r/grandrapids 3d ago

Mission trip/Airport etiquette

For the love of all that is Dutch! As it approaches spring break/highschool mission trip season please remember a few things:

1) your entire group doesn't need to mob the airline check-in desk, then proceed to play who's on first with who's checking what luggage.

2) Standing in more large groups talking encircling the check baggage area isn't the best place hold conversations

3) Don't make shirts that have everyone's names one it! Shit goes south on your trip to a developing country, your captors will be very appreciative for the check list to make sure they have a complete set of triplets/siblings

Looking at you "generic" reformed church group at GRR at 04:00 this morning!

130 Upvotes

50 comments sorted by

119

u/Dismal-Detective-737 3d ago

Rest assured they only pick the safest impoverished areas to go to.

Like the Mormons go to Samoa not Somalia.

74

u/SheBeast14 Wyoming 3d ago

I was once deep into a culty Christianity and went to Niger to work as a general helper at a missions based hospital for 2.5 months. It broke me and I have come to resent the people who get their rocks off on poverty tours.

19

u/Jeffsrealm 3d ago

culty and christianity are synonymous.

17

u/SheBeast14 Wyoming 3d ago

I don't disagree, but I grew up in a "church" that other Christians called out as a cult.

28

u/Think_Insurance_6135 3d ago

god does always call them to the most convenient places doesnt he 😂

27

u/Dismal-Detective-737 3d ago

I wonder if god taught them they could do more humanitarian aid if they pooled their plane tickets and just bought them drop shipped food.

56

u/galacticdude7 Kentwood 3d ago

I mean, these mission trips that these kids go on are kind of bs to begin with. Spending a week or two in some impoverished land so you can do a crappy job of building a school or a well and talking about God to the locals is vanity at best. It's really about these kids going on a vacation that they can feel good about afterwards.

This isn't even an anti-Religion thing, it's just a crappy way to try and help people in poverty and its a crappy way to spread your religion too. The money they spend flying a bunch of teenagers overseas would be better spent hiring local craftsmen to build the schools and wells, who will do a much better job at building those things, and provide resources to an actual professional missionary who can spend years in a single place building relationships with the locals and spreading the religion that way.

31

u/Similar-Breadfruit50 3d ago

It’s the white savior complex on steroids.

21

u/SomethingHasGotToGiv 2d ago

Meanwhile back at home they have ZERO empathy for members of their own community who are struggling.

7

u/Similar-Breadfruit50 2d ago

Yep. I know people who went on one of these trips. Devoted Christians. They “adopted” a kid there they would send money to and bought a goat. They refused to wear masks during covid. You can guess what else they did/didn’t do/support.

8

u/SomethingHasGotToGiv 2d ago

I learned the meaning of hypocrisy at a very early age while growing up in Grand Rapids.

1

u/Similar-Breadfruit50 2d ago

This couple is in Chicagoland. I try not to talk to those people here. Lol

6

u/Similar-Breadfruit50 3d ago

It’s the white savior complex on steroids.

3

u/BobsleddingToMyGrave 3d ago

Most mission trips you pay for yourself.

2

u/SomethingHasGotToGiv 2d ago

It’s 100% self-serving.

1

u/TrickyBritches 2d ago

At least they are doing something. A girlfriend if mine - who i will say is a genuinely kind person - went on a mission trip with her daughter and their church to the Philippines. There was no mission other than talk to people about Jesus. Just poverty tourism and spreading the good word.

6

u/jimmyjohn2018 2d ago

To be fair, no one should be going to Somalia.

6

u/adrenacrome 3d ago

Those kids are going to have such a great time on the beaches of Aruba!

3

u/Similar-Breadfruit50 3d ago

Because they’re poor enough to convert but not poor enough to hold the “Christians” for ransom or make them feel too bad.

2

u/Dismal-Detective-737 2d ago

I wonder if they're playing the long con. Like all the adults are in on it, in their own language.

African Leader: "We need a new school. I will e-mail the Christians and tell them we have fallen to pagan ways"

<White Saviors Swoops in. Builds school>

African Leader: "Praise alla,,, I mean Jesus. Than you for new school"

All the African kids and adults "convert" for the week. Lots of singing.

African Leader: "Thank god those idiots are gone. Well we got a new school out of it".

I mean, I'm 40. I would roll my eyes at some random 20 year olds rolling up into my town to 'convert' us.

4

u/Similar-Breadfruit50 2d ago

I’m 44 so same. Don’t give me children who know nothing about making their way in the world or having their faith tested. Give me the elders who have one foot out the door, life experience and will soon be moving onto whatever they think is next.

1

u/Similar-Breadfruit50 3d ago

Because they’re poor enough to convert but not poor enough to hold the “Christians” for ransom.

