. Your pastor might know of a good opportunity for you to visit a missionary and encourage them with your visit.

3. Contact the missionary

When you get connected with a missionary, ask how you can serve and go with a humble, learning mindset. This isn’t about crafting an amazing experience for yourself or your child. It’s about serving, learning, and participating in what God is already doing.

Taking your child on a mission trip isn’t easy. It involves risk, cost, and sacrifice. But it also creates opportunities—for growth, for perspective, for lasting memories, and for seeing God’s work in the world in a way that simply can’t be replicated at home.

One day my son will likely forget many of the details of this trip, but I hope he never forgets that God is gathering worshipers from every tribe and nation, that faithful Christians are laboring around the world to make Christ known, and that he had the privilege of witnessing a small part of that work with his own eyes.

For this reason, I believe the trip was worth every dollar, every hour of travel, and every inconvenience along the way.

Footnotes

1. As a disclaimer, I think it would be more ideal to take a child who is over 14 years old. But since I was already going on this trip, we believed it would be valuable for him to join me. ↩

2. Also noteworthy is the fact that we stopped in Rome for a 24 hour layover on our way home and saw the Vatican museums, Trevi Fountain, Pantheon, Spanish Steps, Colosseum, etc. ↩

3. I don’t know yet all that God will do through this experience in my son’s life. A mission trip is not a magic formula that guarantees spiritual growth. But just as parents faithfully expose their children to church, Scripture, and Christian fellowship, I wanted to expose my son to God’s work among the nations and trust God with the results. ↩