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The Contact person is one of the crucial pieces of the trip. You
need someone that knows the target area well enough to advise on
possible activities, places to eat, things or places to avoid. They
can also help make arrangements. Occasionally the contact person will
have ideas or opportunities that otherwise wouldn't be known to you.
One contact person I used decided to piggyback a youth activity of
her own on our trip to make it a special week end for both groups.
Rather than just sending us to some external event, she decided to
schedule a lock-in for her group to coincide with our trip. This
turned out to be a great deal of fun for both groups and more
meaningful than any less personal activity.
To an extent you are at the mercy of the contact person. One year we
had a well meaning contact person that was simply out of touch with
youth and only recommended activities that were absolutely deadly,
but without another contact and uncertain as to whether the ideas
being proposed were as bad as they sounded, we tried one of them. Oh
well, the kids at least had a gripe to bind them together. On the
other hand, another contact person was so intrigued by our trip, that
he personally planned and participated with us the entire weekend.
One of the unexpected and unique highlights of that trip was each of
us baking a personal loaf of bread late the first night, under this
person's guidance. That, and the rock worship service and the time
at a working farm that he arranged for, and the homeless shelter that
he connected us up with made that a memorable trip.
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