The "Cast" of Any Good Missions Trip

For any of us that have every participated in a missions trip we know that there are certain personalities that can emerge amongst our team members. Since most missions trips are done in cross-cultural and unfamiliar settings, there are parts of us that bubble up due to the stress that we're experiencing.

Tyler Stanton recently wrote about the essential cast of a great mission trip via the Stuff Christians Like blog. A few of the characters mentioned:

The Culture ExpertThis guy takes advantage of every opportunity to show off the 8 Spanish words he knows. He also thrives on letting you know all the different things you're doing right this second that are offensive to this culture.

The Drama Queen
This girl somehow manages to suffer from diarrhea, heat exhaustion, and a badly sprained ankle before even getting off the bus. The only time she stops complaining about not being able to bring her hair dryer is when she is complaining about how gross the food is. When a friend confides in her about the deep impact this trip is having on him, she rolls her eyes and responds with "you don't even know" and one-ups his experience with one of her own.

The PhotographerThis person holds a deep conviction that capturing action shots of her group is more important than helping provide shelter for Ecuadorian orphans. She manages to go the entire week without picking up a single tool or getting her hands dirty (except for that one time she dropped her lens on the dirt mound).

You can read the whole post here.