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Quick Tip: Easy Four Square on Carpet

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I don’t know about your students, but my middle school students love two games: gagaball and four square. They go nuts over them. We have shared about our indoor/outdoor gagaball before, but today I wanted to share a quick tip for playing four square on a carpet floor.

Most everyone is familiar with four square. A large square is divided up into four equal squares. The final square (the king square) is where you serve from and getting to that square is the ultimate goal.

Players advance by getting other players out. This happens when the ball bounces twice in their opponent’s square, their opponent doesn’t return the ball to an opposing square, or their opponent hits the ball out of bounds. Sounds simple enough; but if you’re playing on carpet, how do you set up the lines?

For years we used painters tape hoping it wouldn’t leave residue for our facility team. But alas, it still did. We tried utilizing string or rope as the lines but they kept getting moved which led to arguments over fairness. And we were not in a space where we could paint the lines into the carpet or order specific carpet squares for the game because we are a multipurpose space.

Then came the solution! One of our facility team members came up to me and said, “Have you tried Velcro strips?” It was like a great epiphany! I hadn’t even thought of that before.

Velcro would work because it wouldn’t damage the carpet, it could be rolled up and easily stored, and it was inexpensive. What was even better was that team member went online and found the actual dimensions (I didn’t know there were such things for four square) and cut the pieces of Velcro to length.

Set up is now a breeze when we have programming because I simply put down six pieces of Velcro and all of a sudden we have a durable court ready to go. We’ve been utilizing the same strips of Velcro for years and have had no issues. Just make sure that when you store the Velcro, you roll it so it doesn’t stick to itself or other strips.

You can find all sorts of different varieties on Amazon or a local hardware store. My encouragement would be to not buy one with an adhesive backing because that will keep people from accidentally pealing it off and becoming sticky.

Hopefully this provides you and your students with a fun, quick, and easy to clean up activity. My encouragement when pulling up the Velcro is to be mindful of your carpet if it’s individual carpet squares. Pulling up too quickly can dislodge them depending on how the carpet squares are secured to the actual flooring.

I hope this is a great resource that allows you and your team to creatively engage with your students!

It’s Okay to Say No and Set Boundaries

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Have you ever said no to someone before? Have you ever declined a work meeting? Have you waited to respond to a text or sent a call to voicemail? Have you ever told your boss that couldn’t do an additional task?

If you’re a people-pleaser like me, those questions may have rubbed you the wrong way and caused a fair amount of tension or anxiety deep within you. I get it. Saying no to someone or something is difficult. Saying no to someone or something that is connected to your job, ministry, gifting, or calling feels wrong and maybe even unchristian.

But have you ever stopped to consider that the word “no” is a healthy word? Don’t we teach that boundaries within life are healthy and necessary? God gave Adam and Eve boundaries within the garden. Jesus gives us plenty of boundaries in the Gospels. Paul lays out intentional boundaries within his letters. We see that the word “no” is used to highlight healthy boundaries and to protect people.

If we see the word “no” used all the time in Scripture and by God, why are we so hesitant to use it? I would assert it is because we are in a culture that embraces and champions workaholics while it decries anything reflective of rest and sabbath.

We elevate and celebrate the individuals who sacrifice everything to advance in their career, even when that includes their own well-being or their family. We even offer people a higher pay wage for when they work more than they should. In essence, we celebrate and reward people for not resting and for always saying yes.

But God Himself set boundaries and parameters for rest and refreshment. And I would assert that He did so to help us be the best version of ourselves as we reflect Jesus to the world. What that means is we need to set intentional boundaries and be willing to say “no” when it’s warranted.

You cannot do everything and always say “yes,” because that mentality will lead to burnout, frustration, and bitterness. Instead, we must practice healthy rhythms with intentionality to protect ourselves, our families, and the ministries we serve and lead. Being willing to set boundaries helps you make better decisions and lead out of health instead of depletion.

Part of doing this means being honest with yourself, your family, your teams, and your supervisors. Identifying your capacity and limits will allow you to find where you need to set boundaries and say “no” to additional asks.

