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Preparing for a Mission Trip to Honduras

Arrive as a guest who did the homework — the culture, the language, the risks and the harm to avoid.

Reviewed monthly · last reviewed October 2026

52 min Beginner 7 modules Pass 80%
EspañolFor: Short-term mission team members, youth group leaders, trip coordinators and first-time travelers

What you’ll learn

  • Explain who you are visiting — Honduras’ regions, from the Caribbean coast to the mountainous interior
  • Greet, thank and apologize in Honduran Spanish, and use a few Garifuna courtesies on the north coast
  • Follow local norms for dress, greetings, time, faith and hospitality without being told
  • Move safely: the daylight rule, host-arranged transport, and what gang territory actually means for a team
  • Talk about migration, visas and family in the United States without doing damage
  • Apply the photography and child-safeguarding rules that protect the community and your team
  • Recognize the short-term practices that do harm — and choose the ones that help
  • Prepare for water, food, mosquito-borne illness, heat and hurricane season before you go

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Course outline

  1. 1

    Preparation is the first thing you give

    What goes wrong when teams arrive unprepared, and the posture that prevents it.

    6 min Quiz
  2. 2

    Four Hondurases: land, regions and people

    From the Caribbean coast to the mountainous interior — and why the region you are in changes everything.

    8 min Quiz
  3. 3

    Faith, family and the Caribbean coast

    Catholic and fast-growing evangelical Christianity, the Garifuna and Miskito peoples, and the weight of migration.

    7 min Quiz Interactive
  4. 4

    Spanish that earns trust

    The two dozen phrases worth memorizing, the usted-versus-vos question, and a few words of Garifuna.

    8 min Quiz Written + interactive
  5. 5

    Respect in practice

    Greetings, dress, hospitality, time — and the photography rules that protect everyone.

    7 min Quiz Interactive
  6. 6

    Do no harm

    The short-term practices that quietly cause damage in Honduras, and what to do instead.

    8 min Quiz Written + interactive
  7. 7

    Staying well, moving safely, and before you fly

    Water, mosquitoes, heat, hurricane season, the daylight rule — and the team checklist.

    8 min Quiz Written + interactive

Sources & further reading

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