Recently I returned from a three week mission trip in the Philippines. My husband, Charley and I traveled to both the islands of Luzon and Mindanao visiting various churches and schools. During that time we accumulated over 300 photos, two hours of video and 18 days of blog posts totaling over 6000 words. All of which needed to be condensed down to smaller bites of information. Each piece of information served a different purpose and has to be presented differently.

• Article for my workplace newsletter
• Script for Power Point presentation at church
• Updating information on a website for the foundation that sponsored the trip
• Articles on what we shared from the Bible
• Devotionals from experiences
• Script for Power Point for Foundation board
• Other Miscellaneous article for various magazines and websites

Each writing project has its own take away value and expectations.

The article for my workplace newsletter is devoid of what we spoke on during ministry at the churches we visited. Instead it covers the differences in culture and our school visits. Descriptions of their homes and lifestyles was the main thrust of the article. I submitted only four pictures to complement the text.

Transcribing sermons and Bible training into devotionals and Bible Study articles takes time.  The spoken word has to be tweaked for an article. A sermon never reads well in its original form. The body language that is used for emphasis isn’t there.

I did interviews with various Filipino board members that will appear on the foundation website. A Power Point  with narrative of our trip will be added to the website drawing from both the cultural and spiritual aspects and adding more details of the physical needs of the people.

Our Power Point for the foundation board will cover the goals we accomplished as they relate to the foundation. While the Power Point for the churches will be filled with stories of the people and what God did in their lives.

Not just a Travel Article

All of this information can fuel many articles from devotionals to travel to children’s stories. There were many laughable moments as well as ones that brought us to tears. Some are stand alone experiences with deep spiritual significance. Others are those Ah ha moments that made me understand why I was there.

Needing Time to Process

At trip’s end I was over whelmed by the enormous amount of information we had accumulated. It has taken me a few weeks to boil it all down in my mind. Now I am ready to write.  Waiting to write gives me that hindsight perspective of what the really important elements of my adventure were and how I want to share them. It also gives me time to research publications to submit articles with a take away that best suits their needs.

What kind of articles do you write from your travel experiences? How do you go about it?