Another aspect of intentionally engaging this process is asking for someone to keep you accountable. Having an individual (or individuals) lovingly walk with you and challenge you when needed will help you to be better at setting healthy boundaries while still doing what God has called you to do.

This doesn’t mean there aren’t busy seasons or times when we have to say “yes” to additional things and tasks. However, those moments should be the exception and not the norm. We should also be willing to take time after those seasons to refresh and reset from those busy stretches.

When we learn to set boundaries and say “no” to protect ourselves, our relationship with Jesus, and those we love and care about, we are honoring God and showing the people we lead and serve what a healthy life truly looks like. So, my question to you is this: will you say “no” and set up healthy boundaries?

Quick Tip: Take Care of Your Team

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Have you ever had someone show up with coffee for you out of the blue? Has someone brought baked goods to your office before? Has someone treated you to breakfast? Have you ever received a hand-written note of encouragement?

I think we all have experienced this in some way, and we all know how it makes us feel. We feel seen, valued, loved, and affirmed. It is amazing how intentional and yet simple cup of coffee can be.

But here’s the thing: these moments shouldn’t just be for us, we should be utilizing these opportunities to bless and care well for our people. If we feel valued, seen, and loved when we receive those blessings, shouldn’t we be doing the same for others?

One of the best things you can do as a leader is to care well for your team(s). Now depending on your circumstance and financial structure, this may sound like something you cannot achieve. I get it; when budgets are tight or nonexistent, we default to thinking about the financial strain that comes with “caring for our leaders.”

But let me pause here and share this truth: lack of finances should not keep us from caring well for our team. That means we may need to reshape our thinking; the reality is that because we are a consumeristic culture we have allowed for that to determine how caring for people looks. But money isn’t the only thing that we can utilize to care for others.

What we need to understand is that we can care well by sitting and truly listening to others. We can care well by sending a card or a note to our teams. We can care well by publicly affirming them. We can care well by bringing them a homemade dessert or dinner.

Intentionally caring for our teams needs to be a priority because a well cared for team produces stability, consistency, longevity, community, and an environment where students flourish. Well cared for leaders care well for their students and allow for a discipleship-oriented ministry to prosper. A team that is loved, championed, and cared for is a team that will continue to run after and embrace the vision and passion of the ministry they serve and lead.

As the leader of a ministry, it is our job to love and care for our teams. It can be as simple as affirming them in public or private. A handwritten note encouraging them. A gift card, treating them to breakfast or coffee, remembering their birthday or anniversary, comforting and mourning with them during seasons of loss, or following up on important things within their lives.

Stopping and considering if your team feels loved and cared for is an important aspect of leading that each of us should be engaging with. Being intentional and walking with your team as you care for them is necessary and nonnegotiable. So, how are you caring well for your team?

Trip Tricks: Mission Trip Interview Tips

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We just closed out our mission trip applications for this summer and are thrilled with the amount of students and leaders who want to serve this year. Part of our methodology for summer programming is to lean into mission trips as it correlates with our vision of disciplemaking.

An integral part of our application process is sitting down for an interview with each student who signs up. We discuss their application, work through their references, get to know them better, and discern if this trip is the right trip for them.

This process helps to ensure that the team going on the trip can work together, mesh well, and have the right philosophy for the trip. It also allows the trip leader to know their team, to begin to see how the team will integrate, and to begin to see pressure points that may develop.

Another aspect of this interview is that we are able to ascertain where students are at in their faith. I am a firm believer that mission trips are not just for the students who have it all “figured out” or even just for Christians.

Mission trips can be missional to the students who are going to serve. But in walking through an application that should have pertinent faith questions, you can begin to understand where each student is in their journey with Jesus.

In preparation for each of the interviews, I would highly suggest the following before you sit down with your student:

1. Read the application and take notes.

Write down any questions you have, underscore things you wish to touch on, and make notes about any themes, challenges, or encouragements that you see. Be prepared to follow up on those notes during your interview with the student.

2. Pray for the student.

Part of our application asks our students to list ways we can pray for them. These requests are then shared with our church through prayer cards when we do fundraising, but it also provides a way for you to pray for your students before, during, and after the interview process.

