Ep 20: Be Useful - What a Professional Short Term Trip Actually Looks Like
Last week I took you to Mumbai to show you what a vision trip looks like — the red light district, the Dharavi slum, Titus and his chai, the rooftop prayer meeting. That's a vision trip: entering as a learner, getting more out than you give.
Today is different. Today is about being useful.
In this episode I walk through what a professional trip actually looks like — using a specific skill, at a specific invitation, to accomplish a specific task in service of long-term work that's already happening on the ground. I use Nehemiah as the model: he knew what he was bringing, he knew what was needed, he knew who was already there.
Then I tell real stories across several types of professional trips:
- IT professionals serving field workers at overseas conferences
- My daughter's trip to the Philippines — and Dr. Melissa, a psychologist who showed up to care for exhausted long-term workers
- Photographers and videographers documenting unengaged people groups
- Teachers and trainers offering intensive skill-based training at the invitation of a field worker
- Retirees — and why I think this is the most underused category of all
I also give the three cautions for professional trips: don't go without an invitation, don't fold into a vision trip, and don't go directly to the local population without a cultural intermediary.
Resources mentioned in this episode:
- Across the Street and Around the World — Chapter 7, full professional trip ideas list + all three trip type checklists
- Neighbors and Nations Course
- Global Goer Quiz
Next episode: survey trips — the rarest trip nobody's planning, and the one that led to me moving my whole family to India.
DM me on Instagram: Are you a professional or retiree wondering what a trip like this could look like for you? I'd love to help you think it through.
Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/jeanniemmarie