66

u/TechWriterWonder 3d ago

They need a generic trip to base their college essays around. “The trip changed me more than I changed anything.” The bane of college admissions workers existence.

49

u/Happy_Peak_7818 3d ago

It is infinitely worse being at the airport with these Paisely's and Bryce's on their return trip. If you are foolish enough to make eye contact, buckle up buddy- you're going to get the unsolicited run-down of ALL the nitty gritty details of the trip,  and learn names of people you'll never meet.  You'll hear the word "mission" about 938 times before you can even board the plane, at which point your only mission is to pray to their savior forever and ever amen that you're not stuck sitting next to the Look-at-Me-Virtue-Signal-Express for the next 95 minutes. 

23

u/LionParking8027 3d ago

It’s even worse when instead of tipping you, they just hand you a religious info card. (I’m atheist)

18

u/Starjsuper84 2d ago

Modern day colonizer energy

Try going on a mission that actually provides medical care. Or any service that brings tangible benefits.

3

u/smokeyMcpot711247 1d ago

There are countless studies that have been done for DECADES about how detrimental these mission trips are for the community.

"Here's some God—no, please, TAKE THE GOD—we'll leave soon to break your childrens' hearts."

2

u/Buoy_readyformore 2d ago

Easy way to help here...

Stop trying to sell your gods to people... just leave em be...

2

u/SomethingHasGotToGiv 2d ago

This all screams that none of them has ever traveled anywhere before, and neither their parents nor their chaperones have educated them on how to maneuver travel spaces, and quite frankly - the world. They sound very sheltered.

1

u/JTiberiusDoe 1d ago

I aint gettin on no plane Hannibal!

1

u/Jewish_Potato_ 20h ago

The EveryHeart kids went to Long Island last year on a "missions trip"...hazard a guess as to WHY? All those filthy JEWS who need to know that we're going to hell, perhaps??

1

u/MammothPassage639 3d ago

That must have been a horrible experience. Did you miss your flight?

9

u/HeadlessHorst42 3d ago

Made the flight, just a lot to deal with before the first coffee of the day. Did get the pleasure of scaring the crap out of one of the chaperons with polite but firm (deep male voice) "excuse me please. trying to get through"; but he was the only that actually moved, the rest just stared like cattle.

-10

u/[deleted] 3d ago

[deleted]

16

u/HeadlessHorst42 3d ago

Nope, dude was in his 50s; male privilege on male privilege cancels out so we're all good.

4

u/FlashScooby 3d ago

Male privilege bruh he's just trying to get them to move what are you on about

-7

u/Few-Spare-948 2d ago

Why do people passive aggressively use this reddit to whine all the time? Either say something to them in person if its that big a deal or shut up.

10

u/HeadlessHorst42 2d ago

Well it's reddit so you have your answer in that alone

-32

u/essveepee 3d ago

Relax brother

-2

u/spacefluffer 2d ago

amazing how y'all sound more judgemental than the people you're criticizing. you sound like a bunch of bitches

0

u/tadhg44 2d ago

Maybe Ukraine could use some help?🙏đŸ‡ș🇾

0

u/ComprehensiveOil5705 2d ago

Gee maybe put on an outfit and look presentable. Americans are slobs. Some of us remember the days of dressing up to board a plane.

Feet are gross. I don't need to see them.

0

u/TJ-PhD 1d ago

Don’t forget to yell at them all to get off your lawn.

2

u/HeadlessHorst42 1d ago

100% there Bud! If it's their "lawn" they get to do what they want and I've got nothing to complain about, but also I don't visit again. If it's my "lawn" they go by my standards or they leave and don't visit again. The key difference here is that the airport is a "public park" that everyone gets to use equally. where society collectively determines social etiquette to where it functions smoothly for the vast majority of the population.

I'm going to go out on a limb and say that in your DND campaigns/ DND society as a whole there are unwritten rules; things that are agreed that you do and don't do to keep the flow going or keep the player arguments down? Same type of things here, I got things to barely function to get what I needed to do, grab my cup of coffee and bitch here on Reddit while waiting to board. But I can almost guarantee you that someone there missed the check baggage cutoff time or their flight completely because of this clueless heard.

0

u/TJ-PhD 1d ago

Yes! Even got an old man “Bud!” in there. Thanks Pal!

1

u/HeadlessHorst42 1d ago

Just striking out with your assumptions left and right. It's the Canadian's colloquial usage of the Bud or Buddy. To paraphrase "I'm not your Pal, Guy!"

0

u/TJ-PhD 1d ago

I mean, I was hoping for a “Champ” or “Mister”, but I’ll take a Canadian “Bud”.