Take time to not just pray for the requests they shared in the application, but also ask if there are any other requests that they may have when you sit down for the interview.

3. Prepare any guidance or follow up that will need to be done.

One thing we ask each of our applicants to do is share their testimony. Sometimes we need to offer guidance in writing the testimony out or even in helping them to understand what their testimony is. Whether it’s the testimony or other guidance, be prepared to speak into specific areas during the interview.

4. Follow up with references if needed.

Part of our application process involves students getting a parental and personal reference. If concerns are raised by their references, or if there are specific aspects that warrant follow up, make sure to do so before the interview so you’re adequately prepared.

Proper preparation for interviews will help to ensure they go well and you are building a unified team that will work well together. Being proactive and intentional in the interview process helps you to lead well and instill trust in your students as they prepare for the trip.

Quick Tip: Is it Just for Shock Value?

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I’ll never forget the moment I decided to incorporate a phrase to garner laughs, draw people in, and surprise them. I was speaking with the student ministry I worked at over a decade ago and I thought this would be an amazing thing to do.

I was making my point and said, “What the hel…llo Kitty?!” I thought utilizing a play on words where it sounded like I was going to curse but switched to shouting out a common childhood franchise was hilarious.

Looking back I realized many things. What I thought was funny did not resonate with my students at all. In fact, it went over their heads.

I also realized that the fact I almost said “what the hell” was caught by many of our volunteers and they didn’t think it was a good thing. I had multiple leaders stop me afterward and challenge me on what I said.

And in looking back, I realized that I had put more focus into something that would not actually benefit my students and leaders, but simply would elicit shock.

This was a big heart check moment for me because something I thought was a good idea was not what I had hoped it would be. It became a distraction. It pulled people away from the heart of the message. It created tension and not the type that we should be employing when sharing the Word of God.

After a lot of self reflection and counseling with trusted mentors, I came to the realization that shock value doesn’t have the desired effect we wish it did. Often shock value leads to just that: shock. But the value is typically not there. Shock value moments are typically what people walk away remembering, not the focus of the message or a change in their relationship with Jesus.

Instead, what we need do is think critically about what we are writing and saying, and seek to discern the reason behind what we are saying. If the point is simply to elicit a response, we need to ask if the reason for the response will help to further the focus of our message and draw people closer to Jesus. If it’s just for creating shock or a response, perhaps it is best to remove it from the message.

Looking at today’s Christian culture, there are plenty of pastors and leaders who have done a litany of things simply for shock value. When you look into those moments, the majority of people don’t remember what the sermon was about and the focus has been removed from God’s Word and is now on a singular action or phrase.

That is not to be our focus nor should it be our intent. Instead, we need to focus on drawing people closer to Jesus as we help them to grow and flourish in the discipleship process.

At the end of the day, we have an obligation to lovingly guide and shepherd our people which means we need to discern if what we say and do is helping us reach and direct our people toward Jesus. If we utilize this metric, it will help us and our people in our walks with Jesus.

Quick Tip: Always Have a Wellness Policy

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It’s wintertime and that means illnesses are abounding. I’m not a scientist by any scope of the term, but I’ve worked with students long enough to know that this time of year sees a large uptick of sickness. There’s colds, stomach bugs, the flu, Covid, allergies, and more.

In the area we serve, doctors have been seeing a very large increase in illnesses and in how quickly they are spreading. Schools are seeing droves of students missing classes. Trips and gatherings allow for illnesses to spread quickly. And illnesses are not always being actualized until symptoms appear, allowing for many people to get sick faster.

The years 2020-2021 taught us a lot of things, and one of them was the necessity of having a wellness policy. Covid forced us to think about social distancing, how to better cover our coughs and sneezes, the increased importance of sanitary practices, and how important it is to stay home when sick and not spread illnesses. But the reality is Covid isn’t the only illness that can and will spread rapidly, especially in scenarios where large groups are gathered together.

