October 1, 2026
Baptist churches have a centuries-long history of supporting missionaries, but short-term mission trips have become popular among evangelical church members only since the 1960s. Reaching a peak in the 1980s and 1990s, some research shows that up to four million church members are involved in short-term trips each year, largely going in age-defined groups.
A recent phenomenon, though, is the rise of whole families taking trips together either as a part of a larger church effort or devoting a family vacation to missions. One study discovered that many family trips are a one-time or occasional activity requiring planning, fundraising, and vacation days. Some mission agencies are starting to notice and have begun offering planning assistance and travel tips specifically for families on mission.
This rise in family missions is also true for Georgia, where children can watch their parents model active missions. The Pollocks, a large Toccoa family, began their involvement in missions just a few years ago. Justin and Joy, and their children Jackson, Chase, Easton, Brooklyn, and Annie started their mission work when they approached their Georgia Baptist missions pastor to ask whether Justin could join the building projects while Joy could help with Vacation Bible School in Mexico.
Both Justin and Joy are educators, so the question of whether modest incomes could provide for a whole family arose. Moreover, Annie is their adopted daughter with special needs, so a serious issue was whether they could facilitate her on the trip. But what seemed like challenges were quickly revealed to be God’s perfect plan.
Annie has Down syndrome. As a mother of this special-needs child, Joy’s profession of 20 years is working in special education in the local school. Their Mexico mission partners had contacted the Pollocks’ church to see if they would do VBS at a special needs ranch instead of at the church. The church agreed and they quickly shifted their plans from holding VBS in a church to a more focused special-needs VBS on the Mexican ranch to reach out to Mexican parents of special-needs kids.
Annie is adopted from China. One of the primary questions the Mexican moms asked Joy was, “Did you know that Annie had special needs before you adopted her?” When Joy responded, “Yes,” their subsequent question was, “Why then did you adopt her?” Joy observed that in Mexico, as in many countries, children with special needs were regarded more as a burden than a blessing.
This conversation opened the door for Joy to share the gospel message of God’s adoption of His children with our own special spiritual needs. “As many families there suffer, the kids are considered ‘cursed,’ or even kicked out of school,” she says. Joy was asked to invest in special needs moms while she was there, and she built an amazing relationship with those women. Now they keep going back.
The Lord has used Joy, Justin, and the kids to build deep relationships with the families at this ranch in Mexico. “Returning year after year, following up with the great message of the gospel, and showing that we care has been important in building lasting relationships,” Joy relates. “The most recent time we went, we spent time talking about God’s love, about how we’re created in His image, and how He gave these children to us on purpose.” Joy believes God gave her family a true purpose in life with these Mexican parents. “The more they see that we care about them, the more we can paint a picture of our adoption in Christ.”
Another byproduct of their ongoing involvement in Mexico missions has been an expanded ministry to other special needs parents in Georgia. Joy states, “It may have been awkward at first, but I learned that if we can do it in Mexico, we can do it here too.”
In another Georgia Baptist family, the Bowens (Jason and Jackie and their children, twin sisters Carly and Claire, and brother Jace) have made their own family history in missions. Jason recalls a time in 2013 when he was asked to accompany a missions pastor driving a pastor to the airport for a mission trip. As they made their way back from the airport, Jason casually mentioned that one day he would love to take the family on a mission trip. The mission pastor immediately affirmed his interest. Since then, the Bowens have made a mission trip together every year except for the 2020 COVID shutdown.
In considering how they would fund such annual activity, Jason recalls how the Lord not only provided those missions resources each year, but also as a family they have been able to provide a feeding kitchen for children in Mexico who had been only eating one meal a day out of a little shack. Jason shares, “Our family decided that to raise the funds, our girls would make scarves to sell, and instead of Christmas presents, the family gave each other money to go to Mexico.” The sale of those things and other small fund-raising opportunities sent them back year after year, and they built a two-story feeding kitchen for hungry children. Jackie relates that “it never was a question of whether we were going back each year. We all knew it was always a non-negotiable for our family.”
Now in their twenties, the twins still have a heartbeat for missions. Claire is a hair stylist who has done promo photo shoots for mission trips. Carly wants to continue short-term trips in medical missions using her nursing degree, and went to Bolivia recently with Jackie to share the gospel. After a key ceremony in a recent house construction in Mexico, Jace shared Christ with tears and said, “There’s more to life than this earthly home.” This family has experienced the impact of missions together, and now they are taking other families on mission trips.
Recent research has noted that family mission trips impact families by strengthening the bonds of discipleship through fostering empathy and gratitude in the kids and challenging the faith of the whole family. Bonds are made stronger as families spend focused time together and shift their attention from American independent mindsets to serving others and sharing the gospel.
As more writing emerges about family mission efforts, some experts have begun to note that families can sometimes interact with other cultures more effectively than individual missionaries and that God often uses children to open doors for connections with local people in ways that single missionaries may not. The International Mission Board has noted that a “vast majority” of their long-term missionary candidates point to short-term experiences as momentous in their understanding of their call.
Joy Pollock says, “I want my children to grow up and continue to live on mission, to bring people to Christ, and to be brave enough to live uncomfortably but with a mission.” Perhaps as more families from Georgia go on mission trips together, more future long-term missionaries will point back to when Daddy and Mama led them to engage mission fields as a family.
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