What to expect on your trip
From your application to your first morning on campus — here is the whole process, the house rules, and what a day of service actually looks like.
Getting there
Six steps from here to Honduras
Apply
Complete the short-term form (trips of two weeks or less) or the long-term form (longer stays). See the application page for what each asks.
Book your flight
Once accepted, book your own flight and email the itinerary to cityofrefugehonduras@gmail.com so the team can plan your pickup.
Send your passport copy
Email a copy of your passport to the same address — the staff needs it before you arrive.
Pay your deposit
Send your trip deposit through the IMI giving portal at imi.gbgateway.com and select Missions Trip Payment.
Download the trip resources
Grab the customs declarations form, the Honduras travel health guide, and the Mission Trip Cost Breakdown so nothing surprises you.
Pray
The most important preparation. Pray for the children, the staff, your team, and your own heart before you ever board the plane.
Flight itineraries and passport copies go tocityofrefugehonduras@gmail.com; deposits go through thegiving portal.
The house rules
Rules that protect the children — and you
The City of Refuge is home to children who have already survived abandonment, violence, and exploitation. The community rules exist for one reason: nothing on your trip should ever put a child — or a visitor — in a compromised position. Every visitor is scheduled and pre-approved by IMI management, and every visitor agrees to the same standards:
- Dress modestly: shorts and skirts to the knee for women; shirts on for men except at the pool.
- No gifts to the children without staff approval — generosity is wonderful, but it must be fair and safe for all 90 kids.
- Children are never alone with visitors. This protects the children and it protects you.
- Group outings are four or more people, in daylight only.
- No drugs, no alcohol, no tobacco — at any point on the trip.
There are more details in the application itself — covering everything from covering tattoos (which can carry gang associations in Honduras) to how adoption questions are handled — but the spirit of all of them is the same: the children come first.
Day to day
What service actually looks like
Days on campus are full and varied. Depending on your team’s skills and the season, you might spend the morning on construction or in the fields with the farm crew, and the afternoon tutoring students, sorting donations, sewing, or making art and music with the kids. Sports are a ministry of their own — soccer, volleyball, swimming, and wrestling — and evenings often hold outreach, cooking together, teaching, or preaching for those called to it.
In Missouri, the work leans practical: construction, landscaping, and cleaning in support of IMI’s stateside ministry. No two trips are identical, because teams are matched to what the mission needs most that week.
Staying longer?
What long-term missionaries bring
Trips longer than two weeks use the long-term application and come with one extra packing note: bring your own twin or queen sheets, towels, and laundry soap. The campus provides your room; you provide the linens that make it home.
Long-term travelers should also review the trip resources — the customs declarations form, the Honduras travel health guide, and the Mission Trip Cost Breakdown — early in their planning, since a longer stay means more to prepare.
You know what to expect. Now go.
The application takes one sitting — and the trip will stay with you for the rest of your life.