As we began to reassess and think differently about how we did ministry post-Covid, an area we realized needed to be updated was our wellness policy. We decided to call it a “wellness policy” rather than “sick policy” because wellness highlights what we are seeking to achieve and it is more positive sounding. A sick policy seems punitive while wellness points towards a safe place where even immunocompromised individuals can attend.

So what does this look like? Well, I’ll be honest with you and share two key pieces about a wellness policy: it may change over time, and it will also depend on your context. Let me explain both of these in a little more detail.

A wellness policy may change as you understand more about the illnesses you are dealing with and how that pertains to your ministry and its setting. For instance, our wellness policy was originally focused on multiple symptoms but we adjusted that when we understood people could be asymptomatic. So we went more broad than narrow on our policy to work within that understanding.

Your context will also help determine how you shape your wellness policy. If you live in a setting where you can conduct ministry outdoors for a large part of the year, you will probably have a bit more freedom in how you shape the policy. If you’re indoors in a smaller environment that will also shape how you purposefully engage this policy. Another thing to consider is allergens and how prone your area of the country is to them as their symptoms can sometimes manifest in the same way other illnesses can.

So understanding your context and present setting should help you in shaping how your policy looks. I stated earlier that we went simple with ours as we believe clarity is kindness and simplicity helps us be direct and understandable. We focused on a few key points for our policy and have shaped it in this way: “If you feel sick stay home. We want you to rest up and feel better, as well as prevent any one else from catching anything.”

We have an addendum for Covid which states, “If you test positive for Covid, please adhere to the following guideline: you must stay home (i.e. away from the church) until you are symptom free for 24 hours without a fever.” We also encourage everyone to follow good hygiene practices.

These simple statements have not only helped our group stay relatively healthy throughout the years, but it’s also given people permission to take a sick day. This policy applies to our leaders who, like yours, are dedicated and wanted to always be present even to their own detriment. But now they are given the freedom to stay home and get better.

This policy is not guaranteed to prevent any type of sickness, nor stop the spreading of anything. But it does help in keeping our people safe and provides clear communication.

In months where illnesses are rapidly spreading, having a wellness policy helps you to care well for you people by giving them loving direction and seeking to ensure a safe and healthy place for your entire community.

Quick Tip: Have a Sick Plan

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Have you ever been sick on youth group night or Sunday morning? Has the flu surprised you the day of youth group? Have you experienced prolonged illness that kept you out of service for a good amount of time?

The longer I serve in ministry, especially student ministry, the more convinced I become that having a sick plan is a necessity. Trips can allow for illnesses to spread quickly. Winter months see a drastic increase in cold, flu, Covid, and other illnesses.

And then there’s always the unexpected sickness or health concern that creeps up. Family members may get sick and need help at home. And if this is the case, how do we handle those moments when we can’t be at our ministry? Is there a game plan? Do your volunteers know what the plan is? How is that information communicated to your leaders, students, and families?

Today I want to help you think through these moments by providing tangible steps you can take to address these concerns. This isn’t a one-size-fits-all approach, but more of an à la carte approach where you can pick and choose the steps that work best for you and your ministry.

Take a sick day.

Sometimes we just want to work through whatever illness we are wrestling with, but that’s a poor approach to take. Showing up sick can put others at risk, it depletes you even more, and it communicates to your team that it’s okay to show up sick, which can lead to illnesses being spread quickly and more often. So take a sick day, rest, recoup, and come back when you’re healthy.

Have a backup teacher.

One of the truths we must come to terms with is that our programs and ministries can and will exist without us. It’s a hard truth to reckon with, but a truth nonetheless. For many years I wrestled with this and convinced myself of the lie that the ministries I oversaw couldn’t exist without me.

It took a mental health leave for me to see that these ministries will not only exist without me, but can flourish as well. And I saw this truth through our leaders who stepped up and utilized their gifts. I became much more aware that I have gifted communicators on my team and I should be empowering them to serve. One of them has actually come to me and said, “If you ever need to bail, for any reason, I’ll have a lesson ready to go.”

This taught me so much and I want to encourage you to seek out and have backup teachers ready for when you can’t be present. No, it won’t be in the series you’re doing and no it won’t be what you had prepared. But God will use those individuals and His Word to help your students grow and flourish. So find different people who can step in for you when you’re sick (and a bonus tip: use them even when you are not sick and watch how different voices resonate with your students).

Build a communication plan.

This is important across your ministry as a whole, but having a communication plan for illness is key. Who will you tell? Who gets told first? What’s the communication say? Is it intentional, informational, or both? Drafting a plan for how communication goes out, to whom it goes out to, and what it says is key.

My mentality is to start with my leaders because they help in communicating any change to their students. They have more established communication lines so it makes sense to start there. We then email families and post across our media channels.

Our emails contain information that is needed about any change or cancelation, but they also provide intentional touch points. We provide ways for families to connect like cooking or baking together with recipes, or watching a movie and discussing it. We highlight ways to engage in worship, and we even point to a passage in Scripture that they could discuss.

Now all of this sounds great, but when you’re sick no one wants to spend the time writing all of this out. So prepare it ahead of time and have it ready to go when needed.

Have a plan for Sunday morning and youth group evenings.

As you think about the two prior points, it’s also important to have a plan for how your programming will function when you are not present. Have you taught people how to set things up? Have you shared your expectations? Do people know what to do in different scenarios like if a student gets hurt or if there’s a fire alarm?

Often times youth workers handle their own set up and know the ins and outs of tech, lighting, and how to open and close up the church; but do the people filling in for you know how to do all of that? Training, equipping, and empowering others to handle this means building a plan for them and helping them understand that plan.

At the end of the day, there will be times you are not present at youth group or church. That is okay, and you should be encouraged to take sick days and vacation time. But how will your ministry do without you? Is it build upon you and your identity (or perhaps is your identity wrapped up in it), or is it sustainable because it’s built around Christ? Have you empowered others to lead in your absence? Do you have a plan for when you are not there?

By preparing ahead, you are setting your team and ministry up for success. Take the necessary steps to be proactive rather than reactive and watch your ministry flourish even if you’re sick.

Trip Tricks: Post Trip Follow-Up

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It’s the end of your trip. You’re preparing your group to head home. You and your team are saying your goodbyes to camp staff, missionaries, and new friends. You’re taking group pictures, thinking about the ride or flight home. And when you finally get back, you can’t wait for those first few minutes of silence and stillness before heading home to see your family, take a nice long shower, and sleep in your own bed.

Sound familiar? I know I tend to feel all of those things during the end of our trips. But what about intentional follow-up with your students?

Students usually encounter Jesus in new and refreshing ways during trips and come away with a renewed desire to follow Him and grow deeper in their faith. The question we need to ask ourselves is this: are we intentionally leveraging and engaging in these moments to best steward and grow our students’ relationship with Jesus?

In my early years of student ministry I didn’t always focus on this. And it became painfully obvious that my students rode the “camp high” and then began to fizzle out as they simply went back to their old habits. But that doesn’t have to be the case.

We can avoid the “camp high” by helping our students to intentionally continue engaging in their relationship with Jesus and continuing in community with believers. We can help them see that there is more than simply settling for the mundane and typical life this world offers, and instead show them how amazing and grand it can be with Jesus.

One of the ways we can do this is by offering intentional steps our students can take to engage their faith and help them with follow up. Here’s what it looks like for us.

We sit our group down all together for ten to fifteen minutes at the end of the trip before we load up to go home and we take time to talk through intentional steps they can take.

We talk about continuing to be in biblical community, engaging with spiritual rhythms, next steps in their faith journey like baptism, joining a summer mission trip, serving in the church and their community, and sharing their story with others. Each of these steps are designed to eliminate the myth of the “camp high” and to help students continue to grow and flourish in their faith.

We also tried a new approach this year where we gave postcards to our small group leaders that were designed to give students a means of responding to their experience on the retreat. We realize that as our ministry has grown, the large group gatherings at the end are great, but with a discipleship format, having small group leaders engage in a different setting allows us to help our students grow and take steps of faith. The postcards can be fairly simple and should included space for contact information, and then some tangible check boxes. The check boxes could include things like, I followed Jesus, I want to get baptized, I want to serve, and I have questions.

We also try to be intentional in providing pathways for students to take after the trip that will help them grow in their faith. After our winter retreat we launch our summer trip sign-ups a week after returning home. We challenge students to serve by promoting opportunities during youth group in the weeks following our trips. We also try to provide thoughtful and intentional ways for students to share their stories throughout the year.

Providing intentional opportunities for follow-up with your students allows for continued growth and development of their faith. It also helps students to understand that their faith doesn’t simply ride the rollercoaster of jumping from event to event but is an ongoing journey they get to be a part of with Jesus. It also helps to ensure that upcoming generations don’t walk away from their faith after high school, but instead are committed to an ongoing transformative relationship with their Savior.

Trip Tricks: How to Determine Rooming Assignments

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It is inevitable. Whenever we have a student trip, the emails, phone calls, text messages, and conversations when you interact with parents or students will always focus on who is rooming with whom.

There are the requests that siblings are and are not put in the same room. Students will ask to be with their friends but not someone with whom they don’t get along. Parents will want to make sure their kids are only with certain other students, or they’ll ask that their student get their own room.

Rooming assignments had always been a piece of trip planning I did not look forward to. As someone who is a people pleaser and loves to be liked by others, I always felt like I was letting someone down when I put together assignments. Someone always seemed disappointed or unhappy. And if I’m being honest, that weighed on me fairly heavily and it compounded my dislike of building out rooming situations.

So it seemed I had two options available: give up on the perfect rooming assignments and simply deal with people being frustrated, or try to get it right every single time. But I actually learned there is a third option: handle rooming assignments with intentionality, care, insight, and a desire to foster community and discipleship. With that approach I believe that rooming assignments can be a tool and opportunity to help our students grow and flourish.

But how do we do that well? What are some keys to handling this intentionally with a desire to help cultivate our students’ hearts toward Jesus?

Plan ahead.

I understand that we cannot always do this as a lot depends on when you receive your housing assignments from wherever you’re staying. If possible though, begin preparing where you’ll be placing your students early as this will provide ample time to make changes as you approach your departure date.

Preparing ahead of time affords you the most flexibility to adapt and change things and gives you a better opportunity to be thoughtful and intentional with where you place your students.

Assign rooms by small group.

One of the easiest ways to figure out rooming assignments is to set them up via small group. Most youth groups have small groups that are assigned by grade and gender, which allows you to place groups accordingly. This helps to remove the puzzle of trying to figure out where to place students if you determine this to be your approach.

Work with small group leaders.

Another thing to remember is that depending on the size of your youth group, your leaders will know who should and should not be rooming together. Seeking their counsel allows you to hopefully circumvent any known issues between students and work toward a better trip experience for everyone who is going.

What I would suggest before asking your leaders’ input is to put together the housing assignments and ask them to look it over for their small group and provide any insight. Doing this process in the reverse will add a lot more stress as you’ll have too many opinions and cooks in the kitchen.

Don’t allow for changes.

When it comes to room assignments there are a million different reasons that people seek to have their rooms changed. I used to try and accommodate the requests but it became overwhelming and impossible.

Instead, what we have moved toward is assigning rooms with the best intentions and insight, without allowing changes. This ensures our responses are consistent across the board and everyone is on an equal playing field.

Now, that does not mean we will never make changes. But making changes is the exception, not the norm. We will allow changes when necessary, but they are always done after much thought and understanding.

Do not communicate rooming assignments until check-in.

Students love to know their rooming assignments before a trip as they make plans and want to create a special group within the room. But this can lead to more requests for changes and it can also lead to students feeling left out or dismissed by their peers if they don’t “make the cut.”

Instead, telling students their rooms at check-in circumvents many of those issues and ensures no one gets alienated or forgotten.

Be thoughtful about how you blend groups.

Inevitably you’ll need to blend groups when it comes to housing and this is where it can get tricky. Do you house middle school students with high school students? What about siblings? What about small groups that don’t get along? What if small groups or friend groups need to be split up to make housing assignments work?

Whenever you need to blend groups, be intentional and thoughtful. You know your students and their friendships, so seek to lean into those aspects.

Also, seek to empower students who are leaders when blending groups. Encourage them to help foster community and explain why they have their specific rooming assignment. Being thoughtful when blending groups helps to alleviate problems or issues before they develop.

Trip Tricks: Be Proactive about Your Health

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Our winter trip is quickly approaching and we know this time of year illness is always a factor. Different illnesses are quickly spreading and placing people in the hospital. We just had the holidays where people were in large gatherings and sharing germs. And of course we know that weekly youth group gatherings are hot zones for sickness.

Our youth group always goes to our winter retreat in January and our host site typically has 350 people on site for their retreats. All of this to say, sickness abounds before, during, and after trips, especially in the winter time.

As the leaders of our ministries we must be proactive in our approach to staying healthy as we prepare for trips. We know that there are a hundred different things we have to prepare and execute for the trip on top of normal programming and obligations.

So how do we stay healthy leading up to the trip? Today, I want to share some tips that I utilize in an attempt to be proactive before we leave.

Get a good amount of rest each night.

I don’t know about you but I really like sleep. However, I usually don’t sleep well (or that much) on trips. So I know that leading up to a trip I need to get a good amount of rest to prepare for the trip. Sleep also helps your body recharge and heal from all the germs that try to attack your body.

Take vitamins and build up your immune system.

When I was younger I was never really into taking vitamins. But here’s the harsh reality: it’ll only take one trip where you get sick to change your mind. Being proactive with your health instead of reactive is huge because you will potentially be avoiding the effects of illnesses that develop on trips.

So start by taking vitamins that are just good for your health like probiotics, multivitamins, vitamin C, and others that help boost your own health.

Wash your hands often and use hand sanitizer.

Before and during trips it is easy to rush and touch anything and everything. I mean just think about how many things you touch within the first hour of showing up at church. It’s a lot.

And now pause and watch your students as they touch all the same things. They don’t wash their hands all the time, they are passing germs along, and some of them are probably sick while doing so. That means we need to wash our hands often and at the very least use hand sanitizer.

Wash your hands before eating or touching any part of your face. Use hand sanitizer after touching things that are touched by others (think door handles, push bars, pens, etc.). Taking this steps helps to keep your body free of illnesses and germs.

Eat well.

Okay, I get it. We work in a ministry that runs off of candy, soda, and pizza (and the occasional walking taco). But this stuff doesn’t actually fuel us; it depletes us.

I used to eat this all the time and it messed up my body pretty bad. My doctor put me on an incredibly strict fitness and eating regimen to get my body back on track. I can tell you it wasn’t easy but it is possible and I feel so much better.

It does take extra work and effort but eating well will help you stay healthy and have more energy especially as you’re leading trips.

Exercise.

I don’t know about you, but whenever we take students on a trip I feel like I’m more active than normal. My step count jumps. I’m hustling from one place or issue to the next. I’m engaging in more activities.

Typically, I come home exhausted after these trips and my immune system takes a hit because of how active I have been. My body isn’t used to the activity and as it seeks to adjust, illness creeps in.

So instead of letting that be the case, start exercising before you go. Get in the habit of walking or jogging. Start engaging in more active activities. It isn’t a fix-all but instead is helping you build up your body’s strength and natural immunity.

Practice good hygiene.

This seems like something that is a “duh” statement. Of course we need to practice good hygiene. We know that. But how often at a weekend camp do we make an excuse, for whatever reason, to not shower or wash our hands? I mean it’s only a weekend and I’ll shower when I get home.

But think about all the illnesses and germs you are around and how depleted your body is. Practicing good hygiene not only cleans your body, it refreshes it. It makes you feel better and recharges your body. So don’t sacrifice it for convenience, make it a priority.

I am not saying that by following this list you will never get sick on a trip. What I am saying is that we must be intentional and proactive in our health and wellbeing to be able to fully engage and care for our students on trips. How do you stay healthy on trips?